Are these tomatoes any good?

[yjacket]

My garden has 7 tomato plants, the 2 Brandywines are my concern. Many of them have BER (I think) and I don't know whether to cut them off or if they are just skin deep rotted.
Attached are some sample photos of the worst offenders, most are not bad. I hate to destroy some of them that are real big and look fine other than the blossom end. If it is holding up the progress of others that look better however ...

Thanks for any advice.

[Elayne]

Actually, I think your problem is called catwalling (?) caused by rapid growth. I've had many tomatoes with this, and the taste is fine--just cut off the ugly part.

[shelleybean]

None of your tomatoes in these photos have BER. Some have some catfacing, but that's no big deal. As Elayne said, just cut that part off. It's perfectly safe to eat the rest of the tomato. Enjoy!

[feldon30]

Looks like some good tomatoes to me with a little bit of catfacing. Catfacing can be caused by fruitset during cool evening temperatures. It reduces the amount of usuable flesh, but otherwise has no effect on flavor. Looks like you've got some great old fashioned tomatoes coming along there.

[ddsack]

Catfacing is perfectly normal and can be routinely expected among the larger size tomatoes for us growers in the north. These irregular light brown scabs are dry, hard and clean, just cut them away.

BER looks more like one big round sunken black soft mushy rotten spot. I rarely see it in my garden, but for me it's more likely to show up on paste type tomatoes (which I don't grow many of.)

[feldon30]

Cut them away AFTER you pick the fruit by the way.

Also, if the fruit is about halfway ripe (pinkish blush) and if heavy rains or lots of bugs are present, you may want to pick the fruit early and bring it indoors to protect it from rain splitting and bug damage. It will ripen just fine indoors (no need for paper bag or a banana, just sit it on the counter). Picking early may not be as big a deal in Connecticut but it's a necessity here. And it really does not affect the flavor that much and I am *picky* about tomato flavor.

[yjacket]

Thanks everyone for explaining the catfacing. There was one cool night when they began to set in mid July, maybe that did it. They all set in a short period of time and grew rapidly, which may have contributed. It is good to know that the big ones are going to make it to my kitchen. I'll cut the ugly out (when it is picked and ready to eat). I would like to save some seeds from this plant, but I suppose the early catfaced ones are not a good choice? Even if they end up to be the biggest ones?

[Rena]

Uhhh if the ugly is eatable then eat it!

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by yjacket

I would like to save some seeds from this plant, but I suppose the early catfaced ones are not a good choice?

No reason you can't save seeds from catfaced but otherwise healthy tomatoes.

[korney19]

I think only the last pic is really catfacing... the other 3 pics just have large blossom scars. Did you pull the dead flower remains off after they were pollinated? This often happens as a result and the style/stigma gets broken, then as they grow bigger, so does the scar.

All are perfectly fine to eat.

[shelleybean]

I agree. I only see catfacing on the last one. The blossom scars often appear as a line on larger fruited varieties. Completely normal.

[yjacket]

In fact, I did pick the dead flower off, read somewhere that
it was OK to do that. I now know not to do that next year, thanks for recognizing this.

[kurtamundo]

I wish my Brandywines looked that good.

Kurt