Container Gardening

So, you’ve decided to try growing tomatoes in containers.  You’ve chosen your containers, planted your tomatoes and watched them grow.  Everything has been going great!

Then, one morning, you go out to check on them, and something isn’t right.  Maybe the leaves are off-color.  Maybe the fruit looks wrong.  One way or another, your tomato has gotten sick.  What do you do?  Here are three common problems with potted tomato plants that affect the fruit and how to prevent or deal with them.

1. Blossom-end rot

Blossom-end rot is exactly what it sounds like: the tomato begins to rot from the place where the blossom attached.  It is caused by low levels of calcium in the plant.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure here.  The best way to keep blossom-end rot away from your plants is to keep calcium levels high.

You can start your plants off well by crushing some eggshells in the soil before planting your seedlings.  Fertilize with a non-ammoniacal nitrogen fertilizer, and make sure you are watering regularly and your pots have good drainage.  DO NOT OVER-FERTILIZE.

If you already have blossom-end rot, try to stabilize your plant’s moisture as much as possible.  It’s a good idea to pick and throw out affected fruit as soon as you notice to reduce strain on the plant.

2. Sunscald

If your underripe tomatoes are getting hard, white or light-colored patches on them, they may have sunscald.  These patches will eventually blister and sink in.

Sunscald is caused by too much direct sunlight on the fruit.  Tomatoes are very leafy plants, and those leaves serve two purposes: they soak up a lot of light for energy, and they shade the more delicate fruit.

To prevent sunscald, try to keep your tomato plants lush and thick.  If you prune them, make sure all your fruits remain shaded when you are finished.  If something else causes your plant to lose leaves, you can protect your fruit with light screens.

3. Growth Cracks

When a tomato grows too fast, the skin can’t always keep up.  When this happens, you see cracking.  There are three kinds of growth cracks.

• Radial cracks: These cracks start at the stem of the tomato and reach outward.
• Concentric cracks: These cracks make circles around the stem, never touching it.
• Russeting: In russeting, tiny cracks form and scar all over the tomato, giving the fruit a rough appearance.

Growth cracks almost always result from a dry period followed by a very wet period, where the tomatoes work to make up growth.  To avoid cracking, make sure your tomatoes have a consistent, steady water supply.  Regular fertilization will also help.

Note: If your pots are too small, they may have a hard time holding enough water.  Consider moving to larger pots if cracking is a regular problem in your container tomatoes.

Tags: plant ailments, Tomato

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Tomatoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.