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SPLITTING TOMATOES...

OldcompostOldcompost Posts: 180
in The potting shed
For compost, I experiment annually with different additions to food waste, chicken poo and their hay but which seed variety is best one year, the next often not and vice versa.  From the greenhouse plan:  Green means indeterminate and pink are daily-watered early flowering hanging baskets or bush (marking size-adjusted), the results show all the ones in the ground produced most, purely down to root freedom.  Against advice I always let two offshoots develop from each plant but this guarantees a daily harvest of about 30 until December.  This year virtually every tomato from the ground split and inconsistency or over-watering is the obvious reason although this wasn't the case.  Any suggestions would be welcome!        
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  • FireFire LondonPosts: 14,184
    edited December 2021
    Some varieties are more prone to splitting than others.

    Bruce's growing at the RED project in Ireland might be worth investigating.



  • OldcompostOldcompost Posts: 180
    Fire:  Thanks for that, I watched the video....but if you look at the above map all 15 different cherry varieties split (although most didn't last year).  Other gardening club growers said they were especially delicious despite the problem but they weren't over-watered as I used a testing kit in the soil at every few inches daily. 
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 15,874
    How big is your greenhouse?
    You don't stop doing new things because you get old, you get old because you stop doing new things. <3
  • BenCottoBenCotto RutlandPosts: 3,621
    I only grew 4 varieties: Apero, Suncherry, Orange Santa and San Marzano. They were in a greenhouse side by side in a Quadgrow so they all had identical growing conditions and watering regimes. About 90% of the Suncherry fruits split, maybe 20% of Orange Santa, 10% of Apero and no San Marzano. 
  • FireFire LondonPosts: 14,184
    Was it a particularly difficult year, with erratic weather/temps?
  • OldcompostOldcompost Posts: 180
    fidgetbones: 14ft x 12ft.  If it's of any relevance to the splitting, the bricks are internally lined with chrome to get light into the lower section, oscillating fans are going 24/7.

    Fire:  In Devon there was a lot of cloudy weather in August.

    BenCotto: Normally Chocolate Cherry and Black Opal have been best but they split the worst and the taste was a slightly watery.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 7,736
    Yes I think Fire has got it right,it's very difficult to keep an even temperature in a green house.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Billericay, EssexPosts: 8,579
    If the fruits are splitting it is because there is too much pressure inside the fruit - so the skin splits.
    Too much pressure inside the fruit is caused by too much fluid inside the fruit.
    So on a warm day if there is enough water in the soil the fruit will swell but the skin of the tomato can't expand fast enough to accommodate extra fluid so it splits. The smaller the fruit the more likely the skin will split.
    As far as I can see it can only be down to watering.
    If it's any consolation, most of my Rosella split this year moments after picking them.
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • UffUff SW Scotland but born in DerbyshirePosts: 1,745
    edited December 2021
    I don't know the answer to this question but as a matter of interest was the skin on the tomatoes thinner than normal Oldcompost and would this have a bearing on your problem?
  • OldcompostOldcompost Posts: 180
    Uff & Pete.8:  For the first time all varieties this year were cherry sized so that may have been the reason.  Thank you for your comments, but it is difficult not to be tempted into watering the evening after a baking hot day when the top layer of earth has dried hard and the leaves are all curled up and drooping Hahaha.

       
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