The bottom of my tomatoes are turning brown before they get ripe

by Jeanine
(Pine Bluffs, WY)

Q. I was so excited to pick the first tomatoes and was saddened to turn them over to find the bottom was rotten. The rest is good, but sure wastes a lot of the fruit. I keep checking the green ones and they are not like that, but as soon as they start getting ripe they get rotten. I was told last year that I wasn't watering enough, so this year I made sure I was watering them more, but it is still happening. I notice that one of the plants looks like it is turning brown, like the end of the season. We have had extremely hot weather for this part of the country. They dry out really fast as we have them in a planter and it is only about 8 inches deep. Could that be some of the problem? Next year the egg shells are going in the soil too.

Tomato Dirt responds ...
A. Sounds like blossom end rot.

Read all about it here.

Good luck and happy gardening!