Thanx for the Input chili. I had no Idea that U could spray with MILK! Won't that really smell??? Anyway the CalMag seems to be working. I also am worried about the proper levels of nutrients. I do not have an ec meter and I know the water is evaporating quite a bit. This is what I'm doing. Please let me know if it seems right. After filling the system with fresh nutrients. Say 10 gallons, I add 5 gallons of water twice before I re-mix and add more nutrients. The water here is @ a ph of 6.5 so no adjustment is necessary. (c: And to Hank_mili, I do not have the space right now to increase the size of my reservoir. As far as the algae on the pearlite, Does it really hurt anything?? and How to apply peroxide to the system?? I have updated my website with recent pics and am happy to say the tomatoes are finally comming in! Thank You All for all the great advice!! Noone Here is a link that might be useful: Noone's Place

You can try, but I'm not convinced crushed eggshells or eggshell water makes that much of a difference. I've tried them and couldn't see it made an impact. Blossom end rot is linked to calcium deficiency to a certain extent, but it isn't necessarily that the calcium isn't present in the soil but rather than some other nutritional imbalance or other growing conditions can interfere with uptake of the calcium. That's one reason BER can be so vexing. One way (though probably not the only one) that BER develops is that rapidly growing plants (esp. if just overfed with nitrogen) draw extra moisture and and nutrients out of the fruit and into the leaves, and at that point the fruit develop BER. In general, tomatoes that suffer from water stress or from extreme fluctuations in soil moisture levels are prime candidates for BER, but not all varieties develop it equally. Some varieties, especially paste type varieties like Roma, seem more prone to it than others and I have only see it on cherry types once or twice in many years of tomato growing. Some of the other conditions that may cause BER include cool and humid weather; heavy, dense, extremely compacted soil; unmulched soil (because moisture levels fluctuate more); and excessive levels of some nutrients that interfere with calcium uptake including potassium and nitrogen. Sometimes BER may be caused by root damage. Often, I think BER may be linked to a heavy fruit load on a plant that is relatively immature because you'll often see it on the first few fruit, red or green, on younger plants earlier in the year and then not on those same plants again after they've matured a bit more. If your soil seems calcium deficient, you can add lime to your soil if you have acidic soil and you can add gypsum to your soil if you have alkaline soil. I just throw eggshells on the compost pile and let them decompose and add the compost to the beds. Otherwise, I'm not convinced they break down fast enough to help the plants. I don't think Tomato-Tone is the supreme answer. I have used it for several years, and every now and then I still have a tomato plant with BER on some of the fruit despite that, though generally when I see it, it is on fruit in container plantings, not those in the ground. They all get fed with Tomato Tone, though. Good luck resolving the BER. The good news about BER is it often (though not always) goes away on its own. Dawn

Put epsom salts around your tomatoes when you plant them and your Bossom end rot is gone regardless of what the actual cause is . I suspect that the calcium up take , which in turn provides further nutrients , is upset because of inconsistant moisture . Too much , then not enough , Etc.Cool and damp. I am not a chemist so I cant argue the potassium/ phosphorus over use as a cause.However i use soft rock phosphate , bone meal , fish inards , banana rich compost greensand and wood ashes. The ph is about6.5-6.8.The epsom salts makes the difference. About a half tablespoon per plant in a ring about 3 inches out from the stem.I have not had a BER tomato in years . I have grown on both sand and clay. Same problem , same treatment , same results.I use the same type salts that i soak my feet in Happy Matering johnny

No idea. I tend not to trust cheap meters that you can buy. I find that the human finger works well for me, since I check my plants daily and at least twice a day in extreme weather anyway. Some people use a wooden dowel inserted into the soil that they pull up and down, like an oil-checking stick. I would think there would be issues with wicking, but they seem to make it work for them. A gallon of water every day without checking previous moisture levels in a very moisture-retaining mix and in a cooler zone, even in fabric pots, would really be the first red flag for BER. It might be different if you were in sunny, dry, hot climes, although even then, using a mix that is all compost and peat is problematic. Sometimes, plants get better at managing calcium when they get more mature, so your plants may grow out of it.