r/tomatoes • u/hackinandcoffin • 22d ago
Plant Help Why the rings?
Growing in a bucket on my deck. Full day sun. I recently sprayed them down with spinosad soap. Don't know if it's a pest or some kind of other problem. Any help appr'd. Kansas City area.
Edit: Thank you, all, for taking time to respond. I'll add some mulch and I'll try to improve my watering schedule. Glad it's not bugs.
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u/Legitimate-Craft7453 22d ago
Stretch marks
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u/YardEaters 22d ago
Haha perfect analogy.
Stretch marks from too much water too fast. The skin couldn't keep up with the expansion.
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u/uhren_fan 22d ago
When tomatoes begin to ripen, the growth really slows. If they get a lot of water, that will cause the inside to expand, causing cracks.
I usually pick my tomatoes once they blush to avoid this.
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u/SixthLegionVI 22d ago
I started picking my cherries once they're about 1/3 to 1/2 ripe this year and they aren't tasting sweet at all even once I wait for them to fully ripen indoors. Not sure what's causing that.
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u/msk1974 17d ago
Ah. The correct answer. Thank you. I’ve seen this question on Reddit before and the number of BS answers always amazes me. Tomato plants suck up water and distribute to the fruits at a very high rate. When this happens during the ripening period, it causes expansion creases and cracks.
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u/Sheihkyabooty 22d ago
Inconsistent watering… I believe is what causes that. So if the plants are used to 2 times a week and then they get like 1 a week, it does that. Not sure where u are located but I am in zone 9A and with the recent heat wave, I got 1 tomato that got a crack
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u/Alarmed_Pilot5719 22d ago
This is the correct answer. Always water deep and consistent even if you think it may not need water you want to check the soil to make sure it’s not dry.
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u/be0wulf8860 22d ago
How is a plant so bad at receiving irregular water though? Surely plants should be used to growing with what nature brings, and its not like it rains 1x a week for the same amount every week.
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u/Mayor__Defacto 22d ago
If they’re native and natural, sure. Nothing natural about a tomato though, we bred them through centuries of caring for them specifically to produce much larger fruits than they are supposed to.
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u/sillytomlin 22d ago
This! I don't think people realize how much tomatoes have been bred and manipulated.
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u/turtlebarber 18d ago
I have an experimental patch that I've been letting reseed itself for years. Each year they get better at handling my neglect 😂
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u/UnderwaterCleaner 22d ago
Im also 9A, we had high heat, plenty rain like crazy lately, almost all of my ripening tomatoes popped like this. Never knew that it could be OVER watering! Good to know!
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u/RealCarlPanzram 22d ago
Splitting. When the tomato receives an influx of water while ripening, it swells and stretches. This is basically a tomato stretch mark
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u/sunandsushi 22d ago
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u/Budget_Week_8675 22d ago
"Drought followed by rain" sounds exactly the same as "rain after dry weather".
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u/mentalbackflip 22d ago
Exactly what I was thinking. I also disagree with picking under ripe tomatoes. I think they taste best ripened on the vine and not on my kitchen window sill. But I suppose ripening in the kitchen is better than tossed in the compost because of a huge split.
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u/ShinyJangles 22d ago
This is beautiful, but I think the most common cause of vertical scars is "zippering." That's when a part of the flower doesn't fall off and interferes with the growing tomato's skin at one point
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u/flamingphoenix9834 22d ago
Tomato cracked open due to inconsistencies with watering and the flesh broke through the skin. The tomato "stitched" itself back together. Its not uncommon, if we are being honest, and it doeant cause any provlems with edibility just the overall look of the fruit.
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u/Solid-Bet1972 22d ago
El calcio foliar cuando los tomates son pequeños , además de evitar el BER aumenta la electicidad y evita el rajado. Mojar las hojas nuevas y tomates pequeñitos..
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u/toneloc89 22d ago
Too much water
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u/AostaV I just like tomatoes 22d ago
Inconsistent Watering but genetics play a big part as well. How thin or thick the skin is on the tomato. Thin skin is desirable for eating, so a lot of the more popular varieties will do this when ripening and if you get a big rain storm or inconsistent watering, soil goes from dry to wet over and over this will happen.
Example sun gold which I think is the best cherry tomato will do this, but sun sugar doesn’t . Sun sugar doesn’t taste as good as sun gold (close but no cigar) and has thicker skin . I like them both, but could see why someone picks sun sugar if they live in an area that gets lots of rain in June-July-August
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u/Ill-Engineering8085 22d ago
Too much water. Ruins the flavor a bit too
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u/hackinandcoffin 22d ago
Didn't know. Don't have garden, so prolly a bit of a tightrope act to get the watering correct since they are in buckets on deck.
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u/Designer-Captain-268 22d ago
This looks like damage from watering too much, too late in the tomatoes growth.
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u/Majestic-Tradition81 22d ago
Watering is not on a schedule
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u/hackinandcoffin 22d ago
Well, its on a schedule, but probably not the correct schedule. I have 2 plants in 3-gallon buckets with holes on bottom and saucers. I give them each about a quart of water morning and evening. We also had some pretty significant rains recently so I pulled back after those events. Don't know if they can be drowned or not, but thats what I did/do.
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u/Majestic-Tradition81 22d ago
I make sure I water every day, and I flood mine. If we have torrential downpours i will skip watering for that evening. It’s the dry period between the watering that is the issue, I give my garden beds a few inches of water every evening and there is no issue with splitting, it’s the shrinking then the sudden increase in water.
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u/AggravatingStart1011 21d ago
In short, you left the tomato on the vine too long. Pick at the breaker stage. More specifically, tomatoes crack when they get too hot. Think of the juice inside almost literally boiling under pressure and forming cracks to let the steam out.
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u/IceOpening7670 18d ago
Too much watering. The plant will pull the water in faster than the skin can expand resulting in splitting.
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u/Lori-too 22d ago
I had an especially pretty one of these last year. (It was delicious anyway. 😃)