looks more like a mild form of catfacing. i notice it alot in cooler temps during pollination. theres no reason to pick them. unless you get some molding issues.

Even ideally Beefmaster will not look like Early Girl. Totally different type and shape. Radial cracking the wide one on the small fruit is caused by inconsistent soil moisture levels - heavy rains or heavy watering followed by periods of dryness causes the interior to swell and split the skin.

The large fruit, if that is the bottom of it in the pic as I can't tell which end is up in the pic, is not cracking. It is catfacing. Catfacing is caused by pollination issues during cool weather.

Dave

Here is a cut and paste from one of the many previous discussions here about cracking. Gives more details.

Both of those blacks have what's called horizontal splitting which is due to too much influx of water after the skin is at it's maximum size so that the skin splits.
There are really three kinds of splitting that are seen.

1)Horizontal splitting which can occur with any tomato variety hybrid or OP and is independent of association with any variety.

2)Concentric splitting; Seen as circles around the stem, usually scar over but can reopen if there's too much water and initiate a rotting sequence. A genetic association with certain varieties, mainly OP's

3)Radial splitting, pretty much the ame as above although the splits radiate out from the stem in a star like pattern/

Horizontal splitting refers to splitting any where's else on the fruits other thean radial and concentric and is due to water influx when the skin can no longer expand.

Carolyn

The search here will pull up all those discussions for you if you wish. It will also pull up the discussions about catfacing.

Dave

Hi,

Thank you for your responses. it seems that Tuesday night into Wednesday morn we got 2 inches of rain in 3 hours. I then did not water Wednesday night, which I shold have. Its also been cool which could have been the catfacing cause. I think, although I thought everything was still wet yesterday, I still should have watered last night. I hope this is what happened. I will stick to a watering schedule even if it rains I guess.

I will stick to a watering schedule even if it rains I guess.

Why on earth would you do that? You water the plants when they need it, not according to some artificial schedule.

Tomato plants tolerate too little water much better than they do over-watering. Over-watering just creates water-dependent plants with shallow roots and yellowing leaves and watery taste. No one needs to water daily unless growing in small containers or in the desert, much less water after 2" of rain!

Honestly, you need to consider doing some serious research into proper watering techniques and re-vamping your approach to it.

Dave

So maybe it is my watering schedule. Im watering for 30 minutes daily with a drip itrrigation system. Im reading tomatoes need about a gallon of water a week, which is close to what they are getting now. The ground is always moist, so maybe i should back off the daily watering and go for every other day for the time being to allow for the plants to suck more water out of the ground.

We have a drought here in central IN. But, with only occasional watering, most of the tomato plants look good. There are not many actual tomatoes on them yet, but lots of flowers. I may get some splitting if it ever rains. The Brandywines are now 4 ft tall and going to town, they have been in the ground 6 (or 7 max) weeks. I wonder if the composted horse dung has anything to do with it?

Tomato plants can be "planted deep", they grow roots from the stem when it is underground. And with the original roots "down there", they seem to find the moisture when it is dry. I'm impressed with how well they have done this year. Immediately after planting, I put down newspaper 2 or 3 sheets thick and then cover it with straw. Keeps soil splash off the leaves and helps retain soil moisture.

It is amazing what one can learn from talking to their local tomato guru. Lots of smart people out there that have been doing this for years. Some day, maybe I'll be smart too!

Hi dss,

As a general rule, tomatoes need an inch of water every week. An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 5.6 US (4.7 Imperial) gallons of water per square yard. Cool weather or soil with lots of clay needs will be less, hot weather or sandy soil will need more.

Dig down with your finger about 4", is the soil wet, dry, or just right? If it is wet, don't water, if dry then water. If it is just right, check again the next day. Water deeply once or twice a week. Watering daily encourages shallow roots which means the plant is affected more by variations in soil moisture and temperatures. In my garden during the heat of the summer, I water deeply every 4-5 days, early spring I may only water every 8-9 days and when the weather is moderatly warm (70-80 degrees F), about once a week. (I use 1 gph pressure compensating drippers and usually run them for 3 to 5 hours depending on the moisture in the soil.)

Because you have "trained" your tomatoes to look for their water at shallow depths, you probably would not want to suddenly switch to weekly waterings. What you might want to do is to lengthen your watering time to say, 45 minutes and water every other day (checking moisture level as I said above) and gradually lengthen the period between waterings and the time you allow the drippers to run.

Mulching heavily (to a depth of 6 - 8 inches) with compost, straw, hay, rotted leaves, grass clippings, even shredded paper or sheets of paper or cardboard helps maintain a consistent moisture level and you'll get a lot less cracking from too much water.

I hope that helps.

Betsy

Bets is right on. I have droughty sandy soil, and I put several inches of mulch around my tomatoes, and I never get BER and rarely get splitting. I also rarely have to water, even in sandy soil due to heavy mulching. When I do water, I do it deeply. At the end of the season, pulling them up, I've been amazed at how deep the roots went.

Are these tomatoes in containers?