Foliar Feeding Tomato Plants and Blossom End Rot

Foliar Feeding and Blossom End Rot in Tomatoes
There are a number of benefits to feeding plants through the leaves, but perhaps the biggest advantage is being able to separate the nutrients that compete with each other.

For example, tomato food contains a lot of potassium (potash) also known as “K” in “NPK”.
Potassium is used to promote flower and fruit growth and is the main mineral element in getting your toms to full size and ripen.

Blossom End Rot, a major problem that produces leathery patches on the underside of tomatoes, is caused by calcium deficiency. Calcium is a nutrient that helps build the fleshy wall of the tomato.

The problem is, when both nutrients, Potassium and Calcium are fed in generous amounts to roots, there is competition between the two minerals that will affect the absorption of calcium and may result in BER.

The Solution
Feed the potassium to the roots, in the tomato food, and calcium to the leaves as a foliar feed.

This way a tomato plant can absorb both nutrients without one blocking the other and Blossom End Rot is no longer a problem!

I used to suffer heavily with BER but since using calcium as a foliar spray, BER is a thing of the past.

There are two products that do the job well. They are Chempak Calcium and Vitalink Foliar and we’ll look at them in more detail next week.