Avoid tomato cracking

Are you looking forward to a rich tomato harvest? Of course you do, but if you see tomatoes cracking or splitting you may wonder where did you go wrong. Well, you can blame yourself or the weather. This year is probably the weather. In the following lines, we shall take a look at the causes, but also tell you how you can eliminate cracking. The good news is that you can consume cracked tomato – if you catch it soon.

Irregular watering

The main cause of tomato cracking is irregular watering. Many gardeners advise watering tomatoes once every two to three days. Watering should be abundant. Others water tomatoes every day however, if you follow one of the above “watering schedules” the chances are that your tomatoes will crack eventually. We water every day, and see that the number of cracked tomatoes is very low, but we still see it on every second or third plant . It has been raining several times too and that negatively affects the regularity. Tomato plant does not know what to do with an unexpected supply of water and the extra water ends up in fruits and they crack.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Regular watering is very important

If you grow tomatoes in a cottage garden for example, and you get there once a week and water them once a week, chances are that they will crack more. If you grow tomatoes at home make sure to water regularly. If you grow in greenhouses or in other covered spaces, regular watering should be no problem. Growing outdoors is obviously more difficult in terms of regular watering.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Get more resistant varieties

If tomato cracking bothers you a lot, try buying varieties which tend to be more resistant to cracking. These are:

• Tipo,
• Solanum lycopersicum,
• Parto,
• Strillo,
• Torino.

F1 type hybrids tend to crack more often.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Can you consume cracked tomatoes?

If the crack is fresh and white in colour then the answer is years but cracked tomato gets infected with mould easily and tends to rot. So, if you see cracked fruit, collect it as soon as possible to prevent mould.

Source: https://prima-receptar.cz/proc-mi-praskaji-rajcata/
https://www.receptyprimanapadu.cz/zahrada/rpn-radi-jak-se-zbavit-praskani-plodu-rajcat/
https://www.zahrada-centrum.cz/clanky/476-praskani-rajcat-vada-nebo-vlastnost

Preview photo: Radek Štěpán