# Tomatos rotten on the bottom??

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tomatos-rotten-on-the-bottom/187761>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 11, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tomatos-rotten-on-the-bottom/187761 "2003-07-11T17:48:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tomatos-rotten-on-the-bottom/187761/1 "2003-07-11T17:48:37Z")

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My dad has some tomato plants in pots. Great looking plants, and they are putting on loads of tomatos…But…

A lot of the tomatos look like they have been dipped into brown funk. Just the bottom 1/3 or so is brown and rotten, not the whole tomato, just on the bottom.

It also looks like it might be where moisture would collect on the bottom, like a heavy dew has collected on the bottom…but we have very low humidity here… Don’t see any insect infestations.  
Any tomato gurus have any suggestion?? He is just sick that these great plants are going to waste.

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**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tomatos-rotten-on-the-bottom/187761/2 "2003-07-11T17:52:25Z")

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This is called blossom end rot and is caused by irregular watering and is more common when the plants are in pots and grow bags . This is because these are more likely to dry out compared to the plants being in the ground.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tomatos-rotten-on-the-bottom/187761/3 "2003-07-11T17:53:34Z")

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What you have is probably what’s called blossom end rot. Technically, it’s caused by a calcium shortage, but in plain English, there was a time when the plant didn’t get enough water.

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**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tomatos-rotten-on-the-bottom/187761/4 "2003-07-11T17:54:41Z")

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Here is a link which gives more details :-

[http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/disease/rot-blossomend/](http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/disease/rot-blossomend/)

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**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tomatos-rotten-on-the-bottom/187761/5 "2003-07-11T18:18:15Z")

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Outstanding…I am in awe of the speed and accuracy of the info posted here!!

Yep, **Rayne Man** and \*\* AskNott \*\* that is exactly what he has on his hands.

This is his first experiment with potted gardening, and no doubt he has a bit of a learing curve, especially in the apparently crucial areas of watering and fertilizing. At least now he has an idea of the cause (I’ve already called him and told him what the problem is!) and have printed out the article in the link provided.

As a side note, he has potted peppers that are doing just dandy, I noticed that peppers are also susceptible to this malady.

So thanks again. It’s not an earth-shattering problem, but it sure is nice to get such prompt and helpful advice on even the small problems in life.