Scarred Tomatoes

[niadan]

My tomatoes are growing well but are looking fairly ugly with quite a lot of scars on he skin. I heard that this is from irregular watering so I tried to be consistent this year. Yet they are all still scarred. Any suggestions to make prettier tomatoes for the future?

[smallblueplanet]

Buy from the supermarket? Nah just kidding, certain varieties of tomato are 'less pretty' than others...if you want round red, salad-sized, yet tasty toms try Matina.

[Kristen]

Mind are watered religiously 3 times a day. I've got split tomatoes all over the first two trusses [of normal-sized varieties, not the Cherry ones], not sure the 3rd are going to be better.

I'm thinking about using pots without bottoms next year so that the roots can get out into the greenhouse soil (also planning to plunge the pots into the ground so that I have an extra foot of growing height to the roof).

I had intended to install an irrigation system, but haven't found time for that yet.

I did wonder if I had been overfeeding, and causing them to grow / expand too fast - possibly at the expense of good flavour. So I've reduce the feed strength by about 25%

[smallblueplanet]

I always thought toms splitting was caused by over-watering? Lots of our outdoor ones have one or two split toms each on them, the greenhouse ones, where we control the watering, have none.

[zazen999]

I don't water most of mine at all this year - sine we had the lottie with no water, I decided to just let nature take its course. But, none of mine seem to be suffering for it thus far - and I've been harvesting Auroras since June 8th...so I'm sticking to the methodology until I get a greenhouse. Then it will be evenings only.

[rustylady]

I always thought toms splitting was caused by over-watering?

No, it's caused by erratic watering - i.e. giving a lot of water after a fairly dry spell. The fruit skins have then "set" and split when they receive lots of water and the fruit decide to swell some more.

[smallblueplanet]

No, it's caused by erratic watering - i.e. giving a lot of water after a fairly dry spell...

So why are Kristens splitting then - she's watering them to schedule?

[Flummery]

Some tomatoes have inherently tougher skins than others. So if they do have a growth spurt, they crack. Sungold, for example, has a toughish skin, its only fault I find. These tend to crack when ripe whatver you do. Others don't with the same watering regime. It might just be the varieties don't suit your copious watering scheme Kristen

[Kristen]

"It might just be the varieties don't suit your copious watering scheme Kristen"

Yup, could well be. I've got Ailsa Craig and Moneymaker (the cherry's are Gardeners Delight, but they are fine). I'll wait to see how the remaining trusses perform, it might have been that the first two trusses were already formed when I moved them from conservatory to greenhouse (20 June-ish) - mind you, fruit would have been tiny at that time, so I'm not sure that is relevant.