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Old June 23, 2021   #12
JRinPA
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: SE PA
Posts: 964
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When I get BER it is almost always on the first truss of the plant, on 1 or 2 per truss at most, on larger tomato types. The majority of plants are fine and don't get any. I grow in ground and water only when necessary for the most part.

The reason? It might be inconsistent water but I'm more inclined to think just inconsistent fruit growth in general, since the earliest tomatoes have the coolest night weather and the plant strives for rapid green growth during that time. This is pure speculation based on my observations of in ground and raised box tomatoes.

I can think of two cases where there was a lot of BER. One was a remote garden on a very dry year with strong midday sun and florida weaved plants that basically had no shade or water. The first tomatoes from most of those plants had some serious BER.

A second case was a single row of four Roma in our regular backyard tomato garden. They had lots of BER, practically the whole first round, but the other types in same plot did not. They are the only determinate tomato I ever tried. Even the latter ones that were BER free were practically tasteless, so no need to grow their type again.
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