Poorly Toms

[Lazy Daisy]

Finally my toms are ripening but have some sort of marks on them. Anyone know what they are and are they safe to eat ?? :(




Many thanks

[Lazy Daisy]

[Meg]

Top one looks like blight. Most folk on my lottie have pulled all theirs up now and put them in black bags. I had some lovely perle ones that I bought in last year and I ripened them up by hanging on the curtain rail with wire coat hangers. So sorry LD I think the outdoor tomato time is finished. did you have a good harvest earlier??

[Lazy Daisy]

Thanks for the info Meg. Only had room for one plant and it is bowed down with fruit but only just started to ripen. Will pick them all at week end. I have a cellar, I might try hanging them up there still on the vine, it doesn't get much light and no sun though. Anyway give it a go

[Melbourne12]

We're still picking ours!  Several weeks still to go with any luck.  The ones in the pictures don't look too bad to me.  Some of them look perhaps as if they may be prone to splitting, but unless the leaves are blighted, I'd be inclined to leave them to ripen naturally.  Much better than trying to ripen them indoors.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It looks like incipient splitting to me. They should be OK if I'm right, except that they won't keep so long unless you freeze or process them.

[saddad]

looks like splitting to me as well Rob, if it is the start of blight you should be sure by now! Splitting is only cosmetic they still cook fine...
8)

[RobinOfTheHood]

It looks like incipient splitting to me. They should be OK if I'm right, except that they won't keep so long unless you freeze or process them.

looks like splitting to me as well Rob, if it is the start of blight you should be sure by now! Splitting is only cosmetic they still cook fine...
8)

Agree with both of you. Most of my outdoor ones are affected, much worse than this.

Still taste OK though.  :) :)  Don't worry Daisy.

[Lazy Daisy]

Thanks for all the info you guys but what causes splitting?

[Hyacinth]

Thanks for all the info you guys but what causes splitting?

Irregular watering, particularly at the end of the season..

[Kepouros]

If there is only the one plant, then clearly blight is not involved, as the second picture appears to show a clean and healthy plant and I would certainly be in no hurry to disturb it, but to allow ripening to continue naturally.

The fruits shown appear to display areas of dead tissue both under and on the skin.  The main cause of this is when a plant under stress from heat is unable to supply sufficient water to both foliage and fruit at the same time and the osmotic pressure of the sap in the plant is low - when this occurs water is withdrawn from the fruit to the foliage small areas of tissue in the fruit die, whereas if the osmotic pressure is high this does not occur and the flow of water to the fruit continues at the expense of the foliage.

Osmotic pressure is dependant entirely on the concentration of salts in the growing medium, and low pressure occurs because the ratio of fertilizer to water has been reduced.  To put it at its simplest, if because of hot weather you have to water more often then you should also feed more often.   This is especially true where Growbags are used because these will need watering much more often in hot weather, while at the same time the fertilizer originally incorporated has usually become exhausted by the time the plants are fruiting heavily.

Splitting is, as Alishka says, due to irregular watering causing water stress in the fruit, but again this water stress can be exascerbated by low osmotic pressure reducing or stopping the supply of water to the fruit when it is still available at the root

[Merry Tiller]

Osmotic pressure is dependant entirely on the concentration of salts in the growing medium

Blimey

[Lazy Daisy]

And I thought osmotic pressure had something to do with you ear drums  ;D ;D ;D

[Marymary]

What I really like about this site is learning stuff.  Thanks K for a very understandable answer which explains why I need to feed my plants as well as water them.