Topic: Tomatoes cracking

[northener]

Hello, some of my Tomatoes that are ripening are splitting open. Is it too much or too little water?

[tim]

Usually uneven watering. I've had quite a bit this year.

[jennym]

Usually uneven watering. I've had quite a bit this year.

I agree.
Also I think the smaller ones like Gardeners delight, Sungold, and other cherry types crack less or maybe I'm imagining it.

[northener]

Hmm so whats best? water morning and night.

[RobinOfTheHood]

Usually uneven watering. I've had quite a bit this year.

I agree.
Also I think the smaller ones like Gardeners delight, Sungold, and other cherry types crack less or maybe I'm imagining it.

My GD's are cracking as soon as they start to ripen, but strangely enough only on one truss of one plant (so far, none of the other trusses on that plant are ready yet). They are planted directly into the ground in my greenhouse, so should be less affected by uneven watering than they would be in growbags.
In the same conditions the Marmandes are doing great, not one has split as yet.

[djbrenton]

I wonder if the uneven temperatures this year are having the same effect as uneven watering. I only had a few crack late on last year but a lot of my early ones are cracking this year.

[Kepouros]

It is probably due to a combination of Watering and temperature conditions.  The skin cracking is caused by a breakdown of the tissues of the fruit wall - usually as a withdrawal of water from the fruit to supply unusual or sudden transpiration needs allied to the osmotic relationships in the plant.

Swelling fruits absorb water from the stem because the osmotic pressure in their tissues is greater that that of the nutrient solution in the vascular system. If a sudden demand for water is made as a result of heavy leaf transpiration water in the stems can come under a tension high enough to overcome the osmotic suction force of the fruit.   This is most likely to happen in a `watery` plant, where the salt concentration in the compost has been reduced by heavy watering and which will consequently have a low osmotic pressure in the vascular system.  Increasing the salt concentration will increase the osmotic pressure in the plant`s vascular system and reduce the risk of this happening.

The hot weather in June and July will have resulted in much more frequent or heavier applications of water than usual, and unless the fertilizers have also been used more frequently to compensate this will have inevitably resulted in lowered salt concentrations in the compost.   In these conditions the `once a week` feed will be insufficient, and a dilute feed with every watering is more likely to maintain the required compost/salt concentration.

Blotchy ripening, where the tomato skin shows a mixture of red and green patches also results from the same circumstances.  Such a fruit, if the skin is carefully shaved off, will show the brown streaks of dead tissue under the green patches.

[Merry Tiller]

OMG :-\

[northener]

Nice one Merry. Kepouros nice explanation its just what i thought.

[tim]

When to water? I always do it very early am. Don't things grow most about that time?

But, more important, surely, how much & how often?

[northener]

I think you just get a feel of how much to water. Depends how hot its been . I always try to water ealy am and late pm.