Hey all. Hope someone can help.

Lower leaves of one of my tomatoe plants are turning yellow/brown, and fruit of one stem have a brown circle where the stem joins, and the bottom is turning brown/black, and flattening. Other fruit still look OK but I'm keeping an eye on them.

Based on the gardening book i have it sounds like I have a diseased plant (Verticillium Wilt or Fusarium?) that should be removed. Thoughts?

Sounds to me like blossom end rot on the tomato.
I have read here that even watering helps to prevent that issue.

Do you have mulch around your plants to keep splash from coming up on the plants? That helps...may not solve an already started problem though...our experts here will have more scientific answers for you...

I'm trying Soap Shield on mine this year to try to prevent fungal diseases with which I usually end up...we'll see how it goes.

Don't know about removing the plant...I have one which is questionable also...will be interesting to see other responses.

Good luck!

Wayne, It's helpful to spray the tomato plants with diluted milk as a foliar feed, but it only helps if it's applied before the actual fruit forms. Spray the plants (blossoms) well and you should see less blossom end rot. I had great success with this doing it weekly. I also add a sprinkle of cornmeal around the base of each tomato plant.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Judy57:
Sounds to me like blossom end rot on the tomato.
/QUOTE]

Did some reading on the web and agree it is blossom end rot. Still worried about the yellow leaves though as apparently those diseases I mention predispose the fruit to blossom end rot. Appears if you cut a stem you can check if the plant is infected with those diseases, so I'll try that. Thanks for the help and advice.

Hi Wayne,

Blossom end rot generally only affects the first set of fruits (in my zone 5/6 experience). For whatever reason, the issue resolves itself as the season progresses. So if you can hang on, wait and see what the next set of fruit gives you. Oh, and be sure they have enough water - a good soaking once a week is plenty. It helps the plant move the calcium up from the roots into the fruit, thus preventing the blossom end rot.

The lower leaves thing - if your plants are big and well established, this might just be a case of the plant getting rid of old leaves that aren't getting enough sun and thus aren't doing enough photosynthesizing to earn their 'keep'. (That is, they're using more food from the plant than they're producing). It's pretty common once the plants get tall and bushy. Break the yellowing branches off and toss them, rather than compost them, just in case it's a disease. This also helps improve air flow around the plants - another disease fighter. Keep an eye on them to see if the yellowing/browning moves up the plant faster than just 'shading' would indicate. Hopefully it won't be, and then you've solved your problem.

Hope this helps... it's just a few less drastic things you can do in hopes that the issues are simple. I always HATE pulling up plants if I don't ABSOLUTELY have to.

Good luck!

wayne, have you been having a lot of rain? I have stated on this forum a number of times, that when I had blossom end rot/yellow leaves, I had a problem with: 1. Not enough calcium in the soil. 2. Rainy weather washed out the calcium. 3. Crowding of plants made matters much worse. 4. I had too much Nitrogen in the garden. Basically, I didn't have things in balance. You may want to do a soil test.

Is is really humid where you live? Humidity can contribute to blossom end rot too.

The rot on the blossom end of the fruit is Blossom End Rot and has multiple causes mostly having to do with the plant not getting enough Calcium at the right time, and the could be related to the lower leaves yellowing. Many plants will "steal" Nitrogen from the lower leaves to support newer growth and these lower leaves then suffer chlorosis. This could be related to soil nutrient problems, to soil moisture problems, or a combination of them.
What is your soil like?
What is the humus level of that soil?
What is the soil moisture level?

Hello people I'm new here and new(ish) to organic gardening. I just want to say the above posts have been very informative and really interesting reading as I too, rather my tomato plants are, suffering from yellowing of the lower leaves.

I feed them with a solution of sheep-**** all the time and occasionally water the foilage with seaweed extract. They are outdoor plants but I put them in a plastic green-house (and the only ventilation being the door) as an experiment. They've grown like bleeding triffids!

You may be giving them too much Nitrogen and not enough Calcium if you have yellow leaves.

I will probably get shot down, but what I did one year when I was desparate.. I crushed up 2-3 generic Tums per tomato plant and applied when I watered. It seemed to help. (Tums is Calcium Bicarbonate I think)

Thanks for all the responses. So far it looks like it was just the first set of fruit that was affected. I cut a stem to look for the signs of the diseases and did not see it.

So hopefully no disease and just a lack of calcium. My plants are pretty crowded and it's humid where I am (eastern NC), although it's been really dry so I have been watering once a day. Usually just down at the roots, not on the leaves and fruit.