{"id":2069,"date":"2026-09-09T21:04:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/?p=2069"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:20:17","slug":"stop-tomato-cracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/stop-tomato-cracking\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Tomato Cracking Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"kk-star-ratings kksr-auto kksr-align-left kksr-valign-top\"\n    data-payload='{&quot;align&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;2069&quot;,&quot;slug&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;valign&quot;:&quot;top&quot;,&quot;ignore&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;reference&quot;:&quot;auto&quot;,&quot;class&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;count&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;legendonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;readonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;score&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;starsonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;best&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;gap&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;greet&quot;:&quot;Rate this&quot;,&quot;legend&quot;:&quot;0\\\/5 - (0 votes)&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;24&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Stop Tomato Cracking Discussion&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;_legend&quot;:&quot;{score}\\\/{best} - ({count} {votes})&quot;,&quot;font_factor&quot;:&quot;1.25&quot;}'>\n            \n<div class=\"kksr-stars\">\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-inactive\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"1\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"2\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"3\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"4\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"5\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-active\" style=\"width: 0px;\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 5px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n                \n\n<div class=\"kksr-legend\" style=\"font-size: 19.2px;\">\n            <span class=\"kksr-muted\">Rate this<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<h2>Quick Summary of the Discussion<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\ud83d\udea8 <strong>The Problem:<\/strong> A grower faces a common late-summer disaster: a massive harvest of heirloom tomatoes that are all splitting and cracking on the vine, forcing immediate processing into juice and sauces.<\/li>\n<li>\ud83c\udf45 <strong>The Heirloom Dilemma:<\/strong> While heirloom varieties are beloved for their rich, juicy flavors, their thin skins make them highly susceptible to cracking, especially when carrying a heavy fruit load.<\/li>\n<li>\ud83d\udee1\ufe0f <strong>The Hybrid Solution:<\/strong> Some growers argue that for bulk processing and canning, it&#8217;s better to rely on modern paste hybrids (like <em>Pozano<\/em> or <em>Sarra<\/em>). They are practically immune to cracking and blossom end rot.<\/li>\n<li>\ud83d\udc45 <strong>The Trade-off:<\/strong> The debate highlights the ultimate trade-off: Hybrids are trouble-free and great for canning, but some find their flesh too dry and lacking the complex, juicy flavor of true heirlooms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"forum-post\">\n<div class=\"author-header\">\n<div class=\"forum-avatar\">R<\/div>\n<div class=\"author-meta\">\n<div class=\"author-name\">Russi (Anna) <span class=\"author-stats\">\u2b50 Pro Grower (1,275 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"author-geo\">\ud83d\udccd Ramensky District (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Girls, I have a real disaster with my tomatoes. Firstly, there are too many of them, the harvest is absolutely massive. The large-fruited varieties are producing giant tomatoes not just on the 1st-3rd clusters, but all the way up.<\/p>\n<p>And now, this entire avalanche of tomatoes is cracking right on the bushes, even though I haven&#8217;t watered them in a long time. And it&#8217;s not just the giant beefsteaks cracking, but the regular ones too. The only ones not cracking are the hybrids and Yablochnyi Lipetskiy. Plus, I have a lot of unripe yellow shoulders. To top it off, armyworm caterpillars (cutworms) have gone wild in the greenhouse for the first time in my life, ruining a lot of fruit.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, day after day I have to process these tomatoes into juice or ketchup; there&#8217;s barely anything decent left to pick for whole-canning. I&#8217;m getting to the point where just the word &#8220;tomato&#8221; makes me sick to my stomach, I can&#8217;t even look at them anymore.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/uploads\/monthly_2021_08\/IMG_20210805_145623.jpg.036f6e5b4251d83737f7084521fb8ad4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/uploads\/monthly_2021_08\/IMG_20210805_145623.thumb.jpg.ab0b4120add2f2de7bf3e33fdad647f6.jpg\" alt=\"Massive harvest of cracked tomatoes\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"forum-post\">\n<div class=\"author-header\">\n<div class=\"forum-avatar\">A<\/div>\n<div class=\"author-meta\">\n<div class=\"author-name\">Aleksan9ra (Lyudmila) <span class=\"author-stats\">\u2b50 Pro Grower (15,056 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"author-geo\">\ud83d\udccd Moscow Region (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Anya, I was harvesting mine yesterday. I filled a huge crate, but I only got through one row. I have exactly the same problems as you, minus the yellow shoulders. Many large ones have micro-cracks and start weeping juice.<\/p>\n<p>It got me thinking: for fresh eating, I would plant maybe 10-15 heirloom bushes total. These tomatoes don&#8217;t store long, they aren&#8217;t good for canning, they are only for eating straight off the bush. Everything else should be trouble-free: tasty, productive, not sour, doesn&#8217;t crack, no blossom end rot, dense, can hang on the bush for a while, can sit on the counter for a couple of weeks without problems, and is great for canning and freezing. And for that, I would rely entirely on good hybrids (like Pozano, Sarra, Pink Bush).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"forum-post\">\n<div class=\"author-header\">\n<div class=\"forum-avatar\">R<\/div>\n<div class=\"author-meta\">\n<div class=\"author-name\">Russi (Anna) <span class=\"author-stats\">\u2b50 Pro Grower (1,275 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"author-geo\">\ud83d\udccd Ramensky District (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Lyudmila, trouble-free is good&#8230; but&#8230; last year I had a lot of basically trouble-free hybrids. But the juice made from them was sour and tasteless; this year from the heirlooms, the juice is amazing.<\/p>\n<p>Tell me, I keep meaning to ask, what do you do with Pozano? I tried it&#8230; it is absolutely bone dry, no juice at all, though at least it&#8217;s not sour, it&#8217;s slightly sweet. And they are huge icicle shapes. What do you do with such tomatoes? I don&#8217;t find them tasty for fresh eating. I don&#8217;t make sun-dried ones, and for canning I also dislike tough, hard tomatoes that you have to chew rather than just &#8220;drink&#8221; out of their skin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"forum-post\">\n<div class=\"author-header\">\n<div class=\"forum-avatar\">A<\/div>\n<div class=\"author-meta\">\n<div class=\"author-name\">Aleksan9ra (Lyudmila) <span class=\"author-stats\">\u2b50 Pro Grower (15,056 posts)<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"author-geo\">\ud83d\udccd Moscow Region (USDA Zone 4)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>As for Pozano, I love those kinds of tomatoes for canning in jars, and the grandkids happily eat them fresh right now. This year many heirloom varieties are extremely juicy, you take a bite and you drown in juice. I don&#8217;t like drinking my tomatoes. I prefer dry, dense, meaty, and sweet ones without acid. There are few tomatoes like that, especially this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quick Summary of the Discussion \ud83d\udea8 The Problem: A grower faces a common late-summer disaster: a massive harvest of heirloom tomatoes that are all splitting and cracking on the vine, forcing immediate processing into juice and sauces. \ud83c\udf45 The Heirloom Dilemma: While heirloom varieties are beloved for their rich, juicy flavors, their thin skins make &#8230; <a title=\"Stop Tomato Cracking Discussion\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/stop-tomato-cracking\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Stop Tomato Cracking Discussion\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[529],"tags":[30,651,650,647,646],"class_list":["post-2069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growing-tomatoes","tag-heavy-yielder","tag-heirloom-vs-hybrid","tag-overwatering-tomatoes","tag-split-tomatoes","tag-tomato-cracking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2069"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2072,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions\/2072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomat-pomidor.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}