Cheflara, I've gardened for 34 years and have probably done more reading on this "hobby" than anything else in my life. Among the contributing factors to BER are uneven watering, fluctuations in temperature, and lack of calcium in the tomatoes themselves. (Adding some to soil rarely helps, cause it's very plentiful in most soils.) There is are some simple things you can do to help reduce the chances of BER, though as some have mentioned, it usually goes away by itself as the season progresses. One thing is to put a good 3 or 4 inches of grass clippings on top of the containers. Having been to New York City many times, I know there are areas where grass clipings aren't easy to come by. But using them has so many benefits, it would be worth a little trouble to get some, like taking some boxes along the next time you visit the burbs? The clippings will: 1. Keep the soil moister, reducing "uneven" water conditions. 2, Keep the soil cooler, up to 50 degreees on the surface on hot days. 3. Provide all the nutrients your tomatoes need. Chemical fertilzers simply are not as good, plus they cost money. The grass clippings provide "a balanced meal," not too much of one nutrient and not enough of another. The chances your tomatoes will get the calcium they need will be better. If your plants are getting all-day sun, you might also think of leaning something against the pots to shade them from the hot afternoon sun. Remember, only the plants need sun, not the pots. Some kinds of materials can get hot enough to cook roots touching the inside of the pots. This also helps reduce fluctuations in temperature. And finally, if you don't have saucers or something under the pots to catch water, it would be very beneficial to get some. What happens with potted plants is that the soil dries out and shrinks. That creates a space between the soil and the sides of the pot. You water, see water running out the bottom, and think the soil has been wet. But the majority of the root ball is still bone dry. If you have a saucer under the pots, water collects there and then is slowly drawn up into the rootball by capillary action. I've been suggesting for years that drainage holes NOT be put on the bottom of containers. They should be about 2 to 4 inches up the sides, depending on the size pot. And lo and behold, a friend of mine who lives in another city recently bought a potted dwarf lemon tree. She e-mailed me and asked why the drainage holes Were Up the Sides? It's possible someone came up with this independently, but I think I have "dibs" on it? All of the above will just make General Conditions for your maters better. A healhtier plant is less likely to have problems of any kind.

I have one self-watering container, the "square foot success kit" that I got from Gardener's Supply. I have a Sausage planted in it. It's extremely healthy, very green, very tall, and has almost two dozen tomatoes on it. Unfortunately, it's the only tomato plant that has developed BER tomatoes. :-( All of the other container tomato plants are in plastic or terra cotta pots with drainage. They tend to droop, even just after they've been watered, and they don't have a fraction of the tomatoes that the Sausage has. I fertilized them all today with Miracle-Gro tomato food, and I also scattered some bone meal on top. I'm hoping that will prevent BER in the future. This is the second year I've planted tomatoes, and the first year I've had this much success with them. Aside from Sausage, I'm growing Black Plum, Opalka, Garden Candy cherry tomato, Viva Italia, Roma, Amish Paste, Sunmaster, and Orange Banana. One of each except for the Roma. I'm experimenting with what kind grows best and tastes best. (And you'll notice that most of them are paste tomatoes. I love pasta sauce, and I have a separate freezer to store it in for the winter.)

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

No the only threat is that the grubs will munch on the roots. But there are no food contamination issues. As to the watering - over-watering is as much as issue as under-watering. Consistent slightly moist is the goal and that is almost impossible to accomplish in containers unless they are 30+ gallons in size. Bone meal as a source of calcium, if indeed low calcium levels in the soil was the cause (which it isn't), takes many months to decompose to a form usable by the plants which is why it is a waste of time in containers. In ground gardens mix it in in the fall for effect the following year. Dave