Such a difference - two Opalka tomatoes

An Opalka.

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I like to mix Heidi and Opalka fruits when making sauce because Heidi is a lot meatier than Opalka. The two combined give an excellent sweet and rich tomato flavored mix. When I grow 97L97, I toss in about 5 to 10 percent by volume to boost the vitamin A content. It is like having a multivitamin tomato sauce!

This one tips the scales at over 22 ounces!

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How are you doing with blossom end rot on your Opalkas? I’m curious since we’re in the same general area and share much of the same weather. It is a chronic problem on mine and I’ve tried a bunch of things to get it under control, even growing them grafted on other rootstocks to see if that helped, but I still get at least half getting BER.

I’ve added lime and eggshells to the soil, watched my watering (not much I can do to reduce the rain), etc. but they still get it. I’m wondering if it there might be some slight variation in Opalka seed sources since some people report growing them with no problems. I have almost no BER issues on any of my other varieties.

So far only about 5% have BER. The San Marzano Redorta are worse, about 20% get it.