Tomatoes are coming in. Damn, that pictures blurry. Anyway, about 1 out of 4 are doing this while still on the vine. Don't you worry, I still eat them. Certainly doesn't look very pretty, though. I water fairly religiously deeply every three to five days. Three days recently as we've topped out at about 104 F (40C) for the past week. Doesn't affect (effect?, ah too late to look up which is correct) the taste.
Anyway, things have been busy at Turling Castle. Tomatoes ripening, peppers ripening (sorry, no pictures of those as I've eaten them all) and the basil bolted. Son of a...after about two weeks in the ground!!! Is basil suppose to flower right away? I'll have to look that up. In the meantime, I'll be looking for a split tomato soup recipe. HA! Get it!?!?!
Oh, boy. Go plant something.
That's nothing you did wrong to make the tomatoes split, they do that when the peels toughen due to heat and then it rains, or you water them very well and the skins split. All on their own. You did nothing wrong. They still taste good though, don't they?
ReplyDeleteI've found some varieties are more prone to splitting than others. Maintaining even soil moisture can help. Deep watering, and then allowing the soil to dry too much between waterings, can encourage splitting. The skins burst when the plants suddenly take up a lot of water. It's not usually a problem though, they'll still taste fabulous! At least you're getting to harvest tomatoes, the rodents keep stealing mine! Grrrr. :P
ReplyDeleteAs long as you can eat them, who cares how they look. You can pick tomatoes with their first blush and let them ripen on your kitchen counter. Get them before the split hopefully. As for basil, just cut off the flowers. The more you prune basil, the more branches with leaves you can eat!
ReplyDeleteHa, my blossom-end-rotted tomatoes look MUCH worst than your split tomato. I win.
ReplyDeleteI just learned that if you cut back the flower stalks on basil that you get more leaves. Who knew? Lou
I had the same problem with my basil bolting shortly after I planted them. I'm sure it has something to do with the days on end of triple digit temps we've been experiencing here in SoCal. As noted by the previous posters, cutting back the flower stalks will extend their life span.
ReplyDeleteYour tomato is broken.
ReplyDeleteJoin the club!
My suggestion is to pick your tomatoes sooner! You may pick while they are still a bit green and ripen on the window sill in a day or two. When I leave the cherry tomatoes on the vine too long, they always split!
ReplyDelete