[trunk monkey]

About half of my beef tomatoes "costo lutto florentino" are cat faced (a hole at the blossom end filled with scar tissue) it looks like the fruit has had some sort of hernia. I have read various causes for this. Do any members of the forum have experience of this condition and/or how to avoid it.

[mumofstig]

It happens when the plant produces mega blooms (they look like 2 or more flowers fused together) the resulting fruit is always catfaced. Costoluto and the other big tomatoes seem to produce more of these large blooms than the ordinary or cherry size varieties.

They do make the largest fruit, but if you don't like the untidy 'bottoms' you are best to remove the megablooms, and only allow the ordinary flowers to set fruit.

[8doubles]

Costoluto fiorentino(sp?) is a very tasty tomato , who cares what they look like !

[Growster...]

We got a sharp stiletto saw/knife a few years ago; it's great for cutting out the black bits and hard stuff on an ugly tom.

I always think carving a lovely tom like this is like carving anything meaty, and, they really are worth the effort...

[trunk monkey]

Thanks mumofstig and yes they are a tasty tomato. I apologise for the spelling but we do not have much call for Italian in South Yorkshire. My next question what causes the megablooms or is it just a characteristic of the variety? Thanks again Trunky

[New shoot]

I don't know what causes the mega blooms Trunky, but I find most of the big beef steak tomatoes cat face fairly regularly.  Like Growster, I just cut any really ugly bits out and eat the rest 

[mumofstig]

My next question what causes the megablooms or is it just a characteristic of the variety? Thanks again Trunky

I always assumed it was a combination of genetics (some varieties do it more than others) and weather conditions. It seems to happen more often on the first truss, which could be the result of cool night time temperatures at planting out time. Even in the greenhouse the thermometer often shows less than 10C at night during May (and even in August this year  )

[Growster...]

In the 'Great Crimson Crush Experiment', there are some really weird toms appearing, most of them quite large too with great black areas near the stem and flower end, which can be carved off...

They had odd blooms as well as stems like tree trunks, and are producing fruits like crazy!

[8doubles]

I have always put black areas down as blossom end rot which i used to get even if i was a saint with the watering regime

The grey to brown scabs (not a nice word but i believe in calling a digging tool a digging tool ) i always put down to genetics in the plants .