-
GwennyGreen
- Newly Registered
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:02 pm
Are this edible?
Hello. I'm new in here and in the gardening area. This are the first tomatoes (cherries) I've ever planted and everything was going well till the tomatoes started to grow, they have these little spots. From what I've looked up on the internet it appears to be either a fungal or a bacterial disease but I'm not sure which. So, tomato experts what's this? What should I do? Are they still edible?.Thanks everyone.
- Attachments
-
-
-
applestar
- Mod
- Posts: 30541
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
Ohh. These are the kind of damage that if I had plenty of good ones I might opt to not bother keeping just because cosmetically they don’t look good.
HOWEVER, I can understand especially in the beginning of harvest season wanting to not give up on finally ripe harvest.
Typically skin issues on tomatoes can be surface only or continue into the subsurface.
One way to manage spots like this is to peel by quickly dipping in boiling water. After washing and taking inside, get a sauce pan of water boiling, nick the skin with tip of sharp knife and toss them in. Have a slotted spoon ready and pull them out after 3 to 5 seconds (they need longer depending on ripeness and size — larger tomatoes need up to 20 seconds turning evenly.
Then plunge them in ice water. The skin will slip right off, just cut out the stem end.
If the spots are surface only, the fruits will be fine and you can eat them as is in salads or toast on pizza, put in omelette, accent pasta sauce, or if you have a lot of them, actually make sauce or juice.
The boiling water process will make any fungus or bacteria safer, although there are generally no health hazard to humans from tomato dresses.
These could be disease, but also keep your eyes open for stinkbugs. They suck on tomato and leave pinpoint spots like these, too. They are nuisance pests on many other garden crops.
HOWEVER, I can understand especially in the beginning of harvest season wanting to not give up on finally ripe harvest.
Typically skin issues on tomatoes can be surface only or continue into the subsurface.
One way to manage spots like this is to peel by quickly dipping in boiling water. After washing and taking inside, get a sauce pan of water boiling, nick the skin with tip of sharp knife and toss them in. Have a slotted spoon ready and pull them out after 3 to 5 seconds (they need longer depending on ripeness and size — larger tomatoes need up to 20 seconds turning evenly.
Then plunge them in ice water. The skin will slip right off, just cut out the stem end.
If the spots are surface only, the fruits will be fine and you can eat them as is in salads or toast on pizza, put in omelette, accent pasta sauce, or if you have a lot of them, actually make sauce or juice.
The boiling water process will make any fungus or bacteria safer, although there are generally no health hazard to humans from tomato dresses.
These could be disease, but also keep your eyes open for stinkbugs. They suck on tomato and leave pinpoint spots like these, too. They are nuisance pests on many other garden crops.