Sun scalded tomatoes
When I finally got around to trellising my community garden tomato plants, they were a huge tangled mess. I pruned back many of them quite a bit just so I could see what I was doing to get them strung up off the ground.
Sunburn!
Unfortunately, many tomatoes that had been shaded up to that point were suddenly exposed to 3 or 4 days of bright, direct sunlight with unseasonably warm 95 degree days.
With no leaves to shade them, the green tomatoes got burnt. Scalded by the sun!
Though these might rot before getting ripe, I am going to try to see if they might mature on their own. Even if they are half-rotten, I should still be able to save some good seeds for next year from inside the other half.
Aww, I’m sorry. I hope you can salvage some seeds off them for next year.
Comment by SRK — June 29, 2009 @ 6:34 am |
This is similar to a cal-mag imbalance. You should be able to save quite a few viable seeds.
Comment by Red Icculus — June 29, 2009 @ 7:18 pm |
SRK- Thanks! I think I can.
RI – I hope it’s not a chemical imbalance, but I didn’t test this community garden soil. I did add eggshells to the planting hole, but I didn’t think there could be too much calcium uptake. My sun scalding theory still seems more likely to me, we had some severe scorchers and I left this group of greenies sitting DIRECTLY in 12 hours of sun.
Comment by Jimmy Cracked-Corn — June 30, 2009 @ 11:16 am |
When I went back to check on these problem children, they were falling off the vine and full of bugs. I tossed them in the compost. I don’t know if a green tomato can provide seeds that will grow and I didn’t want bugs in the car either.
Comment by Jimmy Cracked-Corn — July 3, 2009 @ 7:58 pm |