Nebraska Extension in Scotts Bluff County

Local Interest

Enjoying your tomatoes after the growing season

By Katie Markheim, Nebraska Extension Master Gardener

Harvest time is here for gardeners, especially those with tomatoes. Here are some challenges you may find in your garden with tomatoes. 

Blossom end rot is a very common problem on green and ripe tomatoes caused by a calcium deficiency.  It first appears as a sunken, brownish black spot 1⁄2 to 1 inch in diameter on the blossom end of the fruit. It occurs in rapidly developing fruit during periods of hot, dry weather. To prevent, maintain a steady rate of plant growth without stress. This includes watering consistently, mulching to conserve soil moisture, monitoring nitrogen fertilizer applications, properly staking plants, and sanitizing pruning equipment after each use. If blossom end rot occurs, remove the affected fruit. 

Two types of cracks may develop on tomato fruit. Radial growth cracks radiate from the stem and concentric cracks encircle the fruit, usually on the shoulders. Cracking is associated with rapid fruit development and wide fluctuations in water availability to the plant. Fruit that has reached the ripening stage during dry weather may show considerable cracking if the dry period is followed by heavy rains and high temperatures. Tomato varieties differ considerably in the amount and severity of cracking under climatic conditions. Mulching and avoiding heavy applications of nitrogen fertilizer should help reduce fruit cracking. 

When harvesting, harvest fully ripe tomatoes to get the best flavor and color. Pink tomatoes may be harvested and allowed to ripen indoors at room temperature (65 to 70 degrees). Ripe tomatoes should be stored at room temperature to retain their best flavor. Fully ripe tomatoes may be refrigerated for several weeks, although storage temperatures below 50 degrees will cause flavor loss. Green tomatoes should be picked in the fall just before frost or a light freeze.  Refrigeration is not recommended for green tomatoes. Instead, leave at room temperature to promote ripening and flavor development unless used for pickling in their ‘green’ condition.

When frost is imminent, mature green tomatoes can be harvested and ripened indoors. The fruit should be solid, firm, free of defects, full-sized, and have a greenish white skin color. Remove the stems, then clean and dry the fruit. Individually wrap each fruit in a piece of newspaper and place in single layers in boxes or shelves. Store the tomatoes in a dark, cool (55-60°F) location, such as a basement or cellar. Inspect the tomatoes periodically during storage. Discard any soft or decaying fruit. When the tomatoes begin to color, remove the newspaper, and place them at room temperature. To ripen tomatoes quickly, put them in a brown paper bag with or without an apple. As apples and tomatoes ripen, they give off ethylene gas. Ethylene speeds up the fruit ripening process when confined in a closed bag.

Fall is a good time to use herbicides to control cheatgrass on pastures

By Mitch Stephenson, UNL Range Management Specialist, and Aaron Berger, Nebraska Extension Livestock Educator

Nebraska’s grasslands cover approximately 50 percent of the state’s land area. Grasslands are vital as a livestock forage base, but also provide other ecosystem services like wildlife habitat, water infiltration, and carbon cycling. Nebraska’s grasslands have multiple challenges, including woody plant encroachment, cropland conversion, and the invasion of annual invasive grasses, primarily cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), in the western part of the state. 

Cheatgrass is an invasive winter annual grass that typically germinates in the fall when adequate precipitation is present. However, cheatgrass is highly flexible in its germination date and can also germinate early in the spring, even with minimal precipitation. As a result of early germination and prolific seed production, cheatgrass is highly competitive and often out-competes native vegetation for limited resources. Cheatgrass presence on rangelands is most prevalent in the Panhandle, with Banner, Scotts Bluff, and Dawes counties having the highest percentage cover of annual forbs and grasses

Cheatgrass invasion into grazing lands is challenging because of its short growth window. Early in the growing season, nutritive value of cheatgrass often exceeds native perennial grass species, and cattle will graze and consume cheatgrass along with other cool-season native species growing at that time. However, later in the growing season, after cheatgrass has set seed, cattle will avoid consuming it. Recent research in the Panhandle has shown that areas where cheatgrass was removed with herbicide had crude protein levels 21 to 62 percent higher than untreated areas in mid-July, highlighting the negative influence of cheatgrass on cattle forage nutritive value in the mid-summer.  

Herbicide options for rangelands include application of imazapic (tradename: Plateau), indaziflam (tradename: Rejuvra), or a combination of both herbicides. The combination of both herbicides has generally provided better control over longer periods than herbicides applied alone. For example, an analysis of 5 locations in the Nebraska Panhandle where a combination of Rejuvra (5 oz) and Plateau (4 oz) were applied to rangelands in the fall of 2022 showed greater than 98 percent control of cheatgrass three years after the herbicides were applied. In this study, native perennial grass biomass averaged 2 to 3 times greater in areas where cheatgrass had been removed compared to annual grass invaded sites.  

When considering using herbicide to manage annual invasive grasses, there are several things to evaluate. First, determining the location of the treatment that will lead to the most opportunities for native perennial grasses to succeed. This includes actively monitoring pastures and selecting those that have a strong (several plants per square meter) presence of perennial grasses and forbs. Second, herbicide is typically applied in the fall and because germination of cheatgrass may have already occurred depending on the amount of precipitation, the combination of Rejuvra and Plateau is recommended to provide better cheatgrass control. Lastly, developing a grazing plan following herbicide will provide better opportunities for success. Adaptively managing grazing following herbicide application on rangelands by setting appropriate stocking rates and allowing growing season recovery based on variable growing season precipitation can be used to enhance desirable rangeland plants the opportunity to build resistance to re-invasion.