Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No, not normal. Blossom end rot. Need to dose with Calcium.

Think garden lime will help?

Yes garden lime is Calcium carbonate,along with some magnesium i believe,it will raise your PH so you have to be careful.

you got a bad bad bad.. calcium deficiency my friend.

Like DB said, be careful with lime if your ph is already high. Can use a foliar calcium application. It would act quicker as well calcium chloride works well for supporting. Label rates, don't use in the water, just apply to leaves. When ph starts dropping below 7, you could add some of the lime. I run mine at 6.5 and add potash and lime when it drops below 6.5, but lots of folks run higher ph and grow nice stuff.

Occasionally you'll get a plant where the first one or two tomatoes it produces will have blossom end rot like this but all the rest will be OK - even in soil and even with added calcium in the hole you dug. Considering you just cleared out some of the foliage the air circulation could have been a factor as well. If those are the only two tomatoes and there are lots without problems it may work itself out, otherwise calcium is the cure. I'd remove and pitch the bad ones.

Thank you everyone for the great advice. I tend to run on the acidic side, so a little bit of garden lime is not going to tip the scales. I placed some granules around the base of the plants, careful not to go overboard. I will switch to a foliar spray if that does not do the trick.

I have been using foliar spray earlier for potassium and chelated iron, as well as calcium, but I did not get any benefit. Maybe a problem with dosing. Will report back.

geesus, a few of you people are growing some pretty scary stuff.!!!
I see sickradish and Rocklobster are in the States,, so I could probably say "only in America" but I won't..
can you send a pic to
http://www.yates.com.au, they are seed producers and fairly sure there are genius's work there who could tell us what it is we are all looking at.

Bright Agrotech (Dr. Nate) mentioned on their YouTube channel that calcium deficiency can occur with excessive humidity and lack of ventilation, as well. Because the plants are in such a moist environment, they do not take up as much water that would contain the macronutrients such as calcium. It may not be enough to supplement the water or use foliar sprays if you have not first addressed the basic environmental needs.
https://youtu.be/GGcxyTKTl5U
Thinning out the plants, and removing the suckers, seems to have had a good effect. I see no more blossom end rot happening with these plants.

Not surprised, glad to hear they seem to be doing better

Ca is a very immobile element for plant uptake.. and depends on water transpiration rate through the plant to allow calcium to enter the plant.. so if humidity high them water evaporation decreases so less water uptake in the plants leading to less calcium uptake... you get the same effect when rain falls for a long peroid of time

Following up on my original problem of calcium and potassium deficiency, I have continued to successfully prune and thin the tomato plants, along with installing proper ventilation. Garden lime and potash added directly to the grow bed in small quantities. The fruit is prolific, but nothing is ripening yet. I expect a bumper crop in a couple week's time.

Adding on, the bumps (root initials) are pervasive now throughout my plants, whether in the GB or wicking bed. I'm pretty sure that they were caused by the excessive humidity that we've been talking about. Here's an article on the subject:

http://www.tomatodirt.com/bumps-on-tomato-stems.html

The key here is that tomato plants will develop adventitious roots when they are stressed out. Once formed, they will continue to grow and "do their thing", even if you remove the stressor. In my case, ventilation is now pretty much optimal, as is the flood and drain cycle in the GB. Macronutrients are optimal (I think), and the fruiting is now kicking in.