On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 13:02:07 GMT, GK wrote:

My tomatoes have finally started to ripen. Some have turned uniformly
red, but many turn red up to the crown where spots of green remain.
Also, the tomato splits deeply, fanning out from the stem. The taste is
fine. I simply cut off the top of the tomato.

Any idea why this happened? Our summer has been *unusually* dry, and
I've been watering once a day for about 1/2 hour using a soaker hose.

This is the first year I *haven't* had that happen. Unfortunately,
the tomatoes are really small, too. Same varieties as years past -
Better Boy (I think it's called) and some sort of Beef Steak. If I
ever get enough ripe at one time to do any canning it's going to be a
bitch with such small ones. We've had especially hot weather this
year (over 100 degrees for weeks now) so maybe that's why they aren't
getting as big as they should. I don't know.
Sue
SJV, CA