problems problems !

First, some of my tomatoes have gone black and nasty looking at the bottom. I took them off the plant and chucked them. What is it ?
Second, all my lettuces were very poor. Little gem and I think tom thumb. All straggly and limp and pale.
Third (LOL!) my carrots have barely grown at all, they are around an inch high after months.
The carrots are outside, the toms/lettuces are indoors in a southfacing windowsill and get tons and tons of water every day. Not all the tomatoes are affected. The lettuces were a huge disappointment as I use a lot.

 

Re the Tomatoes, sounds like Blossom End Rot, caused by a lack of Calcium resulting from irregular or poor supply of water. If you get into a regular rythm of watering, new tomatoes might be OK. (You can just cut the black bit off, the rest is still edible.)

My Father-in-law had this problem last year and once he started to water regularly some of his later crop was OK.

 

Ming, the lettuce could be just too hot on a sunny windowsill, probably best to plant them outside. I just heard on Gardeners' Question Time that lettuce should now be sown into a slightly shady place at this time of year.

 

OK ty all. yes it's certainly very hot in the front room, but its bloody freezing outside I tried one tomato plant , a bush variety, outside yesterday and the wee thing shrivelled up and cried. So I brought it back in and gave it a cuddle..

 

Souds like Blossom end rot with your tomatoes Ming and irregular watering is the cause. Some varieties of tomato are more prone than others. I gave up trying Marmande as they always hot it when my other tomatoes were fine.

Your lettuce will be much happier outside - they like quite cool conditions.

Conventional wisdom says no need to feed carrots but I find they do much better if they get a splash of something. You could try a liquid feed and see if that perks them up.
Good luck.

 

ok thats great ta. I will try some lettuce outside now, and see how I get on. And the rest of the tomatoes seem ok so far. Thanks all x