Tomatoes Splitting
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Tomatoes Splitting
| Tue, 09-04-2012 - 4:53pm |
I have some nice green tomatoes that are very slowly ripening. But I have moticed that about a third of them have big splits in them. Does anyone know what causes this? My Roma's have a lot of bloosom end rot, but they ripen in spite of it and are fine.
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I'm not sure about the water situation and the splitting. Can changes in the temperature cause it also? That seems for likely for us. We haven't gotten ANY measurable rain since planting the tomatoes, we hand water all our veggies once a day, and I'm pretty sure it's equal. But we had almost 100 degree days for a long time, and 50's at night. Right now we're getting into the mid to upper 80's during the day and mid 30's at night, it's froze a couple times now. We put blankets over the tomatoes and peas and so far they haven't froze. The challenges of gardening in the high desert of Oregon!!
~Misty~
Carol is right, it's uneven water. And the bone meal or gypsum is a good plan.
I suppose high heat could dry a plant out more and so, especially if it's a thin-skinned tomato variety, when you water, the plant is being shocked. It could also be HOW you water... do you use drip irrigation or do you water with a hose (like I do). I wonder if using the hose results in a soaking followed by a drying and that that is part of the cause of my tomtaoes splitting. Still, the CSA where we get weekly veg pick-ups told me they had issues with tomatoes splitting too and they drip irrigate so that can't be it. And we did have a LOT of heat this summer...
CL for "
~Misty~
Here is something I learned from a garden show back when I had my farm (and I should use this tip myself). Take a 2 liter bottle and cut some holes near the bottom with a drill or slit with a knife. Bury it up to the neck by the tomatoes you are planting. Fill it with water and cap it. It will slowly and deeply water your tomatoes all day. Just take the hose and refill it as needed.
When I had the farm, I was using half gallon milk jugs buried by my tomatoes. My favorite TV gardener, Paul James the Gardening Guy, and my favorite Organic Gardening editor, Mike McGrath, both endorsed the practice of planting tomatoes around a mulch pile.
The fun of gardening is learning what to do next year!
I think that the temperature in combination with the water can do it. When its hot the fruit will grow more quickly if there is enough water available to uptake. The quick growth then causes the splitting. A lot of my tomatoes (especially Brandywine) get splits which quickly scab over and don't affect the quality, just the appearance. I cannot quote any scientific source on this, it is just my observation over years of growing tomatoes!
Since you are growing in containers I imagine you need to be more careful about watering and fertilizing than if your plants were in the ground. How long before the splitting did you fertilize? Do you use a liquid or granular fertilizer? Could the plant have gotten a "boost" from fertilizer which gave it a growth spurt?
Is it typical for you to get those overnight lows at this time of year? You must have a very short growing season!
I need to ask DH about the fertilizer, I'm not sure what his schedule for it was this year. I know that he used Miracle Grow though. It was a granular mixed with water.
Yeah, the lows this tie of year are pretty cold!! We had 29 this morning. We put the blankets over the tomatoes and peas last night, and they look okay this morning, I hope they don't wilt later!
We do have a really short growing season, you almost have to have a greenhouse to have a lot of good veggies. We can't grow fruit trees or berries here, and potatoes are short. We just dug ours up yesterday and didn't get many. Next year DH had better be prepared to make our garden a LOT bigger!! =D The carrots and lettuce haven't frozen yet, they're still going strong. The green onions are okay, although I already harvested most of them. I'm going to have to get the red onions up and in the freezer before too long. They aren't very big, but I'm afraid they will freeze too hard also.
~Misty~
~Misty~
~Misty~
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