How to Prevent and Treat Tomato Fruit Cracking? Causes and Practical Methods Explained

Tomato (Tomato), also known as xihongshi and yangshizi, with the ancient names liuyueshi and xibao sanyuan. In Peru and Mexico, it was originally called “wolf peach”. The fruit is rich in nutrients and has a distinctive flavor. It can be eaten raw, cooked, or processed into tomato sauce, juice, or canned whole fruit. The tomato is one of the most widely cultivated fruit vegetables in the world. The tomato is a warmth-loving, light-loving vegetable, and its requirements for soil conditions are not very strict, but to obtain a high yield and promote good root development, a deep, well-drained, fertile loam rich in organic matter should be chosen. It originated in South America and is widely cultivated in both northern and southern China.

Medicinal value of tomato

Tomato has the effects of stopping bleeding, lowering blood pressure, promoting urination, strengthening the stomach and aiding digestion, promoting fluid production and quenching thirst, clearing heat and detoxifying, and cooling the blood and calming the liver. Because the ratio of vitamin A to vitamin C in tomato is appropriate, eating it regularly can enhance the function of small blood vessels and prevent vascular aging. The flavonoids in tomato not only reduce the permeability of capillaries and prevent their rupture, but also have the special effect of preventing vascular hardening, and can help prevent diseases such as cervical cancer, bladder cancer, and pancreatic cancer; in addition, it can also beautify the skin and heal mouth sores (you can hold some tomato juice in the mouth so that it contacts the sore surface, for several minutes each time, several times a day, with remarkable results).

Edible value of tomato

According to research measurements by nutritionists: eating 50-100 grams of fresh tomato per person per day can meet the human body's needs for several vitamins and minerals. The “lycopene” contained in tomato has a bacteria-inhibiting effect; it contains malic acid, citric acid, and sugars, and tomato is rich in carotene, vitamin C, vitamin B, as well as vitamin B2 and multiple elements such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, and iodine, and also contains protein, sugars, organic acids, and cellulose. Tomato is rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants can prevent free radicals from damaging the skin and have an obvious beautifying and anti-wrinkle effect. Tomato is rich in carotene, vitamin C, and B vitamins.

How to prevent tomato fruit cracking?

Tomato fruit cracking is a physiological disease that easily occurs during the color-turning stage of the fruit. According to the location and form of occurrence, it can be divided into 3 types: first, radial cracking, which radiates from the fruit stalk as the center, and generally has deeper cracks; second, ring cracking, which takes the fruit stalk as the center of the circle and forms shallow ring-shaped cracks; third, streak cracking, which forms irregular streak-like cracks at the top of the fruit. After fruit cracking occurs, fruit quality declines, pathogens easily invade, and rot follows.

Causes of tomato fruit cracking:

First, it is caused by deformed flowers.

Second, when strong light exposure, high temperature and drought are encountered in the late stage of fruit development or the color-turning stage, especially when heavy irrigation is applied after a long drought, it is easy to cause the growth of the fruit skin and the expansion of the flesh tissue to be out of sync, and the turgor pressure increases, resulting in fruit cracking.

Third, improper use of plant growth regulators, with excessive concentration during use and insufficient water and fertilizer following, causes physiological disorder and produces fruit cracking.

Fourth, pinching too early causes nutrients to be supplied in a concentrated way to the fruit and causes fruit cracking.

Prevention and control methods for tomato fruit cracking:

1. Choose crack-resistant varieties, generally choosing small and medium-sized varieties with thick fruit skin.

2. During the seedling stage, especially the flower bud differentiation stage, the temperature should not be too high or too low. Keep the daytime temperature at around 24°C and the nighttime temperature at 15-17°C. The nighttime temperature must not remain below 8°C for a long time.

3. Prevent strong light from shining directly on the fruit skin. In the late stage of late-autumn delayed cultivation and early-spring early cultivation, do not remove the bottom leaves too early, as this can shade the fruit.

4. Prevent the soil from being too dry or too wet, and keep the relative soil humidity at around 80%.

5. Apply more organic fertilizer and good-quality biological fertilizer to improve soil structure and provide a good environment for root growth. Trace elements such as calcium and boron should be supplemented frequently on the leaves.

6. Use plant growth regulators correctly. When using hormones to spray flowers, the concentration should not be too high, and the concentration should be reasonably determined according to the variety and temperature.

7. Pruning and removing side shoots should be moderate, keeping the plant with luxuriant leaves, strengthening the transpiration of excess water in the plant, and avoiding nutrient concentration being supplied to the fruit and causing fruit cracking.