I bet about right now you’re wondering what is BER? And where is she going with this?
Well, this Agatha Christie mystery accelerated to its conclusion tout de suite.

First, BER is blossom end rot, so until this column is finished, instead of spelling out the words blossom end rot, I will just use the letters BER.

It is much easier for me.

My story goes like this.

The one condition that seems to plague us home gardeners most is BER.

It often appears on those first tiny green tomatoes as they start to grow larger and on the tomatoes that are starting to turn the “highly anticipated” pink.

BER speeds up the ripening process.

We all have reached for the first red tomato only to find its bottom sunken, blackened and ugly.

This is BER. How it deflates our salivating tastebuds.

Luckily, BER is not an infectious tomato disease and can’t spread to other plants.
Stresses early in the growing season encourage/urge the development of BER.

These include too much fertilizer, which causes too rapid vegetative growth, uneven watering and winds, which dry the plant out.

Any or all of these stresses can cause calcium to be siphoned up from the plant’s tips and tomatoes, being demanded back into the trunk of the plant.

And this lack of calcium in the small tomatoes is what allows the black ugliness to develop.

In the past, it was practiced to add some form of calcium to our soil to prevent/cure BER.
But recent studies/research proves that this is not the truth, as the entire tomato plant IS NOT CALCIUM DEFICIENT.

Now, calcium sprays have been prescribed/used on the tomatoes, but this DOES NOT WORK because calcium cannot be absorbed into the skin of the tomato.

Is your soil calcium deficient?

Do you know this for a fact?

Have you tested it?

If not, you see, a calcium deficiency in your soil is quite rare, but adding calcium does not prevent or cure BER.

Thankfully, BER usually disappears as the season progresses.

Probably because larger plants can withstand the three stresses that encourage/stimulate BER.

Now, not all varieties are susceptible. Paste tomatoes being one that is highly targeted.
Because growing conditions are to blame for BER, experiment, do a test, try a couple of different varieties.

Here is the answer:

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CANDO  TO PREVENT THIS DISEASE, BER, IS PROVIDE EVEN MOISTURE.

BY ALL MEANS, USE A MULCH AND AVOID OVERFERTILIZING (Source: Smith and Hawkins, 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden by Carolyn J. Male).

•••
Some advice on choosing a gardener: Look at his trousers. If they’re patched in the knees, you want him; if they’re patched in the seat, you don’t.
— Farmer’s Journal

Nancy Wiersma of Dowagiac writes a weekly column.