Why Do Tomatoes Split? Experts Explain This Gardening Mystery—and How to Prevent It

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Why Do Tomatoes Split? Experts Explain This Gardening Mystery—and How to Prevent It

Tomatoes typically split due to sudden changes in watering, especially after a dry spell followed by heavy rain or overwatering.

Tomatoes with thinner skins, like heirloom varieties, are more susceptible to splitting compared to thicker-skinned types.

Preventing splits involves consistent watering practices, mulching to retain soil moisture, and harvesting tomatoes as soon as they ripen.

No matter if you’re a novice gardener or a seasoned pro, there are always plant mysteries that we endeavor to solve. If you love growing tomatoes, you may have noticed that your tomatoes sometimes split or crack, but have you ever wondered why? We asked gardening pros to explain this phenomenon, plus let us in on a few tricks for preventing your precious tomatoes from splitting this season.

Meet Our Expert

Related:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Why Do Tomatoes Split?

In short, tomatoes will split because of water irregularities. “Tomatoes often split due to quick changes in watering, causing rapid growth and expansion of the fruit,” says Nikhil Arora, co-founder and CEO of Back to the Roots. This often occurs when tomatoes receive heavy watering after a ******* of drought.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re the culprit for overwatering your tomato plants—a sudden deluge of rain could be why tomatoes crack. “When tomatoes experience a dry ******* followed by a lot of water (either from heavy rain or irrigation), the inside of the tomato grows quickly as it absorbs water, but the skin can’t stretch fast enough to accommodate the sudden growth,” says Daniel Powers, founder of Botanical Institute. “This leads to splitting or cracking.”

Other reasons for tomatoes splitting have less to do with water and more to do with either growing too fast, being near ripe, or being a variety that is prone to splitting, like cherry and heirloom tomatoes, Powers says. “Sometimes, tomatoes might split when they grow too quickly in general, not just due to water intake,” he says. “This can be caused by a sudden spike in temperature or fertilization that triggers fast growth, causing the skin to crack.”

What to Do If Your Tomatoes Split

So you’ve noticed some tomatoes on the vines are beginning to split—now what? You’ll want to harvest them early, even if they’re

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Splits and cracks in tomato skin can lead to

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

if left unchecked. For

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, leave them on your kitchen counter to continue the ripening process and watch the splits carefully. You can still eat split tomatoes, but you’ll want to make sure they don’t smell sour or have any seepage from the crack.

Tomato Varieties That Are Less Prone to Splitting

If you’d rather

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, consider planting one of these varieties:

Related:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Preventing Your Tomatoes from Splitting

Consistency is key for keeping your tomatoes from splitting, says Arora. “To prevent splitting, it’s important to

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

by watering regularly and avoiding sudden changes,” he says. Tomatoes will be less overwhelmed by a sudden rainstorm if they have been consistently well-watered before that.

One trick that both Arora and Powers recommend is mulching around your tomato plants. “Mulching around the base of the plants can help regulate soil moisture as well as mixing in

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

to increase water retention in the soil,” Arora says.

Read the original article on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Tomatoes #Split #Experts #Explain #Gardening #Mysteryand #Prevent

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up