Pepper Blog: Peppers Galore! Tomatoes Null!

Grow Area. Peppers and Rosemary need some height adjustment to be closer to the lights since the tomatoes are notably taller. Since the last post a month ago I've added mylar on three sides. There is also bug tape to try and catch the many tiny buggers flying around.

My posts have been infrequent, so much to catch up on. It seems we have had frustrations with everything but herbs. After a period of lots of Jalapeno pepper blossom drop with few peppers, my plants have stabilized. There is still some blossom drop, but tons of buds and tons of peppers. These plants may not be quite as prolific as the Cayenne plants were, but it's close.

Meanwhile, my tomato plants were stricken with some sort of fungal or bacterial disease which affects leaves and stems of the plant. There are a bunch of possible diseases which produce similar symptoms, so I'm not sure exactly which one it is. I applied one broad solution for keeping it from spreading by applying a baking soda solution to the plant. Spotting and drying up of leaves has slowed since then, but not stopped. I also transplanted my tomatoes into bigger pots. Upon doing so I found that I had been underwatering - the soil lower in the pot was very dried out. Also, the plants were nearly rootbound, indicating the transplant was probably a good idea.

Note the yellowish-brown spotting on the tomato leaves.

There had been some blossom drop on the tomatoes as well, but not as much as on the peppers. Instead of dropping there were several buds that just sat there and never generated any tomatoes. At time of transplanting and baking soda application I had 5 or 6 pretty good looking tomatoes. A few days later, blossom end rot showed up on 3 of these. This was a week or more after Andy experienced this, but his fruit development was ahead of me. Since then I've had 2 more tomatoes come down with the same thing. Research shows that inconsistent watering and damaged roots (perhaps when I transplanted) may be the root cause(es). They can lead to a Calcium deficiency in the plant/tomatoes. Andy loaned me a Calcium/Magnesium fertilizer less than a week ago and I've got my fingers crossed that that will do the trick. I should find out this week because I have one tomato approaching the size that the others were when they experienced the blossom end rot.

Lastly, I was so focused on peppers and tomatoes that I neglected the poor Rosemary plant which completely dried out. I'm hopeful I can nurse it back to life.

Oh beautiful tomato, won't you please ripen without any problems! This was taken after the baking soda bath, thus the white residue on the tomato and leaves.