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I have grown these tomatoes from seed. The plants I gave away are doing just fine. But, the ones I planted have black ends and if I cut them open, the centres are also going black. I have to assume it's the soil, and the lack of something? They have had plenty of water and sunshine. I heard once this may be a lack of calcium? Anyone else experience blossom end rot this year?

I have just one small tomato with blossom end rot. Hoping for no more! I've had worse years. Supposed to be a calcium deficiency.  
 
Disappointing for sure!

I believe it might be too late now but when growing your tomatoes water them with an Epson salt mixture. Allows plant to uptake magnesium which in turn gives the plant the ability to utilize the calcium in the soil preventing blight or blossom rot in your tomatoes fruit  
 
Edited by tafeel, 2015-08-18 00:15:00

They are low in calcium. Same thing happenec to our tomatoes and zucchini. We were told to put tums in the soil right beside the plant. One tum beside each plant. Worked for us. Not sure if it's too late now or not

Jax5626 said "They are low in calcium. Same thing happenec to our tomatoes and zucchini. We were told to put tums in the soil right beside the plant. One tum beside each plant. Worked for us. Not sure if it's too late now or not "

Make sure there's lots of egg shells in your compost when you dig it in! They have tons of calcium, mageniusm and other minerals!

Abbysmum said "    Jax5626 said "They are low in calcium. Same thing happenec to our tomatoes and zucchini. We were told to put tums in the soil right beside the plant. One tum beside each plant. Worked for us. Not sure if it's too late now or not " Make sure there's lots of egg shells in your compost when you dig it in! They have tons of calcium, mageniusm and other minerals! "

My eggs shells in my tomato patch year round to keep the calcium levels up. They do take time to break down and release minerals into the soil though, so it is more of an on going treatment, not a quick action one.  
 
One other thing to note - if you always plant tomatoes in the exact same soil year after year it can also contribute to the issue.  
 
Just like farmers have to rotate crops to re energize the soils, I was told to plant something else in my tomato patch periodically - to give the soil a "rest" from them.

help fight off pests like slugs, snails, cutworms and other crawling pests.

Blossom end rot is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil. This can happen with uneven watering and unfortunately I think it's pretty hard to reverse at this point in the year. I have heard that people will crush egg shells and mix them into boiling water. Then when the water cools, add it to their soil to reverse the blossom end rot. However, I have no idea how long this takes to correct the plant and usually the problem has been in the plant long before it manifests on the fruit. I ended up pulling my San Marzano's this year.

Mela said "Blossom end rot is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil. This can happen with uneven watering and unfortunately I think it's pretty hard to reverse at this point in the year. I have heard that people will crush egg shells and mix them into boiling water. Then when the water cools, add it to their soil to reverse the blossom end rot. However, I have no idea how long this takes to correct the plant and usually the problem has been in the plant long before it manifests on the fruit. I ended up pulling my San Marzano's this year. "

Good advice and seems to be a common thread here. I have a couple of plants that have not been affected so I'm not totally bummed! I appreciate everyone's input. Thank you!

It seems like as soon as my tomatoes start to ripen, they start to rot at the bottom. Someone suggested picking them all still green and letting them ripen in the house - does anyone know if that will prevent the rot from happening, or whether it will still happen?

curlysister said "It seems like as soon as my tomatoes start to ripen, they start to rot at the bottom. Someone suggested picking them all still green and letting them ripen in the house - does anyone know if that will prevent the rot from happening, or whether it will still happen? "

I had to do this with mine. I dont have the plants on an automatic water system, and away for long days at times. The erratic watering has caused a number of mine to get blossom rot. I picked them when the colour just started to turn and let them ripen inside.

Are the plants looking sick as it could be blight and not blossom rot.  
 
When picking green tomatoes I wash them in water with a bit of bleach to kill bacteria and set them on newspaper on the garage floor to ripen. This doesn't help tomatoes that are affected by blight. It has been so long since we have had a tomato crop here can't remember about blossom rot.  
 
 
First year we haven't had blight in a long time because we were extremely dry here.

on-second-thought said "    curlysister said "It seems like as soon as my tomatoes start to ripen, they start to rot at the bottom. Someone suggested picking them all still green and letting them ripen in the house - does anyone know if that will prevent the rot from happening, or whether it will still happen? " I had to do this with mine. I dont have the plants on an automatic water system, and away for long days at times. The erratic watering has caused a number of mine to get blossom rot. I picked them when the colour just started to turn and let them ripen inside. "

the same thing. It seems to be the only way I can keep  
 
1. Rot off  
2. Critters out of them, and  
3. Dog from eating them!