Since most every home gardener grows tomatoes, let’s talk about little bit about some environmental challenges we face with tomatoes. When I say environmental, I’m not talking about diseases or pest, just problems we might face while growing tomatoes that can be attributed to natural things occurring in the garden.

Since we have transitioned to the thick of our Oklahoma summer, first up is an environmental issue in tomatoes caused by heat. One of the primary heat related challenges with tomatoes is something we call “blossom drop.” Blossom drop can occur when temperatures are both too hot or too cold. For example, heat above 90 degrees can inhibit pollination, causing un-pollinated flowers on your tomato plant to drop off. It’s not an issue of there not being insects to move that pollen around but that the heat makes the flower sterile and no fertilization can occur.

My tomato plants at home are a little behind. I have some fruit on the plant, but I am not expecting any more until maybe September or so when the temperatures start to cool down during what we call our fall growing season. At our Seed to Supper farm, we have harvested a few hundred pounds of tomatoes, but we’re not seeing any new fruits or flowers. Likely because of the heat. So now our challenge is to keep the plants alive until it cools off and they start producing again this fall.

Another challenge some of you have probably experienced this spring/summer is something called blossom-end rot. You will know it’s blossom-end rot if the “blossom end” of your tomato is dark brown and kind of leathery. If you search the internet for what causes blossom-end rot and how to remedy it, you are going to find a lot of false information…and I mean a lot. People will suggest dissolving Tums and pouring that water around the plant or adding Epsom Salts to the soil. There seem to be endless suggestions on how to prevent/cure blossom-end rot. I have 3 words of advice… just say no.

Blossom-end rot indeed happens due to a lack of calcium making its way into the plant. But this doesn’t necessarily mean you have a calcium deficiency in your soil. Blossom-end rot occurs when we have too much rain or engage in sporadic watering. Too much nitrogen can also contribute to blossom-end rot.

Have we been having a lot of rain lately…yes. Has it been sporadic…yes. So, if you are experiencing blossom-end rot in some of your tomatoes, this will stop as soon as we quit getting all of this record rain.

The calcium connection to blossom-end rot happens because, yes, it is a calcium deficiency that is causing this, but the deficiency is caused by the water or nitrogen. It will not be over-come by adding calcium to your soil. When the soil gets back to normal moisture levels, any blossom-end rot you are experiencing should be gone.

Catfacing is another interesting one you may have experienced in the spring, but we won’t likely see again until fall because it is caused by cool temperatures. By cool I mean temperatures below 58 degrees. That kind of weather sounds pretty good about now.

Catfacing occurs when these cooler temperature cause the flower to not develop properly, which affects the growth of the tomato. While the tomatoes look a little unusual, you can just cut off that part of the tomato and enjoy.

There’s also a potential issue to using the herbicide 2,4-D around your garden. 2,4-D is a popular herbicide to get rid of broad leaf weeds in your yard. The challenge is that, this herbicide can vaporize in hot weather and drift onto your tomato plant. So, if you have leaves on your tomato that are curling, but the plant looks healthy otherwise it might be 2,4-D damage. Fortunately, tomato plants typically recover from this even though they might look a little fragile for a while.

In spite of all the challenges in growing vegetables in our gardens, we still do it, and we still get to enjoy the delicious fruits of our efforts. You gotta be tough to be a gardener. See you in the garden!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: William M. Brown Jr.