adamra1
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Location: Melbourne, Florida

What happened to these tomatoes?

All of my Better Boy tomatoes are turning ok like this. I am in central Florida. What do you think the problem is?
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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

They are not ripe. Is your soil sandy? What is the temperature there? Are you using fertilizer? Do you have irrigation for the plants? Are your plants in full sun all day or shade?

I have been to Melbourne, Florida many times. Sandy soil is usually good for roots but not much food value for plants and soil might be too dry. I recall sky has few clouds in summer, sun is hot, temperature cooler than inland do to the ocean cooling effects.

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applestar
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It looks to me like maybe some kind of sucking pests are bothering your plants. Maybe mites.

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rainbowgardener
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Concentric cracking in circles around the stem is usually caused by fluctuations in water levels, as when you get a big rain after a dry spell. To prevent it, try to keep their soil evenly moist. The other marks do look like the scars left behind by sucking pests. IME on tomatoes that is often stink bugs.

jasonvanorder
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Location: West Michigan zone 6a

rainbowgardener wrote:Concentric cracking in circles around the stem is usually caused by fluctuations in water levels, as when you get a big rain after a dry spell. To prevent it, try to keep their soil evenly moist. The other marks do look like the scars left behind by sucking pests. IME on tomatoes that is often stink bugs.

Thats what I was thinking with the cracks. I know parts of florida have been real dry and then got hit with some rain. I think I saw it explained here that tomatoes have like a check valve that allow water to flood in but not out. So if youve had a bad dry spell and then get a ton of rain or step up your irrigation the plant sucks up a ton of water and sends it to the fruit. The fruit takes all it can and once "full" cant push the extra back out so it ends up splitting.

imafan26
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It does look like concentric cracking. It is usually from uneven watering, and especially if you have a downpour that swells the fruit followed by a period of drying out that cause the fruit to contract.

If the cracks were radial, that is usually more related to the genetics of the variety where the fruit is actually growing faster than the skin can stretch.



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