Bottom Rot

2012 San Marzanos.  No Bottom Rot That Year.

Technically, it's not called bottom rot but "blossom end rot (BER)," but we sometimes are a bit more blunt - crude, even - around here.

But so what is it, anyway? A disorder of tomatoes and peppers, featuring lesions at the blossom end (dah!) of the fruit which all too often expand, turn funky and black, and ruin the fruit for eating. Ick. Sometimes you can salvage part of the tomato, but usually it's only use is for target practice in the green bin. Sadly, it seems to occur most frequently on paste-type tomatoes, such as our family favorite, San Marzano.

What to do? Well, BER is generally associated with a calcium deficiency in the plant and/or soil. And lots of expert-type people have all sorts of remedies. I also have one:

Save your empty egg shells, allow them to dry out for a few days, or weeks even, it doesn't seem to matter. Then crunch them up into little pieces* and mix a small amount of these crushed shells in the dirt at the bottom of the planting holes for your tomatoes.

If you do a web check, you will discover that many people have proposed this same idea, but they will also instruct you do crazy things like store the eggshells on top of the refrigerator (do they have a magic refrigerator? Mine only seems to collects dust). Or grind them up in the blender (just what you want… more dishes to wash).

Why mention this now? Because March is the time to start thinking about sowing your tomato seeds for this year's bountiful harvest (all fingers crossed). And adding a smidgen of those crushed eggshells to the potting mix certainly can't hurt.

OK, OK, so why grow tomatoes from seed? Because you need one more project to worry about.

No, really because it's the only way that I know which pretty much guarantees that the variety of tomato I want to grow will be available. Most nurseries only stock a few types, which may or may not be suited to your garden and/or your taste buds. Also, you are less likely to import diseases, such as late blight which decimated the tomato crops in 2009 and 2012.

*I first start with my fingers (easy to wash) and simply pinch and crush the shells. To reduce them further, stick them in a plastic bag, loosely tie or knot the bag shut and run your rolling pin over it a few times. Nothing to clean up. Does not collect dust.