I wouldn't worry about any plant being 'too small' to carry any fruit. If the plant can handle it, it will grow and ripen. If it cannot, it will drop it off. Besides, by the time a pepper gets close to harvest, a healthy plant will grow quite a bit.

Are those tomatoes in the ground? Is there mulch? Is it an exceptionally dry year? Unless they are in containers, I can't think of any reason to water more than once, or MAYBE twice a week in the driest of weather.

Watering should be done deeply and infrequently. After the ground has been well watered, mulches will help it stay consistently moist.

I think it fair to say that especially early in the season, nearly everyone gets a few cases of BER. If it continues after you get the watering figured out, then there may be another problem.

Oh, and some of those peppers do look like they could use some nitrogen. If you are watering them every other day like the tomatoes, then that will contribute to N deficiency. Any fert. with decent N values will work... just don't add too much at one time... peppers don't need as much N as other plants.

First there are literally 100s of discussions about BER over on the Tomato forum, some running right now. So check those out please.

The advice isn't "uneven watering" or "watering evenly", it is consistent soil moisture levels. A very different thing. Watering isn't a scheduled thing. It is as the soil moisture level needs it or not and the only way you can know that is by sticking your hand down into the soil. As rgreen said it is done deeply (soaking) and infrequently and every other day only creates shallow rooted, water-dependent plants.

BER is something we all have to deal with in early spring. It happens long before you see it on the fruit. It happened way back while the fruit was still small and green. And it is most common on the very first fruit to set on the plant simply becasue the plant is young, its root system is young, and spring weather is inconsistent with all the rains. Once you can see it you toss those fruit and 9 times out of 10 you don't see it any more assuming you stabilize the soil moisture.

But I can only stress that watering isn't something you put on a schedule. Most gardens never need daily watering and seldom need every other day. Once a week is an good average IF you are delivering enough water when you do it.

So the most likely source of the problem is not deeply enough and way too frequently. That is why drip irrigation and/or soaker hose work so much better. How do you deliver water to your plants? And how long of a time does each plant get watered? Do you have a rain gauge in the garden or how do you measure how much each plant gets?

Dave

Heya,

So when I water - I use a regular hose and normally have it on "full" or "shower" mode. In terms of how much - I really don't know. I just stand there... cluess I guess. How can I tell how much a good soaking is?

So it sounds like I need to measure soil moisture prior to each watering - but how can I tell how "moist" it is. The ground when it dries up (a few hours or the next day)... it's ROCK SOLID. I need a shovel to even help me pull out the weeds.

Anyway I'll just cut the tomato out and pray the next ones are better - doesn't sound like it though.

@Peppers - they need nitrogen. Thanks

In general, a garden does well with about an inch of water a week. That amount varies on whether you have mulch that keeps moisture from evaporating, the size of your plants, and where you live (perhaps a dry or wet climate), etc...

Until you get an idea of what that is, you can put a straight sided cake pan, or an empty tuna can out there while your watering. The time it takes to fill it an inch is how much water to give once a week. Just remember, this is a general rule. Rain, humidity, plant size, type of plant etc... can give you reason to water more or less.

Deeply, and infrequently is a good rule to remember.

Yeah that is a very ineffective way of watering and seldom delivers enough. You'd do better to fill a watering can or a measured container of some kind and then SLOWLY pour that amount on each plant. Using a hose set on a low pressure flow laid at the base of each plant for 5-6 min each can work. A hose set on full pressure only causes most of the water to run off rather than sink in.

And heavy mulch as already mentioned. Bare ground dries out fast. Mulched ground doesn't.

If you use a full garden sprinkler - not hand held - of some kind then the empty tuna cans set around the garden is a good way to measure amount delivered.

Dave

PS: and from the photos the need for good mulching is pretty clear