Tomato size and splitting?

[sooby77]

Hi all,

I have a couple of question about tomato sizes and splitting. I had to pick my very first Better Boy because it had started splitting. I have been watering them regularly, every other day for 1hr via my soaker hose system. It's been very hot and will be almost 100F next week. It hasn't rain within the last week or so. Why is it splitting? Is it still edible once fully ripe?




The cherry next to it is relatively 'beefy' Red Husky Cherry. Weird sized tomatoes I am getting...


The other thing is, some of my Celebrity tomatoes doesn't seem to be adequate size yet, but have started to ripe. It this normal? Thanks for your expertise.




Soo
North Raleigh, NC

[domoarimato]

In my experience, Splitting is kind of a stress induced phenomenon. That is to say not entirely water related. Sometimes when the plants are growing to fast (i.e. too much nitrogen based fertilizer or certain environmental conditions) the fruit seems to struggle to keep up with the vegetative growth and starts to split to compensate. On the other hand, Most would argue that one hour increments of water daily, though very regular is not the way to go. A lot of people suggest deep watering (four or five hours every two to three days in your heat) is preferable to an hour a day.You might try switching up your watering schedule to something more like this, and see if that doesn't fix things. Don't worry if the plants look a little wilty between waterings. This is normal, and perhaps even desirable in tomato plants, as the roots like to struggle a bit and have to look for water.

As for Celebrity... That looks like a fairly normal sized specimen to me. These only grow to about the size of a tennis ball before they ripen. It is nowhere near the size of say Big Boy, or even Whopper when it is ripe. Think the name "Celebrity" is more derived from reliability, than magnitude. Your Better Boy, and Husky Red Cherry also look very relatively proportionate to me. Husky Red Cherry is a rugose foliaged larger than average (read golf ball) sized cherry, and Better Boy is about the size of a baseball, so no prob, ther! Hope this helps. Happy Gardening 2007-B-ri

[sooby77]

Thanks for the good information. I'm watering them an hour every other day nowadays and I shall increase them to 2hr (and perhaps more) to see if that's better. I guess I'm trying to conserve water since we are in mandatory water restriction here. I'm also trying to save water $$ too. But I'm sure my daily shower and dishwasher uses up more water than water the soaker hose could dose out in 2-3hrs.

[nctomatoman]

Cracking in large fruited tomatoes is not unusual - especially older types. Often the crack heals over a bit - but when the tomato is very ripe, it seems as though decay begins at the crack area. We just cut that part away (the love of the flavor of heirlooms makes one very tolerant with the various imperfections!). I picked 4 pretty ugly 1 pound minimum fruit today (picture is in the R&D, Sneezy F3 thread) - but can't wait to slice and eat them!

[Ruth_10]

Originally Posted by sooby77

Thanks for the good information. I'm watering them an hour every other day nowadays and I shall increase them to 2hr (and perhaps more) to see if that's better. I guess I'm trying to conserve water since we are in mandatory water restriction here. I'm also trying to save water $$ too. But I'm sure my daily shower and dishwasher uses up more water than water the soaker hose could dose out in 2-3hrs.

I think 2-3 hours every other day might be overkill, even in your heat. A deep soaking once a week ought to be sufficient. Some mulch around the plant will help conserve moisture. In my experience, too much water is worse than too little.

[sooby77]

I guess that I should pick those that have cracks as soon as they started to show a good blush so that they ripe inside. Otherwise, they might start to rot at the cracks.

I guess this has been asked numerous times before, but is there flavor difference between those ripen inside vs. those allowed to fully ripen on the plant?

[feldon30]

The first few tomatoes will sometimes either be larger than normal or smaller than normal. If the fruit sets in cool temperatures, it's easy to get double and triple blossoms. My first Kimberly was a double which looked like two fused golf balls.

Your Husky Red Cherry looks normal to me. It's not perfectly round but has some ribbing at the top as if it were a miniaturized market tomato.


