If you do, cover your plants with blankets to help them retain some of the earth’s heat through the night. Of course, you may run into a surprising cold spell later. Wait until the days and nights are consistently warm (ideally over 60☏ at night). Or that tomorrow will continue the trend. But wait! Just because the daytime temperature is over 70☏, doesn’t mean the nights will be warm. If you’re anything like me, the first hot spring days have you longing to pop all your seedlings out into the garden. Since catfacing is caused by certain stressors on the plant, we prevent it by reducing those stressors. But in a cool season, or in a nitrogen-heavy bed, catfacing can continue throughout the growing season. The first fruits of the harvest are the most at risk for deformity. Catfaced tomatoes are the result.Ĭatfacing primarily happens with early tomatoes. All of these conditions cause the plant to rush the fruiting process. While no one knows exactly why these conditions cause catfacing, it’s likely that stress on the plant during flowering is a major factor. So, in the effort to just get it done before this branch is pruned too, the tomato puts out a substandard fruit. It gets a little bit desperate to finally be putting out fruit. If you over-prune your tomato plants, the plant gets stressed. We all want our tomato plants to produce well, so when we see little suckers or excessive branching, we prune them back, right? Not always. Head to our guide to learn more about it. They’re also almost impossible to sell at markets or stores – most people will choose a smooth, red tomato over a scarred, misshapen one any day.Ĭatfacing is different from blossom end rot. But catfaced tomatoes often ripen unevenly, which can make them only half-ripe when harvested. They often taste just as good as those pretty, round fruits. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with eating a catfaced tomato. You often have to cut away a lot of the fruit to use catfaced tomatoes in a recipe. Whatever the shape, catfaced tomatoes aren’t as attractive as they could be. The fruit has simply grown in an extremely convoluted way. If you look closely you can see that there’s no exposed flesh. Catfaced tomatoes often have deep holes in the fruit. Sometimes the stretched scar on the bottom looks like a yawning cat or a scowling gnome. These misshapen fruits are often kidney or flower-shaped.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |