Planted a garden with my daughters and this is our first season. We have two beds with various herbs, peppers, and tomatoes. We have a few larger tomato varieties that look like they are splitting. My guess is they are getting over watered. The peppers are dwarf plants producing only a few peppers. Located in Southern Florida.
by HereForTheRedditz
9 Comments
I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. They’re like stretch marks, but for tomatoes.
That’s normal, catfacing. Tomatoes being tomatoes. That will ripen up and eat just fine, you’ll have to do some surgery though.
This is fairly common, especially if these are your first tomatoes. I would carefully remove this one so the plant puts energy into other areas. Make sure you are consistently watering to avoid blight.
Many heirlooms get this defect called catfacing. It’s not a disease or a pest or a genetic problem. Just the way they “come together “ on the bottom. Just take it out when you slice.
Nothing. That is just that type of tomato. You have no control over it. If that bothers you, next time plant a classic round hybrid.
Multiple blossoms grew together. It will give you a huge fruit but might not ripen evenly. When I see one develop with more than 2 blossoms (this looks like 4-5 tomatoes growing together), I generally pick it off the plant so it can focus it’s energy on more regular shaped tomatoes.
For your first attempt, this is pretty impressive! Especially in south Florida! There are so many pests and moisture that it’s really challenging to grow great tomatoes there.
I think that possibly means there’s a calcium deficiency if the deformation happens where the flower drops off
[Tomato catfacing](https://ag.umass.edu/vegetable/fact-sheets/tomato-cat-facing) is common in many large heirlooms. Some varieties are just more prone to it, but it’s also exacerbated by cold temps at night or large temperature swings between night and day. I personally think it looks cool, and the tomatoes are still totally safe to eat!