Cherry toms split...

[Yasai]

... I've just waded out in to the garden to find my lovely cherry tomatoes that have only recently started ripening have split...well... all the ones that are various shades of orange going on red and even some of the green ones.

Is there any reason for splitting other than under-watering? I find it hard to believe that any of them have been under-watered... over-pampered perhaps but that didn't get me too far

[solanaceae]

Yes, no surprise really after the weather we had all day yesterday.

The amount of rain along with the length of time it was falling for would have meant that your plants would have been effectively submerged in water all day long.

The roots would have tried to fix the problem by taking up more water from the soil than the plant actually needs, in order to try and make some space for the roots to get some air into them. Unfortunately this means that the toms get filled right up to their maximum capacity, and any toms that are red or turning red tend to have looser skins than the green toms and so the skin easily splits

On Sunday, I took off all my toms that were not just red, but on the verge of turning a light orange, because of what was to come. Went out to have a look in the garden today and some ripened cherry toms that I had forgotten to pick off had all split, but even my green marmande toms had plenty of splitting, which was a little shocking.

[Nicos]

I stopped growing Garden Pearl because they always split when ripening....but yes., I'd put it down to over watering too.

[catgirl]

My cherry tomatoes have started splitting in the last week or so too. They never did in the months leading up to then though so I'm also putting it down to the weather.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Picked a load of ripe split toms today, maybe because I didn't harvest for two days. Not to worry they are all frozen tomato soup now.

[Yasai]

Solanaceae thanks very much for the explanation; makes a lot of sense. At least I'll know to take them off next time. I've kept the red ones and binned the rest. Don't have enough to make soup Potstubsdustbins but I'll make a sauce

Thanks for the replies everyone

[Jimmy]

Never had a Garden Pearl split.
But Sungold often split when ripe, but I forgive them for that.
I suspect that's one of the reasons you don't see Sungold in the shops.
Jimmy

[Dorothy rouse]

Lots of mine have to, I used them in a casserole, no need to bin them! They're fine for cooking