cas0502
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Cracking Tomatoes

I grow a roma type tomato for soups and sauces. A lot of them have cracks in the top. Are the cracks from over watering or something else? When I cut into them they look fine, bright red and juicy. I had been running my sprinkler every couple of days because it was so hot earlier in July but we are having a cooler, rainy spell now and I'm trying to decide if I need to cut back on watering.

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stella1751
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Uneven watering. That's my cross to bear. I get cracking almost every year because I try to conserve on water. I water mine every other day. I almost made it through this season without cracking, but today I saw one splitting :evil:

cas0502
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Ah, thank you. I guess I will have to pay more attention to how much it rained and adjust my watering accordingly.

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gixxerific
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it happens to everyone at one time or another if not every year in differing degrees. My tom's went into a state of hibernation during a heat wave only to come back ever so slightly. Than the drought stopped and tons of rain fell guess wha,t even with my my careful irrigation practices I have cracking starting again. :(

Decado
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It's probably just that you've been getting rain that's causing it. I've been kind of screwed over the past couple weeks because all spring and summer we've been in a drought (I watered very regularly) but now every weekend it seems we get 2-5 inch downpours then everything for the rest of the week is split open :evil:.

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rainbowgardener
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As noted it's not the over-watering, it's uneven watering. If the tomatoes dry out, the skin hardens up. Then if they get a bunch of water, they swell up faster than the skin can stretch and crack.

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applestar
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Annoying as they are, at least if your diligent about checking every day, you can harvest them before the bugs get to them. The cracked ones turn into every day meals and the perfect ones are being preserved.

Decado
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rainbowgardener wrote:As noted it's not the over-watering, it's uneven watering. If the tomatoes dry out, the skin hardens up. Then if they get a bunch of water, they swell up faster than the skin can stretch and crack.
Actually, the splitting of my tomatoes isn't from uneven watering just overwatering. Even if you make sure to keep your garden wet 2-5 inches of rain in a weekend will split your tomatoes, at least for mine it did.

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gixxerific
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Decado wrote:
rainbowgardener wrote:As noted it's not the over-watering, it's uneven watering. If the tomatoes dry out, the skin hardens up. Then if they get a bunch of water, they swell up faster than the skin can stretch and crack.
Actually, the splitting of my tomatoes isn't from uneven watering just overwatering. Even if you make sure to keep your garden wet 2-5 inches of rain in a weekend will split your tomatoes, at least for mine it did.
In a sense that is uneven watering I would assume. I have been watering regulary every day (when needed basically every day). But like you we had about 3+ inches in 2 day period. I haven't watered in about 3 day's and the ground is still soaked deep.

taylor910
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So I water my toms every day, sometimes split into two times per day. Too much? Its close to 100degrees here now.

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gixxerific
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The key is CONSISTENT moisture. Though hard to control at times. It needs to be consistent. If they go a bit dry and get way wet that is when the problem shows up.

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stella1751
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Reading all your comments, I am glad to be in Wyoming, where it rarely rains. At least I know when it happens that it is my fault :lol:

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jal_ut
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Perhaps the cracks are due to water variations, but I can tell you that some varieties are certainly more suscepatble to cracking than other varieties.

Same goes for green shoulders. Some varieties are just prone to do that and other varieties not so much. I suggest you plant several varieties and watch to see which ones do best in your climate. After a few seasons you will find some favorites.



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