Splitting or Catfacing? How to avoid?

[luigiwu]

I've googled but I can't seem to differentiate the meaning of catfacing versus splitting...

ANYWAYS, the "splitting" at the stem (at the top) happened at lot last year for me and it looks like its starting to happen again this year? Any ideas how to avoid it? I think I've read it happens with there is too much moisture (rain?) or too hot or too much nutrients?

This is a Prudens Purple below. My first "big" tomato this year!

[shelleybean]

I get some cat facing on fruit that is pollinated early in the season, when it's still pretty cool outside. Once the weather warms up, it goes away on its own. As for splitting, I agree it's just too much water at once. Not much you can do about rain except when you know it's coming, go out and pick whatever has blushed to keep it from splitting and don't water again until it dries out. I have raised beds and water through the irrigation that waters my entire property. When we have heavy rains, I just turn the system off until the weather clears. Beautiful tomato there, by the way.

[carolyn137]

There are three kinds of splitting.

Concentric splits at the stem end and those are very common for many OP vareities, and is genetic. THey usually heal over just fine, but if there's lots of rain, those splits can reopen and be infected by just normal microbes in the air,

Radial splitting is also seen at the stem end and everything I said above about concentric splitting is the same.

Horizontal splitting refers to splits anywhere's else on a fruit and is usually due to too much moisture, rain or irrigation, when the cell wall of the fruit is at maximum size and taking up the additional moisture results in splits. Nothing you can do about it and it can affect any variety anywhere.

You can find pictures of all of the above if you use Google IMAGES.

Catfacing is totally different and affects blossoms. When it's too cool for normal pollination or the blossoms have been slightly damaged by cultivating too closely, or similar, then abnormal fruits often appear.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...58.TLhc45CjkyE

Above is a Google IMAGES link showing catfaced fruits.

If you do a search here at Tville, or even a general Google search you'll see similar pictures and with the general Google search explanations.

Here, I did it for you:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=tomato+catfacing

And catfacing is usually seen with large fruited varieties where Spring temps are not conducive to pollination. Dr. Jim Baggett at Oregon Ste U has bred several varieties that are parthenocarpic, such as OregonSpring and friends, since they can set fruits in the absence of pollination. But there can be problems with parthenocarpic varieties since fruit development is abnormal so they can be sometimes misshshapen and the flesh mealy, but the somewhat good news is that the early fruits have few to no mature seeds.Not good for seed savers, though.

Carolyn

[Father'sDaughter]

If you do a search for any of the annual Ugly Tomato Contest threads on here, you can see some amazing examples of catfacing!

In my garden, it is rare for me to pick an Orange Minsk tomato which isn't cat faced on the bottom. It's the only variety I grow which seems destined to have the distorted blossom end.

The other varieties sometimes have concentric splits near the stem end or longitudinal splits from the stem end to the blossom end. These splits occur if I allow the tomatoes to become fully ripe on the vine.

I normally pick all pink tomatoes if I know a heavy rain storm is probable. If I don't pick them, I can almost guarantee they will be split within hours after the rain.

Ted

[joseph]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

I've googled but I can't seem to differentiate the meaning of catfacing versus splitting...

ANYWAYS, the "splitting" at the stem (at the top) happened at lot last year for me and it looks like its starting to happen again this year? Any ideas how to avoid it?

Grow different varieties next year which are less susceptible...

I realize that some people may get tired of me saying that if you don't like how a variety is growing in your garden then change varieties. But it is the easiest and least expensive way I have found to avoid problems in the future.

I used to grow a variety of cherry tomato that was terribly afflicted by the "horizontal splitting" that Carolyn137 mentioned. I stopped growing that variety of cherry tomato. Problem solved.

I grow a few plants each year of a variety with "radial splitting". Splitting at the stem is so common in the variety that it is used as an identifying characteristic at the local farmstands. A couple decades ago I named that variety my "standard tomato". It is a determinate tomato that I grow as a control, so that I can have a consistent tomato year after year by which to judge the growth and productivity of the other tomatoes. These days I consider it old-fashioned and obsolete compared to the earlier and more productive varieties that I am currently growing, but I still plant it for the nostalgia and because standards are standards.

