Tomatoes
 

Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong. What
is it?
Alistair

Tomatoes
 

Alistair Macdonald wrote:
Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong. What
is it?
Alistair


Might be over watering.

Tomatoes
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:53:50 +0100, "Alistair Macdonald"
wrote:

Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong. What
is it?
Alistair



Uneven watering.

Tomatoes
 

Phisherman wrote:
On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:53:50 +0100, "Alistair Macdonald"
wrote:

Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong. What
is it?
Alistair



Uneven watering.

Uneven soil moisture is the reason I've always read too. Clay pots would
only exacerbate the problem -- they are great for cacti and other succulent
plants which want to dry out completely between waterings but this would be
the worst possible thing with tomatoes.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

Tomatoes
 

On Jul 26, 6:53 am, "Alistair Macdonald"
wrote:
Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong. What
is it?
Alistair

I have read that an abundance of sun combined with heavy watering will
do that.

Chris

Tomatoes
 

"Chris" wrote in message
...
On Jul 26, 6:53 am, "Alistair Macdonald"
wrote:
Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing
very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every
fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong.
What
is it?
Alistair

I have read that an abundance of sun combined with heavy watering will
do that.

Chris

A good rain in the middle of summer does it also if the plants aren't used
to that much water. In the case of the OP, a heavier then usual watering is
all it takes.

Tomatoes
 

On Jul 26, 11:11*am, "Zootal" wrote:
"Chris" wrote in message

...





On Jul 26, 6:53 am, "Alistair Macdonald"
wrote:
Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing
very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every
fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong.
What
is it?
Alistair

I have read that an abundance of sun combined with heavy watering will
do that.

Chris

A good rain in the middle of summer does it also if the plants aren't used
to that much water. In the case of the OP, a heavier then usual watering is
all it takes.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

well, considering they're living in Kent, England, and it rains a lot
in England, and yes, clay could affect the plants and fruit (but clay
dries out better whereas plastic pots don't and would have caused a
whole different batch of problems, cracking is natural, doesn't affect
the taste of the fruit. I just successfully moved a huge GROWN vine
of heirloom potato leafed tomato, it was loaded with unproductive
flowers over to the bed where I had the rest of the tomato's planted
that are doing just fine. Nasturtiums at the feet, radishes planted
on outskirts, and harvested already, rhubarb a few feet away, two cow
horn peppers at the feet along with late planted sweet bell pepper
plants (we'll see if they set any fruit). Harvesting assorted
tomato's that have cracked skin and these are in soil. It's just
moisture and heat and sunshine that does it. no worries. don't over
water them if you have dry spells, yes, clay pots dry out quicker, but
I like clay better than plastic. having said that, I've grown
successfully tomato's in five gallon buckets for years because of lack
of a good place to put the plants in the ground..............(and only
bright sunny spot with eight hours of sunshine was on the deck)
Here's another one........I just found out that blossom end rot is
unavoidable, and if you wanted to, you could eat the undamaged area of
tomato. Oh, another little tip, that would help regardless (not
cracking, nor blossom rot) water tomato's and peppers with weak
solution of Epsom salts in two gallons of water (about 1/4 cup to two
gallons of water) they apparently love it..........
maddie gardening now in the city, in real soil, in a "green bowl"
surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest and the Appalachian
mountains in Eastern Tennessee (closer now to North Carolina and
Virginia than ever before) zone 7b, Sunset zone (as far as I know)
36........MUCH warmer

Tomatoes
 

Thanks all. I am much more knowledgeable now than I was before I started
this thread. In fact I feel I could write a book on the subject, if
copyright is not registered!


"Alistair Macdonald" wrote in message
...
Ailsa Craig and location Kent England.
I have a couple of dozen plants in an outside plot and they are doing very
well. An overflow I planted in a dozen large clay pots. Almost every fruit
is suffering from a split skin. I am obviously doing something wrong. What
is it?
Alistair