fused sepals....... wierd!

[bower]

Just thought I'd post pix of the straaange fused sepals I'm seeing on several varieties this year. I know it must be environmental because it's on unrelated plants. On some plants the flowers never really opened... a tuft of petals sticking out here or there. But they set fruit anyway (at least some of them). Wondered if anyone else had seen this, or knows what wierd and wonderful explanation there is, that caused sepals to separate when it's time to bloom... or not!

[ACEBUGGIES]

I know nothing to help you but it looks pretty cool. Following

[AlittleSalt]

It is the first time I've seen sepals like that. The third picture ... wow.

[zipcode]

It's supposed to be excess nitrogen (everything is excess nitrogen lol), or high humidity.
Most of the time they're not really fused, can be separated by hand and will usually separate when the fruit grows.

[bower]

Thanks zipcode!
We did have an exceptionally horrible spring although it wasn't especially humid. Don't think the N was in excess but nutrient balance could be out of whack due to pH or other characteristics of the mix, so maybe that does explain it!

It reminded me of those mornings when you just don't want to wake up even though it's daylight, so you just squinch your eyes shut as tight as you can.
It makes sense from a biological standpoint that the cells along the sepal separation lines could be "sticky" until they get a cue that the flower is mature, time to open, and then stop making whatever protein or thing it is that keeps them together and protecting the bud. And for some reason maybe an imbalance towards N, did not get the unsticky cue!

Sure is wierd looking.

[Tormato]

I've seen it, and I hope it comes back.

I had a SunGold plant do it a few years back, with about every third fruit having fused sepals. The tomatoes were elongated, pointed, had crooknecks at the stem since they grew out sideways instead of straight, and were about twice as sweet as the rest of the SunGolds.

[oakley]

Wow. Interesting. Not run into that. Telling if it produces a different shape.
What variety? (apologies if you mentioned before)

[bower]

These are two unstable crosses - one is an F4 heart, the other is an F1 should be a ruffled or flat beefy shape. The heart is producing some slightly odd shapes but nothing I wouldn't expect, really...
I will certainly be looking for anything untoward like excess sweetness, Cap'n!!! And of course, any fruit detours out the side.