Please help! Whats wrong with my Tomatoes?

[Tanya]

Hi I hope ya'll might have an idea of what's wrong with my tomatoes or I fear they will all be a lost cause. I only have a few plants they are now huge 5ft if they are an inch and tons of tomatoes, I started noticing odd bites on every tomato and then they all had split skins etc. Well today I found these. I plan on going to a garden center after the holiday but thought ya'll might have an idea.

This is my small setup,
And these came off the vine yesterday.

 

[Chuck]

That is called blossom end rot. Where I live in Texas the cure is to use Epsom salts. But I live in an area of high alkalinity. If your soil is alkaline ES will probably work. It won't do anything for affected fruit but it will stop the problem. Bites taken out of tomatoes is either birds or tomato hornworm caterpillars. Split skins is caused by too much water at a time. If you have had a lot of rain that can also cause it.

 

[Tanya]

Thank you so much! That all sounds manageable and I have the stuff on hand. Will update later

 

[zigs]

Ditto what Chuck said

 

[Palladini]

Yep Get a Dollar Sore Sprayer, fill it with water (not water from a city tap) and into the spray full of water add 3 Heaping TBSP of Epsom Salts, then put the top on and shake until it all dissolved, Then spay this all over your tomato plants, do this ASAP.

 

[Photogwingsfan]

I have been putting the ES in the watering jug and watering the plants with it. Online it says about once a month. Would it hurt to do it more? What about spraying and watering the plant with ES water?

 

[headfullofbees]

You need calcium, so use a little lime (dessertspoon in watering can) as a soil drench.
Doesn't matter if it's garden lime (calcium carbonate), slaked lime (calcium hydroxide), or dolomite lime (magnesian calcium carbonate), although last is best.

 

[Chuck]

You need calcium, so use a little lime (dessertspoon in watering can) as a soil drench.
Doesn't matter if it's garden lime (calcium carbonate), slaked lime (calcium hydroxide), or dolomite lime (magnesian calcium carbonate), although last is best.

IF, IF the OP's soil is lacking in calcium then you are correct. However, in many cases such as mine, I have an over abundance of calcium. The shallow bedrock here is limestone so I have more calcium than anything else and ES somehow makes it available to the plant. I just wished I knew why or how it works. I can see no reason why magnesium sulfate somehow changes the calcium in the soil to be available to the plants but it does.

 

[headfullofbees]

I wasn't meaning instead...

 

[Norm]

I came across a good tip for bites taken out of tomatoes by birds - keep a small bowl of water near the plant. The birds dont really care for your tomotoes, theyre going after them for the fluid/water.