My 'maters are bursting...and not with goodness!

[huntsman]

We've just gone through an unusually week three weeks followed by normal rains and I noticed this on 20% of my plants:

The tomato would swell and the skin become translucent, but if you gently touched it (and often without a touch) it would burst with what looks like water. It's as if someone has filled them with a pink-tinged water as a joke, but the result is not funny...

All I'm left with is this pitiful collapsed bag of skin.

Anyone have this happen or can tell me more?

[dice]

Splits are normal (in some varieties) when they get too much
water. Some info:

http://www.agrisupportonline.com/Art...n_tomatoes.htm

Usually the inside of the tomato is not affected, though.
Underneath the cracked part, the tomato is completely
normal. You may have some insect larvae eating them
on the inside, or some insect carrying a bacterial disease
into the cracked fruits that causes the inside of the tomato
to decay.

[huntsman]

Thanks dice -

I'll check that link out, but boy (!) this is unpleasant....

To my untrained eye it does indeed look like bacteria has consumed all that was solid and all that is left is a sloppy skin.

Always appreciate your help though, my friend.

[geoff1]

Welcome to tomato growing in Gauteng boet. I assume you had a long Dry spell
and then rain. Just lost a promising giant pumpkin for the same reason. Commiserations

[Wi-sunflower]

I have seen that same kind of watery bag. It is definately some kind of disease but I don't know just what. The few times I have seen it, it wasn't widespread.

Carol

[huntsman]

Have you folk later got healthy fruit from these dodgy bushes? If so, it won't be too bad, but days are growing shorter now...

Hey Geoff - that Silvery Fir Tree has produced well for me and more than made up for the 'water bombs'...thanks!

I checked out that link, dice, but this is not cracking...the toms have no meat...only liquid which runs out when the fruit is touched...

[Wi-sunflower]

I really don't remember. Too many plants to keep that close an eye on every one.

Sorry I'm not more help,
Carol

[huntsman]

You're always a lot of help, Carol, so I think we can cut you some slack on this one!

I'll keep an eye on mine and post feedback...

Be a pity if I couldn't even make it to the end of my first Farmers' Market season!

[dice]

"Southern Blight" (a disease caused by a specific organism,
perhaps in this case a related local African organism rather
than the one people in the US and perhaps Mexico and Central
America see) would be a possibility, too, but you would be able
to see the symptoms on the stems:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/oldnotes/vg9.htm

The remedies suggested there are geared toward the large
scale farmer and are kind of harsh.

Here is a catalog of fruit diseases of tomatoes:
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...TomFrtKey.html

The picture may not help in this case, so you would need to
look at the descriptions to see which ones include extensive
fruit rot and then what other symptoms may indicate whether
that is indeed the particular disease affecting your plants.

So was that around 20% of the plants affected or 20% of the fruit
on a larger percentage of the plants?

[b54red]

I know it sounds crazy but after flooding rains for a prolonged period I like to wait til later in the afternoon and spray with a 6% solution of common Clorox bleach in water. It seems to remove a lot of the bacteria and molds that start forming after these heavy rains. It dissipates rather quickly and if you have any areas of the plant heavily diseased they usually dry up and turn brown within a few days after spraying. I usually have to do this a couple of times each year. Be careful in measuring so you keep the solution to no more than 7% bleach; anything stronger will usually damage healthy plant tissues. Do not spray during the heat of the day or you will also get damage to the healthy parts of the plants.
This is also very effective on squash and cucumbers when powdery or downy mildew first makes an appearance.
I make one exception to the strength of my concentration and that is when that black mold gets bad on the main tomato stem during an extended rainy period. Then I will use a 10% solution with a little soap in it and try not to get any on the new tender leaves and stems. I've only seen that happen a few times and I did a trial to see if it would work. I sprayed half my plant stems with the strong solution a couple of times when the rain let up for a while. The half I didn't spray all died and only one or two of the ones I sprayed died. I was so happy to find something that would kill back that black smut or mold that I started experimenting with using it for other diseases of the foliage. Needless to say I killed a few pretty nice plants with too strong of a solution while others died from the diseases when it was too weak. I settled on 6% as the minimum effective solution for tomatoes.
Try this at your own risk. It has definitely worked for me and it is cheap. I used to spend a fortune on chemical sprays that are probably not as safe and seem only to work in delaying the onset of a disease. The bleach treatment is for when all else has failed.

[Wi-sunflower]

I think your mention of flooding rains is a large part of it.

I'm not sure if it's exactly the same in tomatoes, but I know in some other fruits like apples, if there is a lot of rain around ripening time, the rain can sit in the "dimple" where the stem joins the fruit. The water will eventually seep into the fruit and can cause rotting.

I think it would depend on the outside of the fruit having some organism on the outside that the skin normally would protect the fruit from. But when it gets to the inside, it rots.

That might explain why something like bleach or peroxide would help. Also if you have the plants staked, if you can "shake" them so that the fruit moves and sheds that water, it might also help.

I don't KNOW that any of that will definatively help, but it can't hurt at this point.

Carol

[ddsack]

I know it sounds crazy but after flooding rains for a prolonged period I like to wait til later in the afternoon and spray with a 6% solution of common Clorox bleach in water. It seems to remove a lot of the bacteria and molds that start forming after these heavy rains.

...

This is also very effective on squash and cucumbers when powdery or downy mildew first makes an appearance.

Very interesting. It sounds like something I might try on my bush beans. I know I don't thin them like I should, and during some rainy cloudy times they'll develop the white fuzzy type mold on some hidden lower stems. It should be easy to spot spray problem areas under the leaves without getting the solution all over the top growth. Thanks for the tip!

[piegirl]

That has happened off and on in my yard. The tomato stays on the vine - the stem is still attached with just the skin left. Seems to happen rather quickly. I don't recall the weather conditions. Carol - I had some super giants last year with big dimples, the fruits had minor cracking, water collected and seeped inside spoiling the fruit - grrrrr. The toms were too big even do a little emptying. Piegirl

[huntsman]

Thank you very much for all of the interest. Much appreciated!

Dice, it was about 20% of the crop still in grow bags which was affected.

I didn't note any leaf yellowing as suggested by that first link, but I'll check properly.

The bleach idea seems pretty good and I'll try some this week. I must say, only the grow bags have been affected to any serious degree, so that might be a factor of some kind, though I have no clue as to what factor! LOL!

[dice]

I was just thinking that I would probably pull the whole plant
if it was 1 plant out of 5, garbage bag it, and send it to the
landfill to minimize any contamination of my garden.
(Alternately, one could just dig a 3' deep hole away from the
garden beds and bury them there.)