Quote:
Originally Posted by 2nd Foundation
I've been looking through my tomato catalogs and noticed that many of them list 'crack-' and 'split-resistant' in their tomato descriptions. While this is very generalized--because of endless variables such as weather, water, soil, amendments, etc., I still find it quite helpful in narrowing down varieties. The more information they can print, the better for me. I'm always grateful for those willing to spread their knowledge, especially here on this forum.
Anyway, I was wondering if others have found the catalog descriptions to be generally accurate regarding crack and split-resistance.?
~Caroline
|
I believe very little of descriptions in catalogs. After all most are in the business of making money so are going to shy away from saying anything negative.
The other issue is that not all companies grow their own tomatoes for seed, far from it, so haven't a clue as to crack and split tolerance, not resistance, for there really is no resistance.
Another issue is that one has to distinguish between the different kinds of splitting since for many varieties it's just part of their genetic makeup to do so.
Concentric splitting occurs as circles around the stem of the fruit. Those splits usually heal over but with too much irrigation or water from the sky they can reopen and then normal bacteria and fungi in the air can invade and start a rotting process.
Radial splitting is seen as rays of splits that extend outwards from the stem, and they too are associated with certain varieties genetically, Same story as above in terms of healing over and then resplitting.
Horizontal splitting is cracks/splits, that occur elsewhere on fruits and that's usually due to too much water and with that water influx when the fruit wall is at it's maximum size, the fruits just split.
There are some vendor sites that I think are much better than others in terms of being honest about the traits of varieties, and not saying that, for instance, that this or that varietiy is low acid, few have been documented to be so, but very few.
And the adjectives used by many vendor listings is WAY over the top when it comes to taste and yield.
And what happens one year as regards a specific variety as to horizontal splitting as well as reopening of concentric and radial splits, may not happen the next season that variety is grown.
Again, there are vendors that do grow their own tomatoes for seed production, but also some that subcontract out for same, and some that buy seeds off the shelf, and some that do a combo of the above.
And what some do that don't grow their own is to use descriptions from the SSE YEarbooks to help out. And don't get me started on DTM's ( days to maturity) b/c they are sheer guesstimates.
Carolyn