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Cherry tomatoes with very tough skin

FireFire Posts: 19,096
in Fruit & veg
I have Tumbling Tom, Hundreds &Thousands and Sweet Million and they all have inedibly tough skin. I am wondering if there are any solutions to this. They are watered every day and not allowed to dry out. They get a lot of sun and are fed. Currently you have to spit the skin out, so I don't really like to offer them to neighbours and friends. It all feels rather disappointing.

Any thoughts to address this downside are welcome.
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Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    I've forgotten what mine are but the skins are tougher than I've ever had them


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited August 2018
    Mine are just starting to ripen. It took a much longer time to go from green to red than I expected. They seemed to stall for a few weeks. I wonder if repot my TT and H&Ts might help - a bigger root run, more water....
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Am trying the banana peel to get mine to ripen to date after two days in there one is finally turning orange. Hope this is a sign of things to come.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    The banana skin works! I have black cherry and Alicanti both ripening, now to see if the taste/skins have been affected by the delay.
  • MuddyForkMuddyFork Posts: 435
    I believe that it's the high temperature that causes tough skins on tomatoes.  Not much we can do about it
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I’ve also found that even sun-lovers like tomatoes can stall/produce poor, tough crops in very hot weather. Over here, they stretch shade netting over the top (but not the sides) of outdoor tomatoes, peppers etc., so they get morning and evening sun but they are protected from the fiercest overhead sun in the afternoon. I guess it also protects the crops from our heavy rainstorms, too.

    I was very sceptical of the necessity of this at first, given my area is nearly in the Pyrenees, thinking, isnt that total overkill?! Well these guys have been growing veg on their huertos for generations. Have bought the shade netting and building a frame to sling it over is on my list for next season :)
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I guess toms still need sun so putting them a shadier bot of the garden isn't a great idea... or is it? I'd like to have some that are vaguely edible.

  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    Am doing an experiment @Fire in the green house, those well exposed to light( leaves removed around trusses) and those left with all greenery reducing light to them to see what happens. 
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Mine got off to a slow ripening start, but got masses now and I've not noticed the skin being any thicker than earlier years.
    Growing sungold, suncherry, rosella, shirley and sparta

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    The first ones to ripen here (Sungold, Suncherry premium) did have tougher then usual skins but getting back to normal now.  I think the temperature just got too high which can stop the ripening enzymes in their tracks, just as cold can, so full-size fruit just hung there for weeks and the skins thickened to reduce water loss.  Only my own guess but compatible with normal plant physiology, I believe. :)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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