You nurture your tomato plants until you have beautiful fruit maturing on the vine.
Upon closer inspection, you discover that something has gone terribly wrong.
Your fruits have a hideous deformity! What is going on?
Fear not – they are not under siege from a pathogen that could ruin your entire crop.
In fact, if the fruit have not split open, they are perfectly safe to eat. However, you certainly can’t sell them or show them off.
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We will introduce you to the world of tomato disfigurement known as catfacing – a disorder that is not contagious, but can cause significant losses of yield.
Here’s what I will cover:
What Is Catfacing of Tomatoes?How did this disorder get its name? The answer is simple: because the deformity looks similar, at least at times, to a small cat’s face.
A physiological disorder rather than a disease, catfacing is not caused by an insect or pathogen – it is caused by cultural problems in the garden.
The result is fruit that is deformed on the blossom end, or sometimes on the side.
Typically, you will see a large indentation that looks like a scar. It can crack open and expose the locules – the cavities that contain the seeds.
The fruit can also become distorted and misshapen.
However, even if the blossom scar is just enlarged and the fruit has not split open, the tomato is still considered to have catface.
What Causes This Deformity?The exact cause is unknown, but many cultural conditions have been associated with catfacing.
Abnormal TemperaturesCool weather has been associated with the development of this disorder. Temperatures that dip below 60°F
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