GreenGirl62
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Holes in tomatoes, gray inside

A lot of our tomatoes this year got holes in them...when we cut the fruit open there was nasty gray slimy stuff. What is this, and how can we avoid it in the future? Thanks!
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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I associate the perfectly round 1/4 to 1/2 inch holes with tomato fruitworms aka corn earworms. They are caterpillars of the same moth and attack both corn and tomato, so have received both names. They make a hole in the tomato — usually while still green, and live inside, eventually emerging to drop down to the ground and pupate. The nastiness inside are frass/poop and rot.

Because the moth uses both crops to lay eggs and raise their young, it is best not to plant corn and tomatoes right next to each other, especially not touching because then the caterpillars can crawl from one crop to the other.

Sometimes you will find shallow scraped holes that have not penetrated inside, this would be a sign that the caterpillars are nearby (if early enough in the morning, even on the plant, crawling down to the ground to hide for the day), and that moths have arrived and have been laying eggs. (They do sell pheromone traps that help to indicate when the moths are arriving, but I’ve never used them). As soon as you see a hole, it’s best to pick and cut open/inspect the fruit. Any hole that is deeper than just the skin and wall will allow mold and other bugs like fruit flies, ants, slugs, pillbugs.sowbugs, earwigs, etc. to enter and spoil the fruit, so it’s best to pick inspect immediately, and salvage if possible, or discard if not. Don’t let it remain on the plant and be an incubator.

- Larger holes are sometimes made by climbing cutworms — they are sometimes found curled up in the round hole.

- If the holes are tinier, they could have been made by tomato pinworms — but they typically get in under the edge of stem-end calyx and burrow into the central pithy core of the tomato, eventually turning the entire inside core into frass-filled mess and causing the seed gel cavities to rot. Inspect all harvested fruits for the tiny holes and/or dark shadows inside the flesh. If the pinworms are inside, they may crawl out and burrow into other harvested tomatoes in the same storage area, causing more damage to your harvest.

These are both moth caterpillars as well.

GreenGirl62
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Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:51 am

Thanks, applestar, that is very helpful.



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