Last summer, many of my tomatoes were cracking near the stem and I couldn’t figure out why. Based on consulting some books and getting some advice from a farmer friend, I thought some possible causes were “inconsistent watering,” intense sunlight from temperatures over 90 degrees, or the varieties I was growing. But based on my experiences this summer, I think it was mostly due to one factor: I was watering too much.
This summer, almost none of my tomatoes have splitting skin and I’m watering them 40 percent less than last summer’s tomatoes. Look:
Last July, I was copying a farmer friend’s watering schedule because he gets great results from his tomato plants. So I watered 10 hours per week. This July, I returned to my previous watering schedule and ran the drip lines for only about 6 hours per week.
Both years, I watered every 2-3 days, and I used the same drip lines and emitters. My tomatoes this summer do seem slightly smaller than last summer’s, possibly because of the reduced watering, but their harvest quality is far superior without the skin cracking.
I’m growing many of the same varieties so in that sense I’m comparing apples to apples. The main varieties are Mountain Fresh Plus, BHN-1021, and Big Beef.
Has the weather been different this past July compared to July 2022? Not enough to make a difference, I don’t think. The average high temperature is only 1.4 degrees higher this July compared to last July.
Have I been doing anything else differently? No. I’ve fertilized the same as I have for a decade, with my homemade compost. I’ve shaded the tomatoes the same, with 30 percent cloth on the hottest days.
I can’t think of any other variable to consider. Therefore, my guess at this point is that my tomatoes were cracking last summer mostly because I was watering too much. In other words, it was totally my fault!
Are your tomatoes cracking? Try watering less and see if you get the results I have.
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We have yet to “harvest” tomatoes here in NorCal. I’ve got about 200lbs of green tomatoes very very slowly ripening but not en masse. Commercial farms are also delayed including some of my CSA organic farms in Sonoma County which only just distributed cherry tomatoes for the first time yesterday.
In Watsonville, in Santa Cruz county my former CSA just had their first cherry & Early Girl distribution. So likely everything will mature at once and there will be a tomato glut!
Of course every seed source newsletter is telling us to plant our fall gardens but we’re not even peak summer yet!
Guess nature is telling us something!
Inland NorCal the tomatoes have been harvesting for weeks. You must be in a cool location. Not enough heat.
Hi Mariangela,
Wow, I did not know you were that delayed although I did hear a weather report yesterday about how cool it has been near the coast in Central and Northern California.
We had a very cool June then insane heat waves (with low overnight lows) and these severe fluctuations also caused blossom drop everywhere. We’re in Sonoma County and it is county wide issue. Everyone is sitting on green tomatoes. Things cooled the last couple days so maybe it will even out but likely everything will ripen at once. I’ve been pickling green tomatoes at the beginning of the season while pruning vs at the end!
Massive tomato crop this year. I water every day and keep the soil wet (in ground hydroponics) and only get splitting if I miss a day. I’ve been putting boxes of free tomatoes out for neighbors and someone even left a nice note.
You’re good to your neighbors, Randy. Your note reminded me that I haven’t noticed my watering frequency affect skin splitting. I’ve done everything from daily to never, and that didn’t obviously affect the skin splitting.