flowerbug
Garden Master
It would surprise me if you have more trouble with splitting than I do, @flowerbug . Well, maybe ... lots of excess water at times?.
I once had a neighbor gardening and her sprinklers put so much water on my tomato plants that the fruits of the mild varieties became nearly tasteless. I was already inclined toward split-resistant. She would water sooo often -- then complain about how much electricity her well pump added to her utility bill.
I finally vetoed Yellow Pear from the garden, @ducks4you .
There are differences in tastes in a household. That's actually been a good thing for me. I grew red fruited types only -- until I became frustrated that DW wouldn't eat red slicers.
I suspected that if they were more interesting and mild, she would eat those. Bingo. Then, I realized that I liked many of those, too! Inexperienced, @Zeedman .(She also learned to eat the big, red ones that way.)
Steve
the trouble with splitting is that towards this time of the season when we are picking/harvesting i don't want to water when there are tomatoes above the hard green stage. we've not had regular rains here this season at all. i had Mom water yesterday a bit and she doesn't usually water deeply so it will probably be just enough to hold them over until this weekend when we might get some rains. likely we'll also pick again before then or that day or the next day so any splits won't be too much of a problem. one thing nice about tomatoes with enough acid in them is that even if they do develop a problem it may still leave the fruit in a useful state if you can pick it quickly enough.
the sweet100 splitting has been an issue every time we grow them, but there are so many on a plant that we don't mind it. any extras that split, if Mom won't eat them we put them in the pot to be put up with the rest of the tomatoes. it does add more sweetness to the batch, but when i one time canned the juice from sweet100s alone it was bland and not worth it. gotta have the flavor from the beefsteaks to be better. like the beefsteaks a split in a sweet100 will still be useable if you get it picked soon enough. in my experience though a lot of the splits happen after they're picked or if you get a rain after they've ripened but you've not had a chance to get them off the plant.
this season there was not much sign of BER on the tomatoes. i think that is because when the weather turned very hot and arid for several weeks early in the summer i was out there every few days watering to keep the plants reasonably supplied with water.
