Tropical and subtropical vegetables (2+1)

Blossom end rot

• Brown water soaked discoloration appears at the blossom end of the fruit where the senescent petals are attached while the fruit is still green. The spots enlarge and darken rapidly and the affected portion of the fruit becomes sunken, leathery and dark coloured. This disorder may occur due to

  i) Sudden change in the rate of transpiration specially in moisture stress condition
ii) Continuously high evapotranspiration regime and a large leaf area
iii) Increasing level of nitrogen content in the fruits

Control
1) This disorder is decreased by increasing the frequency of irrigation
2) Judicial fertilizer application. Increase in the level of phosphate fertilization application decline the incidence of this disorder.
3) Liming decreases the incidence
4) Single foliar spray of 0.5% calcium chloride (CaCl2) at the time of fruit development.