Big splotches on fruit

cecilsgarden1958 · August 26, 2017

What is causing my tomatoes not to ripen uniformly? I have many like this one on the pic below. Mostly red, but then a big irregular green area, mostly on the bottom sides.

RayR · August 26, 2017

It's called blotchy or uneven ripening. It's a physiological ripening disorder that may be caused by low potassium levels or sometimes high temperatures they say.

cecilsgarden1958 · August 26, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by RayR

It's called blotchy or uneven ripening. It's a physiological ripening disorder that may be caused by low potassium levels or sometimes high temperatures they say.

Will it help to fertilize now?

cecilsgarden1958 · August 26, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by RayR

It's called blotchy or uneven ripening. It's a physiological ripening disorder that may be caused by low potassium levels or sometimes high temperatures they say.

Thanks!!!

**carolyn137** · August 26, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by cecilsgarden1958

Will it help to fertilize now?

NO it won't and I'm answering here also about your second thread asking if you can eat it.

I had some time this AM to fetch some links for you and I too have had blotchy ripening problems on my tomatoes,but not commonly.

First,how many plants did you have out and how many had all fruits ,or some,that had this condition?

It's a condition that is not well understood at all and seems to share genes with what is called grey wall.

here are pictures of affected fruits

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...79.0iEPX5iViU4

here is the google search for links

https://www.google.com/search?q=blot...&bih=826&dpr=1

here is one of those links, from MA closest to you but you can go to the lnks here at Tville in this Forum and pull up the Cornell one which is very close to where you are in PA

https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/fact-...otchy-ripening

And based on the above links I would not use more fertilizer and no,I wouldn't eat them either, they aren't poisonous but the affected areas are hard and woodylike.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

cecilsgarden1958 · August 28, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolyn137

..................First,how many plants did you have out and how many had all fruits ,or some,that had this condition?......................Carolyn

Carolyn: I had 15 plants. Below is the whole list for reference. The one's I marked with an * were affected. Not all fruits were affected but a lot of them were.

1 Black Cherry (Bonnie Plant-Lowe's)

1 Big Beef (Bonnie Plant-Lowe's) *

1 Big Beef, Grafted (The Tomato Wagon, Martinsburg, PA) *

2 Big Daddy (From seed, source Burpee) (Hit hard) *

1 Ruby Monster (From seed, source Gurney's) *

1 Better Boy (Mail Order plant, Burpee) *

1 Orange Wellington (Mail Order plant, Burpee)

1 Chef's Choice Pink (Mail Order plant, Burpee)

1 Carolina Gold (Local Roadside Merchant)

1 Lemon Boy (Bonnie Plant-Walmart) *

1 German Queen (Bonnie Plant-Walmart)

2 Fourth of July (Hirt's Mail Order Plants) (Hit Hard) *

1 Golden Jubliee (Bonnie Plant-Lowes)

RayR · August 28, 2017

I've never personally experienced Blotchy Ripening but with almost half your plants affected I would think you have to look at the big picture to get some clues. Are the affected plants in containers or in ground? Fertilization program? Weather conditions during fruit development?

cecilsgarden1958 · August 28, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by RayR

I've never personally experienced Blotchy Ripening but with almost half your plants affected I would think you have to look at the big picture to get some clues. Are the affected plants in containers or in ground? Fertilization program? Weather conditions during fruit development?

Well! We had a period of hot, humid weather just as they were blooming. They were all planted in bags of potting soil called "Just Natural ", which I have never used before. Also, I used a new organic spray made from sesame seeds, fish oil and potassium phosphate.
Fertilized with either Bonnie organic liquid or liquid miracle grow, every 2 weeks.
Watered 2x week. Also, early on I had them wrapped with plastic for maybe a week or two.

cecilsgarden1958 · August 28, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by carolyn137

.........
And based on the above links I would not use more fertilizer and no,I wouldn't eat them either, they aren't poisonous but the affected areas are hard and woodylike.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

I wonder how they would fry?

**carolyn137** · August 28, 2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by cecilsgarden1958

I wonder how they would fry?

Only one way to find out.

Carolyn

GrowingCoastal · August 28, 2017

When I looked at my plants earlier this summer I thought I saw the brown ring that indicates a shortage of boron and some plants showed a deficiency of iron. I think I may be guilty of too much nitrogen in the soil mix to start with and the mix is too rich early in the season. As well, I wonder if the ph might be off but hard to say with containers.

I think this concise note applies to me.
https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/fact-...otchy-ripening

AKmark · August 28, 2017

I have had that on a large scale, it is a bad deal too. Sadly, I have found that almost every fruit that has set during the K deficiency is affected. I lost almost a ton of fruit to it several years back before I realized I had an issue. I had ran out of fertilizer and substituted with some cheap stuff, that was a bad idea. I grow most of my tomatoes in containers.

zipcode · August 29, 2017

How was the taste? K deficient fruit should be kinda meh tasting. I have personally never seen this and have grown in some really poor soil before.
But as AKmark said, the nutrition for the whole fruit life is important (so like at least 1 month) to the final result, like taste etc.
Does the pH seem ok? Any signs of iron or manganese deficiency (yellowish or mottled new growth) which would indicate high pH? I have seen much increased green or yellow shoulders with the definite cause being high pH.

oakley · August 29, 2017

How is the slice, the interior? I have had a bit of that look in some early fruit but I think
I have had a few different issues this year but clearly not 'blotchy'.
(if blotchy has hard inedible interior areas)

I ended up picking quite a haul of green fruit that looked like 'ripening stress',
aka 'NEast crud' as so many of us have had.
I ended up cutting off some speck and corky areas, not BER. Used the fruit in a Frittata
Sunday. You can see in this pic, an AmanaOrange half-ripe, with one side completely
solid interior. It was surprisingly tasty and juicy fresh but I had committed to cooking.

zipcode · August 30, 2017

It's not very clear what the problem is in that picture. Sometimes a tomato has like one side growing slower and remaining green when the other is ripe. Is that it? Not sure what triggers this, probably something to do with pollination but some varieties are quite susceptible to this (Azoychka for example does for me often).

August 26, 2017	#2
RayR Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Cheektowaga, NY Posts: 2,466	It's called blotchy or uneven ripening. It's a physiological ripening disorder that may be caused by low potassium levels or sometimes high temperatures they say.

August 28, 2017	#7
RayR Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Cheektowaga, NY Posts: 2,466	I've never personally experienced Blotchy Ripening but with almost half your plants affected I would think you have to look at the big picture to get some clues. Are the affected plants in containers or in ground? Fertilization program? Weather conditions during fruit development?

August 28, 2017	#11
GrowingCoastal Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Vancouver Island Canada BC Posts: 1,253	When I looked at my plants earlier this summer I thought I saw the brown ring that indicates a shortage of boron and some plants showed a deficiency of iron. I think I may be guilty of too much nitrogen in the soil mix to start with and the mix is too rich early in the season. As well, I wonder if the ph might be off but hard to say with containers. I think this concise note applies to me. https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/fact-...otchy-ripening

August 28, 2017	#12
AKmark Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Wasilla Alaska Posts: 2,010	I have had that on a large scale, it is a bad deal too. Sadly, I have found that almost every fruit that has set during the K deficiency is affected. I lost almost a ton of fruit to it several years back before I realized I had an issue. I had ran out of fertilizer and substituted with some cheap stuff, that was a bad idea. I grow most of my tomatoes in containers.

August 29, 2017	#13
zipcode Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Romania/Germany , z 4-6 Posts: 1,582	How was the taste? K deficient fruit should be kinda meh tasting. I have personally never seen this and have grown in some really poor soil before. But as AKmark said, the nutrition for the whole fruit life is important (so like at least 1 month) to the final result, like taste etc. Does the pH seem ok? Any signs of iron or manganese deficiency (yellowish or mottled new growth) which would indicate high pH? I have seen much increased green or yellow shoulders with the definite cause being high pH.

August 30, 2017	#15
zipcode Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Romania/Germany , z 4-6 Posts: 1,582	It's not very clear what the problem is in that picture. Sometimes a tomato has like one side growing slower and remaining green when the other is ripe. Is that it? Not sure what triggers this, probably something to do with pollination but some varieties are quite susceptible to this (Azoychka for example does for me often).