Organic Gardening Tip of the Week

Tip of the Week: Blossom Rot

If you see black or rotting bottoms on your tomatoes, peppers or eggplants (less common), it is most likely blossom end rot. Tomato varieties that set all of its fruit at once (determinate) are commonly affected; cherry tomatoes rarely get blossom end rot. It is caused by a calcium deficiency in your plants caused by soil deficiencies or from uneven watering (calcium is not taken up).

To help prevent this, mulch around your plants to help conserve soil moisture, keep your plants evenly watered, and make sure your soil has sufficient amounts of calcium. If your soil has sufficient calcium, then no supplement is needed. Don’t over fertilize your plants with high nitrogen either. Excessive nitrogen will lead to more foliage which will reduce the amount of calcium available to the fruit. Remove the damaged fruit.

For more information on growing tomatoes, see our Growing Guide in the Resource Center.  We have many types of tomato seeds for sale!

After your garlic has produced scapes (hardneck varieties) your bulbs are really starting to size up. Once your garlic has a couple of dead bottom leaves you will want to stop watering. You can dig your garlic in a couple of weeks. If you are unsure if your hardneck garlic is ready to harvest, look for about 3-4 dried leaves at the bottom of the plant. Dig up a test bulb to see how well the bulb has sized up. If it is nice and large, you can dig up the remaining bulbs. Don’t harvest too soon or you may have small bulbs, too late and the wrappers may have broken down and your garlic may not keep as long. If this happens eat those bulbs first. Softneck garlic is a little different than hardnecks. Softnecks are ready for harvesting when the top of the plant falls over, similar to onions.

Once your garlic is ready to harvest, dig the bulbs up carefully with a garden fork or shovel. Remove most of the soil, being careful not to hit the bulb (it bruises easily), leaving the roots & stems. Tie the garlic with twine in bunches of 6 to 12 plants. Hang the bunches in a place out of direct sun and rain. Temperatures should be around 80°F and garlic should be cured for at least two weeks. Once cured, trim off the leaves (don’t cut too close to the top of the bulb) and roots, leaving about 1/2” of roots. Store in mesh bags at around 60-65°F in an area with some air circulation.

Now that your tomatoes are growing like weeds it is time to prune out the suckers. The advantages to pruning out the suckers on your tomatoes are increased fruit size, better air circulation, which will help with disease prevention and earlier fruit development. The suckers are the stems growing out of the leaf crotch. You should remove the suckers from the bottom of the plant up to the first flower cluster. Remove them before they get too big, less than 2-3” long is a good rule of thumb. You will need to keep an eye on your tomato plants throughout the season and prune the suckers as they get big enough, look for new growth coming up at the ground too and cut those out. Also you want to remove the yellow or dead leaves (especially seen on the bottom of the plant). Only prune the indeterminate varieties; determinate varieties should not get pruned, you can leave the suckers on those plants.

If you are supporting the plants with an overhead trellis with string or wire supported at the top you can allow your plants to develop two leaders or more commonly, it is pruned to a single leader. Prune out suckers along the plant to allow for better air circulation and less weight. You will have a reduced yield, however, the tomatoes that are left will develop earlier and will be bigger. Read the whole article on tomato pruning.

Throw your plants a compost tea party this spring! Compost tea can be applied as a foliar or soil drench. It is easy to make with just a few components and can be customized to your plants' needs. Compost tea takes all the goodness from your compost and makes it even better. We have a great video showing you step-by-step on how to make it. There are so many versions of compost tea recipes but you can “brew” your own version. The basic components of compost tea includes water, compost (or you can use arctic humus or worm castings) and a tea catalyst. Additions can be made to your tea–liquid kelp or maxicrop (a kelp extract), or liquid fish are great to supplements your compost tea. You can customize your brew according to the stage of growth your plants are in (growing, blooming or fruiting). The additions can be added at the end of the brewing process. You can apply the tea using a watering can or sprayer (clean).If foliar feeding, dilute the tea to one part tea to 10 parts water (dechlorinated water). Or if applying to the soil, dilute one part tea to 5 parts water (dechlorinated water).

What is meant by soil biology? Isn’t soil just a bunch of minerals? The answer is no and your soil contains so many living organisms, most of which are not visible with the naked eye, but all are important for the soil’s ecosystem. The visible organisms are earthworms and small mammals like gophers, moles or voles, however the vast number of organisms are only visible with a microscope such as bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa and more. What does all of this biology have to do with the health of my garden? Well the answer is without soil biology, your plants will have problems accessing nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, both essential for growth. What can be done to improve and increase your soil’s biological makeup? Well they need adequate organic matter, good aeration, proper moisture, and a fairly neutral pH. One of the easiest things to do to improve your soil biology is to work in some good quality compost. The compost will help hold onto moisture, help aerate the soil by maintaining soil porosity and supply nutrients to the microbes already living in your soil.

Another important practice that will help improve soil biology is to plant a cover crop in areas that you are not actively growing in. Cover crops can be planted in the fall and cut down in the spring, or grown in the summer and finishes in the summer. Don’t forget to inoculate your cover crops if they contain legumes and inoculate legumes you are growing for food, like bush beans or pole beans. The Rhizobium bacteria in the inoculant forms a symbiotic relationship with the plants’ roots and converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant usable form, in turn the plant supplies the bacteria with carbohydrates needed to live. Any extra nitrogen the plant does not need is stored on the roots and can be used by the following crop. 

If you are interested in reading more about soil biology, you can read our articles Weaving the Soil Food Web or The Dirt on Mycorrhizae.