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Black dots on tomatoes: how to stop it?

#1 · 19th August 2021, 12:44 pm

Hi everyone. I grew tomatoes for the first time this year, in a hanging basket. Most of the fruits have little black pin-prick sized dots on them. I've included a picture, hopefully its worked. I just wondered what it was and more importantly, are they safe to eat?

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#2 · 21st August 2021, 10:24 am

Hi Shelly,

Thanks for getting in touch about your tomatoes. Firstly well done for using a hanging basket to grow such fruit. Great use of space!

The black marks look like some form of nutrient deficiency. Usually with tomatoes its potassium the major nutrient for forming fruits. In particular, it could be a very mild version of blossom end rot due to a lack of calcium, a micro nutrient. Looking at it though it doesn't look severe and I'd still eat them! They look plump ripe and well-formed with no open lesions.

Given that hanging baskets have limited space and nutrients it would make sense that maybe they're slightly deficient in feed and this mottling or black spot is a symptom of that.

So advice for the future would be to make sure you use a really high nutrient peat-free compost, dalefoot composts are very good for veg especially their double strength one. Also, keep them well watered and when they start to form fruit you want a high potassium feed which you can water them with bi-weekly to help them develop.

Another idea to to grow trailing or smaller cherry tomatoes that are less hungry in your hanging basket next year?

This advice about watering goes for all hanging basket planting arrangements as they rely solely on you the owner to get their water and nutrients from you!

Happy growing!

Lee