Hi
Can someone please tell me what causes tomatoes to crack this way when they ripen on the vine? Should I harvest them sooner? When I do, they seem to develop yellow spots that look like chicken pox but only yellow. I will appreciate all help and advise.
TXBBQ
Too much water; not enough potassium.
Thanks for the response. So what is a recommended source of potassium for them? I have some Vigoro Tomato plant food, as well as Miracle Grow plant food that supposed to be great for veggies. Should I use more of these and water less? I live in north TX, where the temp often runs 100+ every day. So I thought they needed large amounts of water. Am I wrong on that? How much should I water?
Also, what causes these yellow spots that look like some sort of disease?
Thanks for all advise and direction.
Any fertilizer which is high in potassium (K) will help. If you need to water a lot, maybe feed them a liquid fertilizer regularly. The watering may be washing the nutrients away.
Thanks for the advise. I wish I lived in your climate and where you are! :-(
Hey thanks Dave, that helped me too ;-)
metro- thanks from me too! I've been having the same problem. The highest K I have here is an old canister of peter's 20-20-20. I mixed some up this afternoon after reading your answer. We've been getting almost as much rain as you guys out there for several months now, and when your growing toms in 2 gal. pots, it just washes good stuff right out in about 2 weeks- I thought it was just too much water-thanks
Adding calcium carbonate to the soil can help too. Blossom End Rot can happen when there is too much water and a lack of potassium (K) and calcium (Ca).
Don't you have clay soil in Allen? If so, adding potassium would be counterproductive. Most soils in the Dallas area and west of there all the way to NM have more than enough potassium and phosphorus already. These minerals tend to build up in clay soils and that's why our soils are so alkaline. Adding calcium would only make it worse. Nitrogen is the only fertilizer you should use unless Allen has sandy soil, which I strongly doubt. Calcium would push the pH to more alkalinity. With all due respect, advice from someone on a Pacific Island about growing tomatoes in inland Texas is likely well-intentioned but not accurate. As to the suggestion of overwatering, with our drought and temperatures, it would be almost impossible to overwater your tomatoes unless you are growing them in a bathtub with the drain closed. Tomatoes in Texas have essentially shut down for the summer. Your fall tomato transplants should be in the ground already so you can have a good crop as the temps begin to moderate in mid-September. If your spring tomatoes are still producing, the extremes from blazing heat to nighttime temps are a major factor in their splitting. A 5 inch mulch around the plants and consistent watering will go a long way toward preventing the temps where the roots are from fluctuating so much and will help control the cracking. Also, the larger varieties should be avoided because they are more likely to crack. Big Boy and so on should never be sold in the South.
I wish we had 2 growing seasons :(
And some rain!!
How are the tomatoes being raised? In pots with commercial potting medium, or in native soil?
It's difficult to grow productive tomato plants in Texas. The pot has to be very large to hold enough water to get them through our brutal summers. Only small cherry tomatoes have a chance in containers. The climates of Hawaii and Texas are quite different.
Thanks to all for your offerings and viewpoints. Firstly, (for dp72) I am not using "native" TX soil, which is terrible. I am using the Square Foot Gardening method from Mel Bartholomew's book "The All New Square Foot Gardening". Hence, I am using a custom-mix soil of blended compost, peat moss and coarse vermiculite. Last year was my first attempt, but I didn't get any tomatoes, as I didn't start until late May-Early June. And when I did, I was starting from seed. Didn't know it takes forever for tomatoes to grow that way. This year, I started seed in the house in February, and by late April, they were ready to transplant.
This year, I started on time (mid-April) after the last frost and my plants are doing marvelously. I planted the BHN444, a variety engineered at TX A&M and the BEST tasting tomato I have ever eaten. They've been growing to baseball and softball size Also I have Better Boys and Romas. The latter, I purposely started later and they're started to flower. The other two are producing like crazy even still, as you can see in the picture. I counted at least 2-dozen flowers coming out on both plants and I have about 6 turning red as well as about a 12 still green and half-a-dozen babies just fruiting. I am more inclined to agree with your thoughts about the extreme daytime heat vs nighttime temps. Plus we had a huge downpour of rain last week. So excess water could be contributing. Prior to this I haven't seen the splitting. Also I have been using Miracle-Gro liquid fertilizer twice-a-month.
So I'll try to be careful with over-watering, but they have to have at least a little water every day as long as the daily triple-digit-heat continues.
In addition to the tomatoes, we have lettuce, collard greens, cantaloupe and green bell-peppers. I also planted green beans but they're not doing well at all. Neither is my okra, which last year took over.
TXBBQ
