Tomatoes - vulnerability to splitting

[Primrose]

I wonder if anybody knows why cherry type tomatoes have a greater vulnerability to splitting than others.
We recently returned from a week's holiday of warm westher when my tomatoes received no water. I watered them well as soon as I returned home but I!m noticing now that many of the remaining ripening cherry tomatoes (Gardeners Delight and Sungold) are splitting whereas the larger variety tomatoes are not.
Has anybody else suffered a similar problem? I don,t want to stop growing these varieties but it's an irritation as if the fruit are not used quickly they start to rot.

[Westi]

Personally I also find the same Primrose. The window of opportunity for picking the really tiny ones is slim, it seems one day perfect and the next split. I now only grow a bigger cherry or full size (or beefsteak) tomatoes.

I do have some though - for the last 2 years now I have 2 spots on the allotment where self sown tiny ones pop up. These are a gift so don't mind if a few split. They also come up later & seem to avoid the blight so perfect especially when we have an Indian Summer & lots ripen.

Westi

[Elaine]

Hello Primrose. I grow Sparta and Alicante, both in the borders of the greenhouse, all watered equally and regularly. I have found this year, that both varieties have had a tendency to split, usually after picking.

I had always assumed watering after a period of not being watered caused the fruits to split but that most definitely hasn't been the case this year...my husband has been on sick leave since April and has been down the allotment daily. I've also had two plants, one of each variety, which have had blossom end rot.
Beats me!

[ken]

This is a common late season problem, and one that I get, too. I wonder whether the skins are a little thinner at the end of the season, but I'm sure the biggest factor is watering. It's a fact that tomato plants need much less water in late September than they do in June and July: the days are shorter, the temperatures are lower, you've probably picked the tops out so the plants are putting on the growth, and there are probably fewer fruit, too. At peak growth season I was watering my greenhouse tomatoes twice a day, now I'm doing it every other day. But this might not be best practice. Perhaps I should still be watering every day, but in smaller amounts.

[Ricard with an H]

The art of watering, or not, Eh ?

Some time ago I asked if there was a gadget to help me decide if the soil around the plant roots needed water-or-not. No one responded and eventually I found a gadget that works on the principal of moisture over two surfaces creating an electric current.

The manufacturers have given a scale though I'll regard that scale as nonsense and find my own way.

They talk about, "WP" (Wilt point) and the internet has all the information you need.

[Primrose]

The question of whether soil is wet or dry is a bewildering one. I have watered my vegetable patch with a hose In dry periods until the soil looks very damp . Yet the next day whenI have perhaps scooped out a drill about an inch deep to sow a new row of seeds the soil underneath has been as dry as a bone. Obviously the absorption of water depends partly on the type of soil you have but I think it's very easy to over or under estimate how much water you need to put into your soil for growing plants.

In my patio containers and pots of chillies and peppers etc I use water retaining crystals which help to retain.moisture but this isn't really practical on a large scale in open growing areas..

[Primrose]

Has any anybody picked all their outdoor tomatoes to ripen indoors yet or are you hanging on in view of the fine weather we've had? i,m wondering if it,realistic to expect much more growth in the tiny tomatoes at the top of vines at this time of year. Does anybody know what is the minimum nighttime temperature at which they stop growing? I always try to hang on outdoors as long as possible .

[Chantal]

Hi Primrose

I find that Sungold are very prone to splitting, usually just after being picked, but if you can pick them with the stalk on, they stay intact. They need picking every day to stop them splitting on the vine.

As for leaving tomatoes outside, I've picked all the bigger ones and am leaving the little ones to see what happens. I've had a huge crop this year so if I lose them, I don't really care, but they seem to be OK so far.

My mum, who lives near Leicester, swears there was frost on the roof on Sunday morning, so I don't think they'll survive for much longer.

[ken]

Yes, Chantal, I guess autumn is here. We had front on the flat roof at the back of our house, and ice (frozen rain) on the car, here in SW Kent yesterday morning. Not forecast as such, but then it lifted very quickly in the sunshine and things like dahlias seem unaffected.

[retropants]

i picked all my green plum tomatoes to ake chutney with. I have left the cherry toms, beesteak and slicing toms on the plants, although I doubt that they will ripen now. I'll probably be picking them all on Sunday. Ihad problems with the GD splitting, none of the others did though.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've grown the Red Cherry seeds that came free with the magazine last year and they were very prolific and a good flavour, but prone to splitting. I found that if I picked them before they were fully ripe they were less likely to split. When ripe, if not already split they did tend to split when I picked them.

The other cherry tomato I tried this year was Yellow Grape from the Heritage Seed Library and they did not split at all. It is an excellent little tomato and produces trusses of hundreds of fruits. They taste very good too, not as sweet as Sun Gold which I find a bit too sweet when fully ripe.
This has just reminded me to save some seeds as being a heritage variety will come true next year.

I save seeds from all the non F1 s I grow, so if anyone would like to try some please let me know and I will let you have a few.