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Speaker 1
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Macomb, Illinois. And we have got a garden bite for you this week. We are going to be going back in time when we are chatting with local foods and small farms educator Nick Frillman about tomato problems.

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Speaker 1
And in this clip, Nick talks about blossom end rot and what is the cause behind it. I know a lot of people talk about, you know, you got a mash up egg shells and throw them into the planting hole of your tomatoes. But does that really work and do you really need to do that? A lot of folks are doing that this time of year as it is just getting started into planting our warm, seasoned veggies.

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Speaker 1
Or Nick explains what's going on with blossom and rot and solutions for remedy. It. Enjoy.

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Speaker 1
And that we did. Katie We cut the little part out and now it is. Here is a little nugget for you to listen to

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Speaker 1
So as Nick described, the way to alleviate or at least lessen the severity of blossom and rot is to have even watering throughout the growing season over the time, it's not necessarily a calcium deficiency, it is more of a watering problem.

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Speaker 1
Now, what other strategies can we use to help us have an even watering for our tomatoes? Well, that would be having a nice mulch layer which insulates that soil and keeps it evenly watered throughout time. That is the important thing. Over time, we don't go through these swings of very dry to very wet soil,

00:05:29:12 - 00:05:41:04
Speaker 1
The other thing to watch out for is don't over fertilizers that can also cause blossom in rot. And the other thing is you can select for some varieties that are known to be resistant to blossom in rot.

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Speaker 1
Well, that was a lot of great information about blossom end rot. How to fix that problem in your tomatoes for this growing season?

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Speaker 1
Well, the Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois extension, edited this week by me, Kristin Roth, and a special thank you to our listeners who do what you do best, and that is listening. Or if you're watching us on YouTube, watching and as always, keep on growing.

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