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| It seems to have been a wet summer nearly everywhere so this is a good year to sort the crackers from the non-crackers. I planted nearly all heirlooms and only Lemon Boy and Stupice did not crack terribly in this very wet and cool summer. So my growing list for next year will need to be crack-free. So far I have these. I would appreciate any additions from your experience.
Lemon Boy
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Most any variety can and will crack under the right conditions and honestly, I've never been real concerned with cracking and splitting - it happens but it is primarily just an appearance issue. But I can't recall ever having a noticeable cracking problem with Rutgers, Bloody Butcher, or Jet Star and we have grown tons of them. ;) Marglobe is listed as crack resistant as are those in the Mountain series. Dave |
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| Earl of Edgecombe & Lahman Pink never crack for me. For cherries, try Millie Yoder's Little Grape and Ciudad Victoria. |
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| Jet Star, Goliath hybrid and Champion were better than Big Boy, Better Boy, and Park's Whopper. Japanese Black Trifele was the best I grew. Not a single crack. Here's a list of supposedly crack resistant varieties, but several of them have failed terribly for me in this regard, namely Big Boy, Celebrity and Pruden's Purple. I tend to agree that just about any tomato worth growing is susceptible to cracking when conditions dictate. |
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| Our unusually wet summer caused most varieties in this garden to crack or split during the worst of it. The only two commonly available, open pollinated, slicer tomato vines that gave consistently crackfree tomatoes were Druzba and Red Brandywine-Landis Valley. The other crackfree tomatoes came from a few modern hybrids or types that are not yet commonly available as open pollinated varieties, so need not be mentioned. In the past, I found Glamour (parentage = Burgess Crackproof x Sioux) and Mozark to be open pollinated types consistently free of cracks even during wet weather. Didn't grow them this year. |
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| I have selected for non-cracking tomatoes for several years. Some of mine- Juliet Principe Borghese Siberian Pink Bloody Butcher Jetsetter Nepal Druzba Marvel Striped Legend Heidi Tegucigalpa San Marzano Roughwood Golden Plum- may not be right tomato (from a trade) since it is a round flattened tomato instead of a plum or pear shaped tomato Sochulak |
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| It has been a really bad year here along the shores of Buzzards Bay. With the humidity, pollination was delayed and fruit set was minimized. However, I found that there was little or no cracking from the following; Akers West Virginia Delicious Sun Sugar Cherry tomato (WOW! I love these) Belgian Giant (not much production, though) Beefsteak VFN(low production, also) Hawaiian Pineapple Strawberry orange Oxheart KBX My late maturing Grosse Cotalee are cracking even though the rains have stopped. It's still nice to have a nice tasting heirloom this time of the year. |
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| Our summer's been unusually dry, so when it did rain everything was ready to burst at the seams, and usually did. The ones that didn't were Momotaro and Sun Sugar. |
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| I'd add Crnkovic Yugoslavian to the no/few cracks list. A few did split, but most were perfect, and even the ones that did showed only mild cracking. It's a medium to large pink beefsteak with good flavor and production. |
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| Juliet is widely reported to be crack-resistant, but after growing them for five years in humid North Carolina, I've concluded that a good rain when the tomatoes are ripe is all it takes to crack them along their entire length. They are great-tasting and incredibly productive. |
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- Posted by garystpaul z4 MN (My Page) on Wed, Mar 31, 10 at 20:20
| As someone noted, almost any tomato is subject to cracking—and count me among those who don't particularly mind it—but I've grown two varieties in recent years that seem pretty resistant: Japanese Black Trifele and Earl of Edgecombe. Gary |
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| Nyagous is crack-resistant in our hot,dry summers. So is AAA Sweet Solano. Plants of both cultivars stay healthy here longer than many other tomatoes. |
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- Posted by carolyn137 z4/5 NY (My Page) on Thu, Mar 13, 14 at 13:17
| I was just reading through this thread and wanted to say that ANY variety will split/crack for anyone anywhere when local conditions allow for that and many of the heirlooms have distinctive splitting at the stem end , either radial or circular which almost always heals over, and some of those radial cracks are sooooo distinctive that it can allow for someone to actually ID the variety, not many, but a few. Carolyn, who pays no attention to splits, either at the stem end or what's called longitudinal splitting as in vertical. She grows tomatoes for taste and a bonus is good yield and hopefully a season with few foliage diseases, systemic diseases not being all that common where she is,. |
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| In my experience black/brown tomatoes are more prone to crack than other. But there is a way to avoid having cracked matoes: PICK THEM AS SOON AS THEY TURN COLOR (from green to red, pink, brown) and let them to sit on the counter (away from direct sun). |
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| I garden where there may be very little rain during the growing season. The soil drains very quickly but I can often only irrigate twice a week. When I do, it is with field sprinklers just like in the alfalfa fields next door to the big veggie garden where the tomatoes are grown. The conditions are prime for splitting. I'm not quite so stoic about splitting and not stoic at all about the decay that may result. There are some varieties that I just will not grow. Thessaloniki should be mentioned as an heirloom that tends not to split. It was the first heirloom that I knowingly grew about 15 years ago and I've had it every year since. Porters never split. Those are just a few that come to mind. I'd like to say that some gardeners seem to think that it is a tough skin that keeps the fruit from splitting. That may be true but flexibility is probably just as important. I'm probably not using the correct horticultural terms . . . elasticity?? Anyway, it is often said that SunSugar split less than Sungold. I agree but I don't find SunSugar has tougher skin that Sungold. It has a more tender skin but I like having both in my garden! For 10 years I have had a "trial" going on out there as to which is my "favorite." It is one of the happier parts of my gardening. Steve |
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