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

Carolyn, Is it safe then to say that there is no "So now what?" type solution inside of the same growing yr other than doing a better job at even moisture control? **** And not using a lot of fertilizer. Where I live water comes out of the sky so it's hard to control moisture, mulching helps but that depends on how many plants you're growing as to time involved. And after all, BER does go away for most folks when the plants are mature since mature plants can better handle the stresses that can induce BER, such as too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, high winds, etc. ***** Is it also safe to say that the only preventative is to prep next yrs soil by what, late fall this yr and then assure even moisture the next growing season? What you need to do is to get a good soil test done and not with one of those home kits. I doubt that your soil is lacking in Ca++. When the tissues of plants that had BER fruits was examined there was plenty of Ca++ in the tissues but not at the blossom end of the fruits. So the problem is not one of Ca++ uptake from the soil. ****** Tomato Tone states in bold "Helps Prevent Blossom End Rot". I think I've read that bone meal is more availible, quicker than lime. Stop Rot also says it stops BER. Wrong. The Tomato Tone info is also Wrong for 99.9% of gardeners b'c as I've said before, the problem ism't the lack of soil Ca++. ***** All of my in ground will be in new ground this yr and unfortunately did not have the fore sight to prep last yr. Is there anything those of us planting fresh can do now that will affect this yr's BER problem? As I said there's no need to prep the ground re BER, You need to get a soil test done to see what the levels of everything are in terms of next year. In terms of the possibility of this summer's problem, don't overfertilize, you have control over that, and mulch if you have not that many plants to help ensure more even moisture levels. You can't control the temps and the winds/ And as I've said, as soon as the plants mature the BER problem goes away for almost everyone. Carolyn

Angie, probably some references in my faves, which is 2500, and so every time I have to add a new one, I go back and delete maybe 10 more. And I don't want to go back and skim through the list either since I'm just starting writing a FAQ for another message site on how to save seeds, The first article I wrote about BER was back in the mid-90s, and I've had to update several times. And over time one can click on a link and it has gone. The one I miss the most is the one where they found that plants that had BER fruits had normal levels of Ca++ in the vasculature of the plant. Another place to look to confirm what I wrote above are the several good state disease sites, such as TAMU and Cornell, and NC and FL and several more. The better places incorporate new info on a regular basis, based on info that their disease specialists find, by reading scientific papers ahem, And please don't refer to yourself as a geek, b'c that makes me a geek, if you look at my bio here since my whole professional life I had to read tons of scientific papers. LOL I know my answer is not as specific as you would like, but if you also Google BER ( spell it out and add tomatoes to your entry) at the top of the first Google page you will usually see scentific articles listed seperately. I'll let you do that if you want to and get back here and report back. LOL Carolyn