# Help! What causes this on my tomatoes?



## Ezmerelda (Oct 17, 2010)

These are my Rutger tomatoes.

Nearly all of them have the strange marks, and some of them are split open.










Is this normal, or do I have an infestation of something? Or, too much nitrogen, not enough of something else? Too much or not enough water?

I'm new to gardening, and this is the first year I got any tomatoes at all. Any help from you more experienced gardeners will be greatly appreciated.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Too much water at one time. Had a lot of rain lately? But they are still good to eat.

Jimmy


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## Ezmerelda (Oct 17, 2010)

Yes, when the plants were still young, we had quite a bit of rain.

Ok, so now I know that I don't have some strange critter in my tomatoes.

Thank you so much for your help.


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Happens to mine as well and for the reason Jimmy mentioned. They're just stretch marks.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

Yup.. Just too much water at one time... Some tomatoes are more prone to it than others. I didn't have to many of the Rutgers do it but my Purple Russians love to crack like that..
The only tomato I've grown that didn't do it ever was Opalka.
It usually is much worse if you have a long dry spell(where they didn't water consistently) and then get a huge deluge of rain. If happens to me(or I see it coming I mean) I've gone out and put down trash bags along the ground (stem area to about a foot out)and tried to keep the ground dryer around my tomatoes. it does help a bit.. We've had a good year here so far. It has just gotten dry this last few weeks.


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## 41south (Dec 4, 2010)

Ezmerelda said:


> These are my Rutger tomatoes.
> 
> Nearly all of them have the strange marks, and some of them are split open.
> 
> ...


You can try this tip. Mix about 4 table spoons of epsom salts in a gallon of water, pour it around the plants, about a foot away from the base of the plant. Don't use a gallon on each one, just kinda soak the ground good in a circle about a foot away from the plants.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

41south said:


> You can try this tip. Mix about 4 table spoons of epsom salts in a gallon of water, pour it around the plants, about a foot away from the base of the plant. Don't use a gallon on each one, just kinda soak the ground good in a circle about a foot away from the plants.


that is good advice if you live in my area of the US but there are many areas of the US that you should not feed Epsom's salts without getting your soil tested.. Folks in the southern/western areas already have quite a bit of minerals and salts in the soil. Adding more would really not help them.


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## Ezmerelda (Oct 17, 2010)

bczoom said:


> Happens to mine as well and for the reason Jimmy mentioned. They're just stretch marks.


Oh, great, now even my tomatoes have stretch marks? :gaah:

 I think that's a very apt description.

They taste FANTASTIC, so it's easy to ignore how ugly they are. I'm going to be canning some very soon.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Ezmerelda ...

Thanks for the smile ...


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