Discussions

Hello fellow gardeners! Just wondering what you use for mulch for your tomato plants? Mine get full sun pretty much the whole day and tend to dry out too fast!  
 
Also who uses Epsom salts for their tomatoes? To prevent BER.  
 
Thanks for your thoughts and experience!

When I did do tomato plants, I never used mulch, and my plants got a lot of sun. I have used epsom salts for tomato plants. I used epsom salt on my pepper plants as well.

Not Epsom salt, but Tums to prevent BER. I put a couple in the hole when I plant them. Then I also put a couple at the base of the plant a couple of times during the growing season. I used to crush them up and dissolve them into water, but just putting them on the ground is less labor intensive and they dissolve well.  
I use dried grass for mulch. When my hubby mows, I wait a few days for it to be dried, then rake it up and put it around my tomatoes. We live on an acreage, so have more grass clippings, but also grow quite a few tomatoes.

We amend our soil with home compost that i:ncludes a lot of egg shells. I rarely have problems with BER. I don't do anything special when I plant the tomatoes either, just lots of sun and water in our amended soil.

I used a straw mulch last year with my tomatoes and had great success. As it was a dry year the mulch really helped keep the moisture in. A product I use to prevent BER is Talk of Tomatoes which you can get at nearly any garden store. I've never had an issue with BER since using it.

what is BER ?

Stands for Blossom end rot.