And there are many things that can rob tomatoes of flavor:
- Picking them green and gassing them with ethylene
- Refrigerating them
- Shipping them 2,000 miles
- Growing tasteless hybrid varieties to begin with

But picking a tomato when it is substantially colored up (blushed) and then finishing the ripening indoors has not in my experience significantly reduced the flavor. And because of insect damage and rain-induced splitting, leaving fruit to ripen is simply not an option for me. I pick all fruit when it is showing a good color (say, halfway ripe) and set it on the window sill.

I had to bite my tongue when I spoke to a friend a few days after providing them with some dead ripe fantastic tomatoes from Suze. They told me they had not yet eaten them and that they'd placed them in the refrigerator. I politely indicated that refrigerating tomatoes takes away most of the flavor.

[BigdaddyJ]

feldon,

Why a window sill? Is there an advantage to letting fruit ripen in a sunny window rather than say a kitchen table out of direct sunlight? When I pick a day or two early and let ripen on a non sunny table they ripen just fine. I'm thinking a sunny window sill may cause drying out faster?

PS I have no idea how my type just changed from normal to italics??? LOL

[sooby77]

Could it be just tradition/habit? You know, it's wonderful to see tomatoes on window sill...

I just have a thought about what Feldon said about flavor and refrigerating tomatoes. All supermarket stores are air conditioned, and I'm sure shipping containers are also chilled quite well for the cross-country trip. I wonder if those conditions are cold enough to change the flavor of the fruit?

I had my first Better Boy yesterday. It was OK, nothing to scream about, but then this is my first year growing any tomatoes and I didn't know better. I shall be growing different varieties next year for sure!

[PeteD]

For what it is worth, I don't think you needed to pick that split tomato in the original post. It looks like it healed up pretty well. Only when they are almost ripe (within a day or so), split because of rain, and when I can see juice in the split, do I pick them. The vast majority of splits (in my experience) will heal.

Some varieties will have splits on every tomato...especially Better Boy for me last year.

Pete

[feldon30]

Depends how hot and humid it is. The split can attract gnats and flies and the fruit certainly won't recover. I would always pick a fruit that looks like that and bring it inside and let it rest anywhere (windowsill or kitchen table) .

[PeteD]

I won't deny that heat and humidity could play a role. I have not run into a problem with spoiling splits up here in the cooler northeast.

The tomato in the photo has sealed itself and looks to be a few days from ripe so I would have left it. But, personal experience for one's region is always the best way to decide what to do in the future. I admit that I am kind of a freak about picking ripe and not before...I can see how that may not work in Texas or other southern climes.

[Ruth_10]

My experience fits pretty much with PeteD's--I think if you can see that the crack has healed over, as has the one in the photo, then you can let it stay on the vine a bit longer. You'll find what works best for you, in your area.

Unripe tomatoes don't have to go on the window sill in the sun to ripen--out of the sun might actually be better--you don't want to refrigerate the tomato, but you don't want to cook it, either. Whatever you do, enjoy them!

[sooby77]

I love to quarter my tomatoes and eat them just like that and the other day, I sliced one open and saw something that was totally gross. It was as if a worm is trying to nest in there. I had to throw it away. It was a smaller celebrity tomato and I wonder whether the worm's incursion into the fruit has something to do with the size.

Anyway, from now onwards, I am slicing my horizontally first, and then quarter them. That way, I can be somewhat sure that there's no nasties when I bite into one!

[the999bbq]

wow, those watering regimes... how much water would that be through the soaker pipes for that many hours ? Rainwater I hope ;-). I have splits in my greenhouse as well and I only deep water once a week about 1-2 liter per plant (upside down water bottle 'technique') - I don't think that is excessive watering so watering alone will probably not be the only reason that causes splitting. Or is this amount too much to give at once (stress?). Leaving them sometimes works for me too, with moderate cracks that seem to have healed ok. Sometimes the splits go ugly deep and practically ruin the fruit so I'm going with the way some (like feldon) suggest : pick fruit whenever you see defects. It gives the other fruits a better chance and I learned many new things to do with green tomatoes apart from letting them mature indoors (fried green tomatoes, verrine, relish, confiture/jelly/...) so it feels less like waisting a tomato...