What causes this?

[kath]

For someone who admires a "pretty tomato" it's disheartening to see some favorite varieties afflicted with this yuckiness. I've looked up disorders of tomatoes and the only article that seemed to describe this dry brown corky phenomenon only gave a description and not a photo but it was discussing effects of boron deficiency. When I looked that up, I didn't see any pics that showed what I'm seeing.

Is it something that affects some varieties more than others? So far, I'm seeing it in only some of the fruit on a plant and not on all plants. It is affecting some varieties that I've grown before and yet this is the first time I'm seeing it. The blossom ends of most are just fine and when I cut out the rather large cores, the rest of the tomato is fine. Maybe it's just one more thing caused by our hot, dry weather along with BER, pointy non-pointy tomatoes, etc.? Is there anything I can do to stop/prevent it?

The first photo shows clockwise starting at the top: Copper River, Chocolate Beefsteak, Grandma Viney's Yellow and Pink, Granny's Heart, Monomahk's Hat and Indian Stripe x possibly Daniels in the center- just some of the varieties that are showing this. The second a close-up.

Not trying to make a big deal out of nothing, just wondering if this is preventable, I guess.

Thanks, Tomatovillians!

kath

[Randall]

That happens to my tomatoes here and there also, Kathy. I've seen a lot of varieties do that and just considered it stem end scarring. It's a pretty common thing in my mind. I'm not sure it's preventable but maybe someone who knows more will chime in.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Randall

That happens to my tomatoes here and there also, Kathy. I've seen a lot of varieties do that and just considered it stem end scarring. It's a pretty common thing in my mind. I'm not sure it's preventable but maybe someone who knows more will chime in.

Agree with Randall, but I'd say an extension of the blossom scar , size-wise. I've seen it many times over the years but don't know what causes that blossom scar to get bigger. It's not what I'd call corky, but not a problem for me since I slice off the very top part of any fruits I'm using if eating them fresh.

And when saving seeds I attack a fruit in a ruthless fashion and using both hands split it apart and squeeze out the contents, running my fingers around the inside so that I know all the seeds are detached from the locule walls, etc. So no problem with the blossom scar, big or little, b'c that part goes into the bucket with the rest of the exterior parts of the fruit.

[kath]

Thanks, Randall- you're probably right. I guess I'm just seeing some of the most extreme examples of it this year.

kath

[kath]

Our posts crossed, Carolyn. Thanks for your take on it- the examples are all on the stem end, not the blossom end, though. Most of the blossom ends are without scars.

kath

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by kath

Our posts crossed, Carolyn. Thanks for your take on it- the examples are all on the stem end, not the blossom end, though. Most of the blossom ends are without scars.

kath

Color me stupid, for I meant to say stem end and yes, I have my reading glasses on and can tell the stem end from the blossom end.

Same description above as my seeing it a lot and not knowing why it can be bigger /smaller and what causes it other than that there are two kinds of symptoms that can be seen at the stem end, specifically radial and concentric splitting, so I don't know if it's tied up with those in perhaps a milder form, or not.

[lakelady]

Kath, I have this on a couple of varieties I'm growing too and wondered what it was. When I look inside the cage I can see that the stem end isn't as green as the other tomatoes, it seems to be "drying up" while the tomato is still growing. Not all the tomatoes on the same plant, but it has happened to a few.

[coastal bend]

My CP and Celebrity look like that. When we had a week of hot weather they were worse. I had some SunPride that are for hotter weather and they made a nice clean globe type tom. The taste was ok, but not as good as the CP or Celebrity. They look like the toms in the store that have no taste.

[b54red]

I have noticed it more often on plants that are sickened by fusarium when the plant is not able to supply the leaves and fruit with adequate nutrition and water. Maybe at some stage the plant got too little water while the fruit was developing.

[kath]

Thanks to everyone for your input. There does seem to be some radial splitting on some of the affected fruits. Have more BER this year than ever before, too, so maybe they go hand in hand in that there hasn't been an even amount of moisture in the soil. We had a really hot year a couple of years ago and I don't remember seeing it- maybe we had more rain. Also thought maybe it had a name.

kath

[jennifer28]

I had this happen on one fruit, it was the earliest ripe Northern Lights tomato on the whole plant. It had blossom end rot and this yucky brown around the stem.

[coastal bend]

I think it has to do with certain varieties and a change in the weather.

[tjg911]

kath,

your mention of a boron deficiency makes me want to comment. whether this is or is not from that, if you are considering adding boron to your soil be very careful. i remember reading about this years ago and it warned that boron is a micro nutrient and if you add too much to your soil you will have all kinds of troubles! do you grow beets? iirc if you have a boron deficiency it can present with beets, i forget what it is but i think black spots on the beets. most people are just fine and do not need to mess with boron.

you probably have no thoughts of adding boron but in case you did i wanted to alert you that there is a fine line between ok and too much that'll cause problems.

tom

[greyghost]

Kath, I'm seeing it too-on some of the very largest fruit in the garden.
this is also the first year that I've ever seen it. It looked to me as though
the fruit grew too large and heavy during a certain period and the tissue
stretched. The "stretching" is on the opposite side of the stem from where the stem would attach to the vine. I guess, beyond that, I never gave it a lot of thought except to think maybe I over-fertilized. It might be my imagination,
but it seems to be happening more to favorites that I especially wanted to
do well. These same varieties were a more normal size last year (and maybe
better tasting, too???) Possibly the weather is partly responible??

I did have a couple of over-sized varieties last year, too. Cleota Pink and
African Queen come to mind, but I don't remember seeing this sort of
stretching with some of the largest fruits. And maybe those fruits tended to
just hang so there wasn't any side-to-side stretching. Darlene



Anyway, I love beautiful tomatoes too and this certainly isn't attractive.
Darlene

[greyghost]

I should have added the the fruits that I'm seeing this weird stem area
stretching look exactly like your second photo of the single tomato.
Haven't had any with the brown areas surrounding the stem like
many in the first photo. I wonder if the drought had any thing to do with that?