Friday, November 14, 2008

I have a crack problem

I never thought the day would come when I could admit to having a crack problem. I always thought I'd be above such things, then one day the reality hits you and BAM! - you realize that yes, crack has wrapped it sticky fingers tightly around you and won't let go. Once you realize that you have a crack problem, you can't take it away. You just have to move forward, try to recover and learn from your mistakes. I suppose admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. I'll chalk this up to another important lesson learned.
We are, of course, talking about my tomatoes. I've pulled about three of my baby yellow bell tomatoes off the plant that are split right down the side from top to bottom. I thought it was a fluke since I don't really know what I'm doing and didn't think I'd find the same thing on any other plants.
Then yesterday Aidan was very excited to notice that we have some tomatoes turning orange and red on one of our tomato plants.
This is a huge step forward since everything else in the garden has remained a nice shade of green, turned brown and dropped off. This splash of color is new and exciting in our gardening world. We excitedly hopped into the garden to marvel at the brightly colored things...
...when we saw the cracks. Yup. We have tomato fruit cracking. I looked up the cause of cracking and wouldn't you know it? The finger of blame can be pointed firmly in my face, thank you very much. Here is one of the primary causes of cracking:

Rain and excess irrigation will often cause cracking and if the fruit lacks leaf cover then the effect is even more dramatic. Tomato crops that do not receive water at regular intervals but rather receive it periodically at large intervals are likely to have cracking.

Did you read that? "Excess Irrigation." Does THAT sound like anything I've done? Maybe watering the garden for 14 hour intervals when I accidentally left the sprinkler running overnight - not once, but twice? Yeah. Just great. I assume you can't eat a cracked tomato because I'd guess it's dry or weird or something. Oh well. Maybe one of them will be crack-resistant and we'll get to eat one damned thing from this garden one day.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Damn that was funny! I was worried about at first. I am just visiting gardeners today and offering some seeds that I have for free. Come on by and see what I have.

Unknown said...

May I add you to my blog list?

Kate and Crew said...

Sure Darla - that would be great! Off to check out your blog now...

Kate

Anonymous said...

Yep, it's caused by inconsistent watering, whether by you or Mother Nature. They still eat just the same, though. Blossom end rot may happen next, so be on the lookout for it, as well. That was a funny post...great humor! BTW, yes - I have a female german shepherd, and she is gorgeous.....I'd love to see photos of yours.

EG

EG

Dani said...

I hate when that happens!! I'm usually dealing with blossom end rot, but have had my share of the cracked veggies.

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