Gardening Question of the Week: Why Do My Tomatoes Crack?
Thursday July 10, 2008
Tom emailed me, “Every year my first tomatoes crack as they ripen. How can I prevent that from happening this year?” This is a perennial question with a simple answer. Limited water followed by a lot of water will cause the inside of the tomato to swell up faster than the outside membrane of the tomato can grow or stretch, so it cracks. Preventing cracking isn’t as easy as it first appears, since you can’t control the rain. Here are a couple of tips to hedge your bets against tomato cracking.
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2008) licensed to About.com, Inc..
Comments
It’s a catch-22. If you overwater your tomato pants, the skin of the fruit will split. However, if you underwater or irregularly water them, then they will develop a physiological disorder known as “blossom end rot” or “BER” for short. This is where the plant cannot absorb and deliver the available calcium in the soil to the fruits.
Both splitting and BER allow for secondary pathogens to invade the inside of the fruit, causing it to decay.
“Tomato pants…”
Oh, man.
That would be so uncomfortable.
You’re right about the catch-22. But if tomatoes were easy to grow well, what fun would it be to brag about how good yours are?
yes… Tomato pants!!!!
I understand about the non/regular water supply causing certain conditions. But what if the leaves of the plants — actually just the edges of the leaves — turn white and start curling up. It hasn’t seemed to interfere with tomato production. Is it a problem we need to watch? It’s been in the 90s for weeks with occasional thunderstorms that dump bunches of water. We water them ourselves when we don’t get rain (city water vs. rainwater maybe?). Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks,
Sharon
It could just be stress. Heat and humidity can curl leaves even if the plant is well watered.
Herbicide damage will curl leaves. If you sprayed anything nearby, it could possibly have drifted.
A worst case scenario would be tomato leaf curl virus. The virus is transmitted by white flies and, unfortunately, there’s no cure. I’d suggest taking a few leaves down to your cooperative extension for a definite answer.