My friend Ron Watkins asked.. “on a few “ripe” tomatoes, the bottoms are “brown/crusty” — what might be wrong or is it just “heat” from the ground?…” Here is the answer and this is what I have heard but not done yet. There is a lack of calcium in the soil, I have heard that if you put a tums at the bottom of your plant that will end it. Makes sense because tums have a lot of calcium in them.

A more tried and true organic solution, add a little limestone or gypsum around the plant and water it in. I also add my egg shells to the soil all year round. If you have added the nutrients to the soil and it is still happening, you might be watering too much, watering all the nutrients away from the soil.

Pull these bad tomatoes off because they are actually very rotten on the inside. You want your plant working on healthy tomatoes.

When I don’t have any chicken poop soup made, then my favorite general fertilizer is called “Arizona Bests”. It is a granular fertilizer specially made for our Arizona soil. I buy it at Lowe’s. Sprinkle some of this around the roots and water it in.