In my garden, tomato plants that produce catfaced fruits are not allowed to produce seed for next year's crop.

"In my garden, tomato plants that produce catfaced fruits are not allowed to produce seed for next year's crop."

I've tried Orange Minsk seed from different sources believing one wouldn't have the tendency towards cat facing. So far, all of my attempts have resulted in cat faced tomatoes. Since I have no plans to enter them in any tomato beauty contests and they taste great, I will continue growing them. I really don't mind carving them for dinner instead of slicing them.

I believe if I planted them out when the weather averages are slightly warmer, I probably wouldn't have cat faced Orange Minsk tomatoes. Most of my tomato blooms are set when the average night time temps are in the low to mid forties F.

Ted

[joseph]

I don't mind using catfaced tomatoes in sauces. They work as well as any other tomato when being quartered, boiled, and pureed. They don't sell well at the farmer's market though. At home I'll eat any kind of tomato. I usually end up eating seconds or thirds because the best get saved for seed, the seconds go to the farmer's market, and I get the left overs.

[Cole_Robbie]

Carolyn, I thought I remembered you saying that cat facing was genetic? Some varieties get it worse than others, like yellow brandywine for example.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Carolyn, I thought I remembered you saying that cat facing was genetic? Some varieties get it worse than others, like yellow brandywine for example.

I don't remember ever saying that catfacing is genetic, but I have said that it primarily affects large fruited varieties. And if one looks at the catfacing links via Google,quite a few say the same thing,so nothing new that I came up with.

Carolyn

[b54red]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

I've googled but I can't seem to differentiate the meaning of catfacing versus splitting...

ANYWAYS, the "splitting" at the stem (at the top) happened at lot last year for me and it looks like its starting to happen again this year? Any ideas how to avoid it? I think I've read it happens with there is too much moisture (rain?) or too hot or too much nutrients?

This is a Prudens Purple below. My first "big" tomato this year!

If you lived down here where the sun is intense and humidity and rainfall changes drastically from week to week you would love seeing tomatoes with so few flaws. Ones like the one in your picture are the exception most of the year down here.

Bill

[luigiwu]

So what category of "splitting" would you guys put my Prudens?
Bill, I am grateful to grow anything but so far the weather up here in NYC has been fairly mild with a few hot days. I guess I need to keep a better eye on when this happens to perhaps avoid it. I have a suspicion it might be related to the last time we had rain 3 days in a row... I use sub-irrigated containers so I should have cut off the supply when it rains that much! Its just such a pity to have to cut so much of it away!

I grew only 3 types last year (Mortgage Lifter, Yellow Jubliee and a 3rd I can't remember) and they all suffered from the same splitting in the middle...

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

So what category of "splitting" would you guys put my Prudens?
Bill, I am grateful to grow anything but so far the weather up here in NYC has been fairly mild with a few hot days. I guess I need to keep a better eye on when this happens to perhaps avoid it. I have a suspicion it might be related to the last time we had rain 3 days in a row... I use sub-irrigated containers so I should have cut off the supply when it rains that much! Its just such a pity to have to cut so much of it away!

I grew only 3 types last year (Mortgage Lifter, Yellow Jubliee and a 3rd I can't remember) and they all suffered from the same splitting in the middle...

I went back and looked at your picture of PP and not radial and not concentric,probably just a bit of horizonal splitting due to expansion of the fruits when they were at maximum size and the rains came, or overwatering.

Carolyn

[ddsack]

So what category of "splitting" would you guys put my Prudens?

Luigi, to me - that is a beautiful tomato, and I would consider that very minor splitting, not at all unusual in an heirloom and it doesn't bother me a bit. Heirlooms generally have much thinner skins than the average hybrid, and so more prone to some splitting when near ripe. I don't see much waste in that fruit, you don't have to cut straight across where the split ends. I would peel upwards from the split and use the interior flesh under it.