A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum The Tomato Forum cracks in tomatoes

what causes cracks in tomatoes as they ripen. they are ripe but all seem to have cracks in them.

Ciao slrt-

Where are you located? Usually lots of rain or watering causes cracks. The fruit fill with water until the skins can't expand anymore, and then they crack. Cherries (both the tree fruit and the small tomatoes) crack easily.

I am located in south west texas. very dry here. not much rain at all. all watering is done from water hose. is there a fix. do I cut back on the watering. do you think I might have watered less at first and then increased or just watered too much from the start.

irregular watering is one of the culprits for sure. and if you watered then it rained, there you go!

thanks very much. i will pass this info along to my husband and see if we can fix the problem.

the ones that are already cracked aren't "fixable" although the cracks may heal over. but you can prevent future cracks by being really careful with the water.

Yup, too much water would be most likely. I hate it when we get 3 inches of rain just as my tomatoes are ripening, or if I forget and leave the water going too long.

Interesting I have a few that have cracks with the plants located in a green house. I know heat can cause cracking, but not all of them are cracked only a few, so it was not from too much water (in my case anyway).

I use compost tea and pour it into the soil near base then in morning when I have time I mist UNDER the leaves with a nutrient mix of water and food.

I have cherry tomatoes over 8 feet tall and not 1 single crack on any of them. The temp has reached 99/F and higher inside the green house. What I do is water them in the morning soak the roots well knowing that this huge plant will use most of that water for that day.

Some varieties are more susceptable to cracks than others. Some of the larger heirloom types never look perfect and some cherries crack a lot. Then some of the normal hybrids hardly crack at all.

As Sorellina stated, rainfall after dry spell will cause tomato fruits to have large cracks usually in concentric circles around the stem. Remove ripe fruit immediately after a rain to prevent cracking.

See also Jeffw's post. Large cracks radiating from the stem may appear during periods of high temperatures above 90*F and high sunlight. Keep the soil moist. Try to water early in the morning to allow the tomato plants to drink/stock up water before high temperature hits. I have tomatoes in containers, sometimes, I have to water twice a day when the temp is at or over 90*F.

Cracking is the splitting of the epidermis around the calyx or stem scar.Tomatoes tend to crack when they receive irregular water.Tomatoes that crack are still edible.
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Krissy Harris

JeffwI grow greenhouse tomatoes too and just a few crack on me. I have a even watering system going in my greenhouse and so far so good. Did have a bit of a problem with blossom end rot, but adding calcium to the soil helps with this too.

Some varieties of tomatoes crack more then others.