Discolored tomatoes

[Groundhog]

I've grown Mule Team for several years now but have never had this problem with them. They have always been a nice solid red color.

[HudsonValley]

Looks like cloudy spot, which is caused by stink bugs, to me. I've had the same problem, but usually late in the season when stink bug numbers explode in these parts.



Here's a link to a page on tomato fruit problems from the Missouri Botanical Garden; I've found it useful: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.o...-problems.aspx

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

I've grown Mule Team for several years now but have never had this problem with them. They have always been a nice solid red color.

Yes,they should be a nice red color,the original seeds came to me from Joe Bratka in NJ along with several others he developed such as Box Car Willie, Great Divide, Red Barn and Pasture.

And I agree with Hudson Valley that they are definitely stinkbug bites. The stinkbug bite injects a toxin,so if you scrape away the top part you'll see some hard white stuff,tissue that has been destroyed by stinkbug bites.

If you see just a few bite areas,just cut them out,since it's mainly a cosmetic problem and the fruit itself is Ok to eat,or whatever you use them for.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

(Yes,they should be a nice red color,the original seeds came to me from Joe Bratka in NJ along with several others he developed such as Box Car Willie, Great Divide, Red Barn and Pasture.)


I made a Big mistake in the above quote.

Joe didn't develop any of those, his father did,what Joe bred was quite different and I'll try to find the threads about that.

The Bratka family immigrated from the Black Forest area of Germany,and yes,they did bring seeds for some family heirlooms from there,such as Eva Purple Ball.

But there's still another thread that I'll try to find which was when his niece,I didn't even know he had a niece,posted here and said she was trying to find seeds that her UncleJoe had bred as well as her Bratka grandfather.

There was a tool shed on the property,at that time Joe was living alone in the house his parents had bought. One day he went to the tool shed and found glass jars already lableled by his Father and what he had bred.He tried to germinate them and didn't have good luck,so asked if he could send them to me to see if I could do better.

I was able to germinate all of them except one named Meadow. I grew out the plants, saved seed and sent them back to him and with his permission also offered them in my seed offers back then.

And many who got their seeds from my seed offers and shared them with others and If it were possible to open Tania's database, you could see how many places are still offering seeds for most of them every year.

Carolyn