Yes, Early Girl is an F1 hybrid, first bred in France, but I won't go into the details here. There is an OP version of Early Girl F1 called PSR-37 which was stabilized by Tim Peters, formerly of Peters Seed and Research. I distributed seeds for it the past several years in my annual seed offer that I do elsewhere. Some were getting PL plants from it but not all that surpirising since there may have well been a PL parent somewhere in the breeding of this variety. And actually some folks are getting some PL plants from the F1 Hybrid called Early Girl Improved F1, but I don't think anyone knows what the "improvement" is. LOL Also, I doubt if it's a virus infection where you live b'c almost all of the more common viral diseases are spread by insects that aren't that far north. What you describe does sound like one of the normal foliage pathogens and some links were given to you in a post above to try and ID. Sometimes it's difficult to ID a disease from pictures b'c those are static while disease is progressive. You say that the bottom leaves are affected first which suggests splashback infection which occurs when spores amd bacteria of those foliar pathogens fall to the ground in a previous year and then get splashed back on the plant via rain or irrigation. The fungal foliage pathogen problems can be prevented by a vigorour spray schedule with a known effective ant-fungal. The four most common foliage pathogens are: Early Blight ( A. solani), fungal Septoria Leaf Spot, fungal Bacterial Speck Bacterial Spot And there are very very few hybrids that have tolerance to any of them, except for Early Blight and that tolerance is so low level that it's really only of use to Commercial farmers. A new cherry tomato, Mountain Magic F1 does have some decent Early Blight tolerance. So no, OP heaurlooms are NOT more susceptible to the most common tomato diseases, the ones that affect foliage and the same is true for hybrids. Hope that helps. Carolyn The most common foliage pathogens

I believe that's called catfacing which results from incomplete pollination. Do a google search. It seems some varieties are more prone to this than others. One website said cool temperatures might be the reason - 60 degrees for a few days three weeks prior to bloom. That sounds like the cool temperatures we had a few weeks ago. Your title "splitting" made me think your problem was the skin cracking when there's too much rain which is something a lot of cherry tomato types do when the tomatoes are ripe but the skin bursts with a fresh crack, not like the dried deformity in your photo. Catfacing may also be the result of too much nitrogen.

Many previous discussions here about this that the search will pull up if you wish to read through them but from a purely personal POV my question would be why you want wholes, what variety would you be using, and how will you be using them later. Those factors would determine which would work best. Hands down the most popular method for canning tomatoes is the Crushed Tomatoes with No Added liquid using either form of processing provided. Whole or Halved Raw with no Added Liquid comes in second but results vary depending on type of tomatoes used as paste types don't have enough liquid to work well with it and are left exposed and darken over time. After those my personal preference is Whole or Halved Tomatoes (packed in tomato juice when using paste types. I use hot pack and my own tomato juice, not commercial juice, and you add enough juice to insure once all air is removed the fruit is able to move about in the jar. Once opened they work well in any cooking recipes. You can include the juice or drain it off first. I use pressure canning for all forms primarily because I find it easier and it waste less water. Tomatoes packed in water is just like it sounds IMO - blah watery tomatoes - but some like it. Hope this helps. Dave

Beesneeds, Oh I'm sorry I should have explained.. I already have 11 tomato plants growing in 10 gallon, up to 45 gallon pots. I don't have room to grow any more. I just had some leftover plants that I wasn't able to give away. Most of the leftovers started turning yellow so I threw them out. Two of the little plants have stayed green so I am just seeing what happens.