Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm keen to grow tomatoes in tropical Thailand. Many people I've talked to have had trouble doing this. Apparently the plants grow but have trouble fruiting and when they do the fruit goes rotten while still very small.

Apparently this is due to the humidity over here. We have cooler weather starting in Dec, so my plan is to plant now and then start harvesting the tomatoes around then. Is there anyone living in tropical climates that can offer suggestions? The variety I'd most like to grow is Roma.

dthawk....romas...viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1078&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=225

Thanks for the link, the problem seems to be blossom end rot, I'll see how things go.

Try adding some shell grit to the fish tanks. (Blossom end rot can be caused by calcium deficiency).

Also I read somewhere that when you water the tomatoes, better to water the roots only as spray can cause blossom end rot.

Tomatoes here in Sub-tropical central Florida often don't do well during the hottest part of the summer. I guess if temps are too high the plants have trouble setting flowers and fruit. Slightly cooler night time temps seem to help them a bit.

BER blossom end rot is caused by a deficiency of calcium in the fruit, it is not caused by any sort of infection or bug. It can be caused by a lack of calcium in the soil or growing medium but is more often caused by some other problem making it hard for the plant to get the calcium to the fruit quick enough. In many situations early fruit will suffer from blossom end rot but the plant will grow out of it and later fruit may be fine. Sometimes the problem is root injury due to irregular watering causing the roots to have trouble taking in enough calcium. Other times it might be that the plants have grown too fast and just can't move the calcium far enough fast enough to get it to the quickly developing fruit.

For a possible quick fix to perhaps reduce the problem of BER, try foliar feeding the plants with a supplement spray that provides extra calcium and other micronutrients. They make BER spray that is meant to help with just this problem.

I've heard that varieties grown in Florida also don't do well here. We never have cool weather. The rainy season has just ended and temperatures have dropped, I'm guessing it's about 30 -32 Celsius, with night time getting down a chilly 25 (ppl are wearing scarfs!).

It should drop a few more degrees over the coming months. I have some hydro tomatoes which are about 1 month old and doing very well. So hopefully this year I'll have some success.