Now just what do ya spose this "THING" is?

[Gamebucketman]

I have a plant that is supposed to be a Mortgage lifter that came from a pack of Burpee seeds. I planted some of these seeds last year and got normal tomatoes. I know every now and again you can get a messed up tomato from a fused blossom.

Only 2 tomatoes have set and it looks like maybe 2 more on the way and every single tomato on this plant looks just like this. I even began picking off blossoms that had obviously aborted and picked it apart to find a baby mutant in every blossom.

Ive been lurking here and at GW for almost 2 years and never seen, heard, or dreamed of something like this.
What do you think this is or would cause this?

Justin

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Gamebucketman

What do you think this is or would cause this?

Justin, your fruits are catfaced, which results from pollination occurring during low temps. Just cut away any hard or bad parts when it ripens and enjoy. Some cull fruits like that, I myself usually do not. Totally up to you. Those fruits could also be used for seed saving if you didn't care to eat them, as catfacing (and fusing) are due to environmental factors and won't affect the seeds.

Fused Wes fruit from earlier this year (yes I ate it, and it was absolutely delicious):

[Gamebucketman]

i appreciate your response suze but i was wondering does or can catfacing affect the the entire plant? also this plant does not know what low temperatures are. the temperatures here have been 109 the last 3 days and werent too much cooler when these tomatoes set on. Also i have a lot more plants and no catfacing or anything that looks like this. and every single blossom i have looked at has an undeveloped tomato that looks messed up like that under the flower petals. Is it possible that it is a mutation or something like that that has caused this?

Justin

[Suze]

Justin, I really do think that what you have is catfacing, and no, I don't think that it's due to mutation or that there's anything wrong with that particular plant per se. I probably should have been more specific and said that the most common cause of catfacing is low temperatures. However, it can also be caused by other environmental factors/stresses, and sometimes even herbicide exposure or too much nitrogen.

Here's a pretty good short article about catfacing:
http://www.organicgardening.com/feat...8-1121,00.html

[carolyn137]

IN addition to what Suze has said, catfacing can also result from any disturbance of the blossoms.

Low temps are responsible for most catfacing and it occurs before the blossoms are even open.

If the fruit results from a single blossom then saving seeds is OK, but if a fruit is the result of fused blossoms I wouldn't use it for seed saving unless the multiple blossoms were bagged since one or more of the multiple blossoms could be X pollinated.

I never use cat faced or abnormal looking fruits for a variety as a source of seeds. Just my opinion and long time practice.