Question: two problems I have every year

[prairiemom]

Maybe you can tell me what to do.
1) cherry tomatoes that split. They look fine on the fine, I pick them and then 10-20 min later many of them are split. What causes that? How do I stop that?

2) by mid-late summer it seems that all my yellow and green zucchini has cross-pollinated with winter squash, producing zukes with very hard skins. Any way to prevent that from happening?

[cHeroKee]

Maybe you can tell me what to do.
1) cherry tomatoes that split. They look fine on the fine, I pick them and then 10-20 min later many of them are split. What causes that? How do I stop that?

2) by mid-late summer it seems that all my yellow and green zucchini has cross-pollinated with winter squash, producing zukes with very hard skins. Any way to prevent that from happening?
1= uneven watering and leaving on the plant too long. The inside is developing faster than the skin of the tomato.
2= Don't use open pollinated plants or use one kind of plant open pollinated and the other hybrids. Or don't plant them close together.

[signseeker]

I wonder if you picked them leaving the little stem thing on if that would help...?

I have no idea, but I did get in to the Master Gardener course in my county that only comes around every 3 years! Yay! In a couple years I'll know all this stuff... (we'll see)

[prairiemom]

It's only my yellow varieties that split. (I should have made that clear.) All the tomatoes get the same watering but only the yellow tomatoes split. This year it was only the Italian Ice variety--a pale yellow.

How close is too close, because I only have so much garden space.

[Julie]

Maybe its the variety that is the problem. If the other tomatoes don't do that, then that is what I would think.
I planted my tomatoes too close and they have all turned into Roma's. I've never had that happen before. I went out to get a nice big fat tomato and all I had on my vines were Roma's.

[signseeker]

Whoa, wait a minute. If you plant tomato plants next to each other, they will "breed" and you'll get different tomato types?! :yikes: I have plants next to each other and am keeping the seeds... will this mess me up? They won't really be Homestead, cuz they might've bred with the Eva Purple Ball next to it?

Great. :frown2:

[prairiemom]

It depends on the variety. There are three classes of tomatoes: current type, the potato-leaf varieties and beef-steak varieties. According to Seed to Seed the early varieties of beef steak tomatoes usually have exposed anthers and therefore are more prone to cross pollination, but the others are recessed and so do not cross pollinate easily.

To determine if you can save the seeds of a particular variety, examine several new blossoms with a magnifying glass to see if the style is recessed or protruding. The anther tube will open as the fruit forms, so it is important to choose newly opened blossoms. If they are recessed there is little chance for cross pollination.

I'm not sure it's the variety that is the problem--last year it was the Brownberry that always split (about 1/2 of them split) and almost every Golden Sun. The year before it was always the Golden Sun. This year only a couple Brownberry have split and none of the Golden Sun. I understand overwatering causes them to split while on the vine. But these look fine when I pick them, then about 10-20 min after getting into the house, they are split.

[cHeroKee]

It's only my yellow varieties that split. (I should have made that clear.) All the tomatoes get the same watering but only the yellow tomatoes split. This year it was only the Italian Ice variety--a pale yellow.

How close is too close, because I only have so much garden space.

The splitting------does the split have a scare after healing (brown)? If so, your watering is erratic.

Planting----Some recommend 1/4 mile which is not reality. I think yu will need to kill all the bees and pollinate yourself :l0 (58):

[signseeker]

I think you're squeezing them too hard. :l0 (46):

[prairiemom]

I think you're squeezing them too hard. :l0 (46):

:l0 (50):


The splitting------does the split have a scare after healing (brown)? If so, your watering is erratic.

No scars because they don't heal because they are not on the vine when they split. They are fine on the vine, then about 20 min after I pick them most of the Italian Ice ones have split. That's what I can't understand. I know about steady watering, but this just doesn't make sense to me. I'd ignore it except that this is the 3rd yr in a row that it's happened.

[signseeker]

Could it be the location of the plants?

I did a little search and some answers on different gardening forums said to pick them with the "calyx" (learned a new word) attached... that's the little bunch of leaves at the stem. You can do this with scissors even, when you pick them. (Boy, do I have good instincts or what?) Try it and tell us if it works. I think the water "pressure" in the tomato must be able to flow a bit or it builds up too much, I don't know. But I thought the stem-intact picking was a good idea in general so that's what I try to do.