In Minnesota, the tomatoes don’t really start to ripen until late July. This year, we had a lot of rain in July and I think that made the fruits take even longer to ripen. But once there are fresh tomatoes… nothing else in the world matters.

Our tomatoes are overrun with early tomato blight once again this year. It is at the point now where there are very few green leaves left on the vines; they are nearly all brown. Fortunately the fruit hasn’t been affected, but I’ve done as much as I can to try and manage it this year. I have some ideas for next summer – and I’m hoping to spend some time learning more about blight this winter.

That’s a giant bowl of assorted cherry tomatoes: Amish Mayberry, Prize of the Trials, and Yellow Pear. I’ve been working on our tomato varieties page, compiling a list of varieties we’ve grown over the years, seed sources, and a few notes. I’d like to put a bit more time into this, and also put together the Peppers section in a similar way. Maybe some day…

If you’ve ever tried your hand at growing heirloom tomatoes … then chances are you’ve run across Early Tomato Blight.

Early tomato blight is an infection (caused by the fungus Alternaria solani) that starts out as dark brown spots, yellowing leaves, and eventually spreads quite rapidly through the crop killing the leaves and fruits if it has a chance. The fungus spores form in hot, humid weather and then wait for a nice, cool, wet evening to start destroying the plants. We’ve definitely had more than ideal weather for blight this summer. It shows up just as the plants are starting to set fruit – and once the infection starts, it is nearly impossible to stop from spreading. If you’re growing organically and aren’t planning on dousing them with fungicide, that is.

Oh no! A lot of our tomatoes have giant brown spots on the bottom. I did quite a bit of reading and searching the Internet, and it looks like we have Blossom End Rot, which is not a disease but a calcium deficiency. Because it’s been so hot, the tomatoes haven’t been able to take up enough calcium through their roots, and when it doesn’t reach the ends of the fruits, they simply stop developing and rot.

Fortunately, this isn’t a fungus or a disease – but having weak tomatoes like these on the plants can attract insects and fungus so we’ve been pulling them off. I quickly got some hydrated lime, diluted it in water, and added it to the tomatoes. Hopefully this will help prevent more blossom end rot from developing.

Tip for next year: Get the soil tested. BER can also be caused by too much nitrogen or too much of something else – if the tomato takes up too much nitrogen, it may not be able to get as much calcium it needs. Add hydrated lime if the pH is too acidic; an addition of rock phosphate may also help.