Here in San Antonio, TX, we usually don't have a problem with too much rain. However, I watered all my tomatoes yesterday and we are expecting lots of rain the next two days. I have lots of green tomatoes on the vine and I don't want them to crack. What should I do? I thought about laying a canvas tarp around the base of the plants so they don't get rain directly around them. I'm not sure if that will work. Anyone any have ideas?
I really don't know if this will work, but give it a try. No one likes split tomatoes and they seem to take a long time to cycle through all the splits. Mine lasted for about from August to the end of September and I think even into October with the split crop from the ONE dry period and then the rain, again, we had this summer. Every tomato on the plant cracked, I think. so it took a long time to see one that wasn't cracked. VERY wasteful. If you do it, let us know how it worked.
With the cooler temps now you shouldn`t have a problem. Cracking is a problem during periods of fast growth and too much water. I am in NE Texas so your growing conditions are about the same as ours. As long as growing conditions are slow enough that the plants can absorb the moisture they need, and don`t try to grow out of their skins,,yours should be fine. You can send some of that water our way if you want,, we still need it.
Cool temperatures and lots of rain, has been for me, the dorway to soil born disease. if I was going to shelter my tomato plants, it'd be the plant more than the soil I'd want to relieve... But this is an old new england garden talkin'.
Another long growing season. Great weather!! Weather ( photo / image / picture from rick162iq's Garden )
Yep ! About the same as here in NE Texas. I don`t worry if mine crack. I just cut it off and eat it anyway. With the drought this year I had more to crack than normal. With the ground so dry and then hand watering the plants, they took up water too fast and you know what happened. We still supplied 4 families with tomatoes and had plenty to can. Better than average yield even with the drought.
