Almost every Early Girl I've picked so far has a split top

[bearfan454]

I have to cut off the entire top.

[hippywife]

1. I'm not sure

but they say that is due to uneven watering. :shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Yes, and weather will do it too.

It happens when the fruit tries to grow too quickly for the skin to keep up. My Northeast region relatives see lots of cracking after periods of heavy rain.

In our dry climate here it happens most often at the end of the season when the nights are really cool and the days warm.

[Kolesar]

4. Stab the soil with a trowel around the plant with maturing tomatoes to prevent excessive water uptak

...and to prevent the tomatoes from splitting and allowing disease. Discuss.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Trenching.

The preferred method among the relatives seems to be creating a temporary runoff ditch between the plants to reduce the amount of water absorbed, but that doesn't work if it's raining every day for a week or more.

In my climate, the solution is to move the unripe but blushing fruit off the vine if the night time low temperature is expected to be below 50 for more than a few hours.

[Kolesar]

6. Very good! I pick "lots of" green and unripe tomatos late in the season

So picking the tomatoes to deal with the deluge of rain sounds like a good idea. thanks

[asdjrocky]

2. I've heard that it is due to very hot, or very cold weather as well.

I have many split top tomatoes, by the way they still taste great, and I've read that it's because in extreme heat they ripen too fast and the skin can not catch up. I've also noticed that the ones deep inside the bush tend to do better because they don't get as much sun.

[wildeyed]

7. I've had a lot of splitters this year, too.

The weather has been uneven, dry for a few weeks then a deluge every afternoon for two or three days. The tomatoes are not pretty, but taste fine for what it's worth. I cut the splits off and use the really ugly ones for cooking.