Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Crack is wack...


My tomatoes have been a little late this year and so I have been waiting in earnest to harvest. Yesterday I was eying a particularly large tomato and was so excited to see it was ripe enough bring it in for lunch, but MUCH to my dismay I discovered CRACKS!
I had no idea what caused this so I had to do a little research. And it turns out, it's all my fault. Actually, it's all my husband's fault. Here's what I found:
Growth cracks occur as a result of the rapid growth stimulated by wet weather following a dry period. Two types of growth cracks affect the stem end of tomatoes: concentric and radial. Concentric cracking produces circular cracks around the stem end of the fruit. Radial cracks spread outward from the stem scar.*
See, a couple weeks ago a part of our yard was a mess. It was wet and soggy with tons of standing water. So my husband, without consulting me, decided to just turn off the sprinklers completely. Now, over watering tomatoes can cause lush foilage and and only a few tomatoes BUT cutting it off completely can push your fruit just a little too much and give it what is essentially stretch marks. Luckily, a few days ago I discovered that the water had been turned off and so it's back on. I hope that puts an end to the cracks because as the great Whitney Houston once said, "Crack is wack!"

5 comments:

  1. Crack is wack but the good thing is that you can still eat them by peeling off the cracked area.

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  2. Yeah there is some truth to what you are saying about inconsistent watering causing cracks.... but we have the same thing happening to our tomatoes, and we have kept the watering pretty consistent. So maybe you should give your husband a break.

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  3. Ha ha ha. I've been tending -- and watering -- two gardens: mine, and my neighbor's who had to go on an extended leave. Her tomatoes have had no cracks whatsoever, whereas mine have. I wonder if one difference can be linked to the dripline system she has (ironically installed by my husband). I water her patch, aka turn the hose knob, 2 or three times a week. I try to deep water my own tomatoes, but it's hard to do a slow, steady delivery with my watering can. Sigh.

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  4. I wondered what the crap was going on with my tomatoes.

    Now, this happens to my larger tomatoes, but my cherry tomatoes look fine. Why is that?

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  5. Adhis,
    I'm not sure but I'd imagine it has to do with the difference in varieties. Probably because cherry tomatoes don't have as much potential for growth so they don't grow so large as quickly.

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