Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tomato planting question

The question of bloom rot and tomato planting came up in the past.

IIRC, someone said they planted their tomatoes this way:

1. Dig 1' hole
2. Mix a handful of lime, handful of epsom salts, handful of fertilizer, and enough soil to fill hole half way
3. Plant tomato plant in soil in top half of hole.

Was this correct?

dig hole. put fish in hole. put plant on top of fish. fill hole with dirt. 90 days later, eat heap big tomatoes.

oh, and don't take any blankets from white eyes. heap bad sickness

Depends on where you are. If you use lime here, they'll likely die. Our soil is already too alkaline.

Yeah, you're right, but here we need lime.

I guess my question was really... was it epsom salts that prevented the bloom rot? or, have I got it mixed up with something else?

The concept is right. Blossom end rot is often due to not enough calcium. I fixed mind with about a quarter handful of lime and a heaping teaspoon of epsom salts per plant. As stated, you don't want to overdo it.

Yes. I have heard that Tums will do the same thing but I have never used them. I do not lime my tomatoes and most things here need added lime. I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but it seems to work for me. miles

gypsum (calcium) prevents end rot which is the black spot on the end of a tomato. calcium can be washed out of your soil by excess rain or watering. i put gypsum and epsom salt in the hole and bury the plant up to its first set of leaves.

The lime and epsom salts both have calcium. I mixed in the epsom salts because I've read that they improve flavor.

Ed could you send me some of your horse radish.

A quarter handful of oldman's handful or a quarter handful of Gunner's handful, from what I hear I would guess it'd be about a 6 cup difference.

Good advice..small PH test kits will give you a general idea of your PH and what soil additives you need to balance things out. I prefer my PH a tad on the acid side about a 6.0 for tomatoes as 7.0 is neutral. so I only add compost and wood stove ashes to keep mine in the best condition.

Proper soil = big production..

You know what they say about 'big hands' or 'big feet'!

Yep, the water is deep and cold!

that's not ed. bucktales is ed

I'm not Ed, I'm Dave. It's a quick reply thing. Ed probably knows who he is.

Ed is APPD.... from East Texas.

Epsom salt contains Magnesium and Sulfur. A little bit is good for tomatoes and peppers.

Blossom end rot is caused by a lot of things, one of those being lack of Calcium. Some people use egg shells, Tums/Rolaids, I recently added some Gypsum. Neighbor is using a bit of crumbled up sheetrock(Gpysum)

Buy a cheap PH kit. I bought one at the feed store for 5 bucks, can use it 10 times and will probably get you in the ballpark if you're concerned with the alkalinity of your dirt.

If you really want to know, take a dirt sample to your local county extension office, they'll tell you exactly what you need to add.

to many tails around here, anyway now i need to track down tails for some horse radish.

Randy if you have powdered milk it will provide calcium as well

Ditto for me. I also add fire place ash and coffee grounds and egg shells to my composted horse manure.

I'll second (or fourth or fifth) the Epsom Salts suggestion. My neighbors raise tomatoes for sale and they both have to add magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salts) to avoid blossom end rot. Since it IS a sulfate, is will slightly lower your pH, meaning you might want to add a touch of calcium or lime to bring it where it needs to be.

A word of caution, Epsom Salts will make for some strong onions!

Roger, I'll send some your way, or you could go to HEB and buy the REESE brand grated horeradish. That's what I used for that cocktail sauce. It's my favorite.

Ed