Causes of Blossom-End Rot of Tomatoes Based on Tissue Analysis

Blossom-end rot (BER) was produced experimentally in greenhouse tomatoes, Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., growing in soil or in pure sand by restricting Ca uptake at various stages of growth. Analysis of tissues from affected plants for Ca, K, and Mg showed that all plant parts suffer depletion of Ca, the upper considerably more than the lower parts. BER fruits contained.02–.03% Ca compared with.07–.09% in normal fruits. BER was also produced by subjecting plants to water stress in the presence of adequate supplies of Ca. Affected fruits from these plants had a Ca content of.07%. It is suggested that there may be two physiological conditions resulting in identical symptoms.