What you show is a very immature fruit and the brown stuff is just the remnent of the blossom which will fall off naturally.

The shape of young fruits is not always the same shape as the mature fruits for a variety.

Also, BER is seen at the bottom of the fruits, not the top.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

Agree. Not even close to BER. You can pull up hundreds of pics of BER on the web for comparison.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: BER FAQ

Okay: it has already been established that I am absolutely not an expert. But I did have the childhood nickname of "Eagle-eye" -- and I see the irregular growth also. The right side of the fruit is growing. The left side of the fruit hasn't grown, and the blossom-end is at the upper left. The "grain" of the fruit skin curves quite plainly.

Besides the dried blossom, and more or less underneath it, I see something dark. If not blossom-end rot, then how about the rot that results from inadequate pollination? My second choice is a really weird catfacing with some dark edges.

Keep an eye on it, Battalina. You might try very gently to brush loose the dried flower and see what it's hiding.

I looked again and don't see anything like you describe Eagle Eye. LOL

In the first picture there's an aborted blossom below the tiny fruit on a different pedicel and I say tiny fruit b/c if you look at the size of the sepals that fruit IS tiny.

Carolyn

Thank you everyone! Yes, the fruit is tiny, but what missingtheobvious describes that he sees in the picture is spot on, which is what prompted me to ask the question.

I see the same as Missingtheobvious Eagle Eye does.
One side appears to be growing the other is not at all and the bottom is actually at the top.
It is a deformed tomato and seems to show the beginnings of BER.
I have had a couple of those this year also, all the rest of the tomatoes were perfect, just a couple out of 25 were kinda deformed a bit and had BER.

my two cents, its not ber. its the begining of catfacing.

As Terry says there are any number of things that can cause mal-formed fruit. There are also a number of things that can cause a dark spot on a fruit. But that doesn't make them all BER. BER is very specific as to cause and appearance.

BER doesn't show up yet in fruit that tiny. Catfacing can, inadequate pollination can, bacterial infection can, injury damage can, etc.

Will that particular fruit develop normally? Likely no. Will it develop and still be edible but malformed? Maybe. Could it develop a bacterial infection due to its prolonged contact with the rotting blossom remnant? Possibly, especially if it isn't removed from the fruit. Could it develop BER later? Possibly if the conditions for BER develop. Does it have BER right now? No. Should it be removed from the plant? No need. Is it causing any problem if left? No.

Dave

Just for the record, I'm female.

Thank you everyone! I will leave it alone and see how it develops. I'll post an update as it gets bigger.
Sorry missingtheobvious, I should've known by your detailed writing style :)

Hi everyone. I wanted to post an update on my funny-looking tomato. Here are a couple pics. It looks like his little brother on the left has a small dark hole in it. I'm assuming it's kind of the same issue.

I have some with the small black spots. Wondered what it was, too.

Definitely cat-facing, likely caused by cool weather.

I can't tell about the sibling with the small black spot. It looks as if the spot might be accompanied by a narrow line running from the stem toward the blossom end. If you do see such a line, that's called zippering, and is sometimes found with cat-facing.

Zippering is caused when part of the flower (the anther, the central "cone" of the flower) is connected abnormally to the baby fruit. Last year I found a 1" fruit with a piece of the anther (still fresh and yellow!) firmly attached on the fruit's equator like a little flag; there was a narrow zipper from stem to anther to the fruit's blossom-end.

photos of zippering (and some that aren't)

8-)

Missingtheobvious you are correct again, the small tomato does have the zipper line. Two actually. And we've had some cool nights so I'm glad to know what it is and what caused it. Thank you everyone!