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| Just looked at my baby cherokee purple tomatoes today and discovered they have large splits in them. What caused this and what should be done? Should I remove them? All my other tomatoes (celebrity and pink brandywine) are fine just these are showing this. Thanks! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| no, keep them and make "Split Tomato Soup"! |
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| Splitting or cracking is most often caused by extremes of moisture from watering or rain. During a dry period the fruit tends to shrink and then comes a period of heavy rain or over-watering and the fruit swells and splits the skin. Some varieties - the thinner skin varieties - are more prone to it than others. Other causes can be a period of rapid growth or rapid changes in temps. There are 2 types of splitting/cracking: a) Concentric cracking, which is a splitting of the epidermis in circular patterns around the stem scar and (b) Radial cracking which is a splitting of the epidermis from the stem scar towards the blossom end as in your photos. Usually the damage will scar over but if any molds or fungus begin to grow in the crack pitch them. You can check out the link below for more info on these and the other deformity issues with tomatoes like zippering and catfacing. Dave |
Here is a link that might be useful: Physiological, Nutritional, and Other Disorders of Tomato Fruit
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| Thank you very much! We have had really hot weather last week in upper 80's and a few heavy thunserstorms which I suspect may have caused this based on your response. I will leave them alone and hope they heal over! Thanks! |
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