Rain Check and what to do in the future

[WhippoorwillG]

I searched "rain check" and came up with no specific thread, but it is always an issue for us and this year has been much worse than usual due to the crazy weather. Even a decent amount of the shade-house tomatoes were blemished heavily earlier in the season despite no heavy direct rainfall or sun.

What do you all do to lessen the effects? Are there specific genetic traits that make a variety more prone?

Over the years, it would appear that a number of the striped varieties are more susceptible, likely due to slight variations in the epidermal layer that fissure on expansion, but that is anecdotal observation.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by WhippoorwillG

I searched "rain check" and came up with no specific thread, but it is always an issue for us and this year has been much worse than usual due to the crazy weather. Even a decent amount of the shade-house tomatoes were blemished heavily earlier in the season despite no heavy direct rainfall or sun.

What do you all do to lessen the effects? Are there specific genetic traits that make a variety more prone?

Over the years, it would appear that a number of the striped varieties are more susceptible, likely due to slight variations in the epidermal layer that fissure on expansion, but that is anecdotal observation.

These links should answer all of your questions,even to genetic susceptibility, etc.

I suggest you ignore the PDF one and read the Cornell one and the kd one, and now I've forgotten the 3rd one.

You can't stop it from raining and that's the problem. I just ignore since those splits usually just heal shut.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rain...&bih=788&dpr=1

(Even a decent amount of the shade-house tomatoes were blemished heavily earlier in the season despite no heavy direct rainfall or sun.)

I'm not sure how to answer this since you said blemished,not rain checking so how does sun relate and did you do any possible watering of your tomatoes in the shade house?

Carolyn

[WhippoorwillG]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

(Even a decent amount of the shade-house tomatoes were blemished heavily earlier in the season despite no heavy direct rainfall or sun.)

I'm not sure how to answer this since you said blemished,not rain checking so how does sun relate and did you do any possible watering of your tomatoes in the shade house?

Carolyn

Thank you for the links and information.

The shade-house is just that, shade, not a rain barrier. So, the rain does fall through and wet the plants and fruit.

Based upon some of the reading I did before posting, I was making an incorrect posit that intense direct heavy rain followed by sun exposure was likely to increase the severity of the rain check. Using that incorrect assumption, I was expecting much less in the shade-house than the field.

And as for the word blemish, I consider the checkered brown pattern left by rain check to diminish the value of otherwise good fruit.

Thanks again.

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