Tomatoes rotten on bottom only

I was at my sister's today. She has one of those hanging tomato things, lots of tomatoes growing on it, has picked quite a few ripe ones and they are really good, except the bottom of each and every one of the ripe tomatoes are brown. She has to slice it off. It's just the bottoms, like they were sitting on the ground rotting, but they aren't, they are hanging. Overwatering? I don't think she is.

Sounds like Blossom end rot Here is a link http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_BlossRt.htm

I had that happen to one tomato. I ordered "Enz Rot" from GardensAlive, sprayed the plants once a week for two weeeks and it put a quick end to the problem. At the time we were having periodic heavy rains and very high temps, both of which I understand can contribute to blossom end rot. The "Enz Rot" is specified as organic.

Yup, blossom end rot. Lime usually takes care of it. At planting time.

No end for pricey fix alls on the market but it's best to pay attention to regular watering. I had blossom end rot one year and discovered that if I watered well once a day at a particular time it disappeared. Any plant in a small container will dry out quickly. Submerge entire container in a bucket of water at least once a week and get it really soaking - thats my solution. :-))

Hi NDFarmgirl,
We tried hanging tomatoes this year for the first time and had exactly the same problem. Since this technique was new to us we used different varieties, tried one, two and four plants per five gallons of soil, and tried white, green and black colored buckets. Every single plant has had fruit with rotted bottoms. We have the exact same varieties planted in four different spots in the ground in three separate garden areas and not One tomato plant has had one rotted tomato on it.
When we planted the buckets, a coffee filter was put over the hole to hold back the soil, then sliced through to insert the plant. They were watered regularily and never really dried out; I actually felt they were getting too much water because they were prone to much more wilting from the sun than those in the ground, and we weren't used to what to do with them. Some started to get the rot even before turning color, and I assumed it was from the leakage that occured from watering which every one of them did and I don't know how could have been prevented as they would drain out eventually from even a small amount of water.
Thought I should share my experience from this year after reading your post, and will try it again next year because I love the idea but I hope to find the source of the problem to avoid it in the future.

I believe calcium also helps prevent bottom end rot....

Howdy, Folks. For those of you growing tomatoes in containers and using store-bought potting soil/mixes it is extremely important to add lime to your mix. The sterile "soil-less" mixes sometimes offer a bit of plant food (just as time-released Osmocote or the like) but they seldom have a source of calcium in them. Adding dolomitic lime to your potting mix will give your plants the calcium they need (as well as magnesium). Doing this will bring an end to one of the major causes of blossom end rot (BER).

NYrainshine, you've done the perfect experiment with your planting same varieties in containers as well as in the ground. Your ground soil was able to offer to the plants what the container soil couldn't.

I hope ya'll got to eat some good tomatoes this year! (Just finished two tomato sammiches, on wheat bread, with mayo, salt/pepper m'self! Yum!)

Happy Gardening!
Shoe

Horseshoe and Tommy,
Interesting. I'm a potter and used 200 mesh dolomitic limestone on the garden I put into glazes for a quicker release into the soil, as my garden is new this year from sod, and really needed the adjustment. It's about $15 for 50 lbs at a ceramic supply store.
For the tomatoes, we made our own mix using Miraclegrows' beefed up Organic Compost for fertilizer. Also used it for a rock-free carrot "bed" in some large pots. They seem OK.
Will definately modify the mix next time. Thanks