Vegetables

Growing veggies in your garden is a challenging and fulfilling project. If you’re planning on raising vegetables and greens in your backyard, you should consider growing tomatoes. It is one the most popular and practical veggies to grow, especially since it is often used in cooking a variety of dishes.

Tomatoes are a favorite salad ingredient which makes this veggie an asset to your garden. Nonetheless, you should make sure you know how to tend to them the right way because, in some instances, the tomato fruit may have the tendency to crack. In this article, we’ll discuss the reasons what causes tomatoes to split and how you can avoid it.

What Causes A Tomato To Split?

One of the most frustrating things you can experience when raising tomatoes on your own is discovering a crack in the middle of the fruit after you’ve patiently waited for it grow from a seedling into a red, juicy, and plump fruit. This often happens to most home growers. Some tomatoes tend to rip wide open while they are ripening.

So what makes a tomato suddenly crack open? Most often, the cause of a tomato split can be attributed to the inconsistent amount of water they absorb. For example, if you are living in an environment that is mostly dry, and it suddenly rains on your crops, the inside properties of the tomato may develop faster than the exterior skin.

A lack of water can also cause the tomato to crack. Without water supply and moisture, tomatoes will not grow juicy and healthy. A tomato needs the right amount of water nourishment too.

Otherwise, it will crack just like anything that is too dry and lacks moisture. On the other hand, tomatoes with too much water in it can also burst open.

Although green tomatoes may also tend to experience this issue, most often, tomatoes that are about to become ripe are more prone to splitting.

As it starts to ripen, the skin of the tomato becomes fragile. At the same time, a change in temperature can also raise certain issues on a batch of newly bred tomatoes.

How To Prevent Splitting Of Tomatoes

Via: www.thespruce.com

Why should you be concerned with a cracked tomato? A split tomato is more than a visual problem. Once a tomato cracks open, bacteria and fungus can creep into the fruit. This will cause the fruit to rot and can also aid in spreading disease among your crops. However, you can’t always prevent your tomato from splitting, especially if Mother Nature suddenly decide to rain on your crops. On the other hand, there are still ways to avoid your tomatoes from cracking up.

Water your plants regularly.

The first thing you should do to prevent this from happening is to make it a habit to hydrate your tomato plant with 1 to 2 inches of water at least once a week or 2 to 3 days during the hot summer months. Another way to minimize cracking is to keep your plants watered evenly on a regular basis.

When you are watering your plants, make sure that you do this on a ground level and water it deeply. If you just spray on the leaves, it can possibly cause the spread of certain plant diseases such as septoria or blight.

Watering your vegetation deeply on a regular basis will protect it from the effects of rain. This will help your plants adjust better from dry to wet conditions. Remember that if your veggies get drenched in rain, you can expect the fruit to eventually crack.

If you’re planning to go on a trip for a while, we highly suggest you set up an effective water system and set it on a timer to prevent your plants from thirst and dryness. Most gardeners follow this technique to ensure that their garden is well cared for even if they are away. Otherwise, you might end up coming home to a bunch of cracked tomato.

Use a fertilizer.

Via: www.gardenersworld.com

It’s always better to address this kind of problem to avoid dealing with tomato split. Another step to prevent this issue is to enrich the plant using a tomato fertilizer. Just follow the instructions indicated on the fertilizer.

A fertilizer will maintain a healthy soil and help your plant grow many tomatoes. Following these steps will not only give you a peace of mind but it will also ensure that your tomato plant will grow abundant and healthy without any cracks.

Mulch your plants.

Gardening experts recommend you to mulch your plants with organic materials such as wood chips or plastic. The compost will help preserve and even out the moisture the plant needs and at the same time, prevents plant disease from spreading among the vegetation. A red plastic mulch is the best type of organic matter to help prevent a tomato from splitting.

Are Split Tomatoes Safe To Eat?

Generally, cracked tomatoes are safe to consume. Make it a habit of picking up and harvesting split tomatoes as soon as possible to prevent the bacteria from spreading. However, if you notice that the crack is too severe and if the fruit has been left on the vine for too long, you should probably consider disposing of the tomato just to be on the safe side.

Chances are, the fruit may have already been exposed to certain plant diseases. If the fruit appears okay, you can just opt to slice out the cracked portion and eat the rest of the vegetable.

A Healthy Harvest

Now that you are aware of the reasons what causes tomatoes to split, you are now fully equipped to tend and raise your tomato plants the best way possible. Just make sure you follow the recommended steps to prevent your tomatoes from splitting before you harvest it. These instructions will help ensure that you raise healthy tomatoes that are fit to consume.

Did you find this information helpful? Feel free to send us your comments or suggestions. We’d love to hear what you think.

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When you plant fruits and vegetables, you're mostly going to transplant and transfer them to another location at one point in time. This is especially true for spring vegetables such as asparagus. Transplanting Asparagus is important because it is required of them to be transferred to a different location which is more suitable for their specific stage of growth. In this article, we're going to talk about just that and teach you the right way on how to transplant asparagus.

What You Will Need

1. Asparagus

The first and most obvious thing you're going to need is asparagus. Before you do the actual transplanting, you first need to of course plant it on the ground. When you're still choosing the asparagus seed you're going to plant, see to it that it is fresh and it doesn't have any form of defect of discoloration. When you've already planted it, the perfect time to then transplant it is in early spring. This is the time when your newly planted asparagus has just started waking up.

2. Spade Fork

You need to have a spade fork when transplanting asparagus. This is because a spade fork is the ideal equipment in transplanting plants due to its thin and durable thines. The thines are very useful when it comes to precise gardening because it wouldn't damage the surrounding parts of the plant. It's also an effective tool for loosening up the soil and lifting and turning the soil over to the ground.

3. Shovel

You also need to prepare a shovel, because you're going to use this in digging up a pit where you're going to transfer your asparagus. You don't need to have a huge and heavy duty shovel because you’re only going to dig up loose loam soil. The lighter the shovel, the better it is. It’s because you’ll be faster in digging the soil up. Remember, you’re just going to dig up a shallow pit. You don’t need to put in a serious amount of effort on it.

4. Compost

This is another essential must-have because your asparagus' survivability would surely hang in the balance if you don't put compost on the place where you're going to transplant it to. You can have different kinds of compost, be it synthetic or organic. It could either be manure, fertilizer, or a commercial product. It would also be best if you pair the compost with an anti-molding substance or perhaps a pesticide to avoid mold growth and pest infestations.

5. Water

These asparagus plants need a lot of water because these are spring vegetables. They can easily dry up if they don’t get enough water throughout the day. See to it that the place where you’re going to transplant your asparagus into isn’t directly exposed to sunlight because that will surely lead to your asparagus drying up and eventually dying. It's highly recommended that you water your asparagus three times a day. The first watering session would be before sunrise, then at noon, and then at sunset. It would also be better if you have your sprinkler system or soaker hose installed in your garden. This way, you're making sure that the water would directly go into the roots.

Knowing The Process

1. Untangle the Roots Using Your Spade Fork

The first thing you need to do in transplanting your asparagus is to locate the place and estimate where most of the roots are. In doing this, you’re going to need a spade form to locate the exact location of its roots. Most probably, the roots are entangled. Use the spade fork in carefully untangling them up.

2. Lift the Crown and Trim the Roots Gently divide them using your spade fork.

You can also use your hands to make the dividing process more precise. Then slowly start lifting its crown. You then carefully trim the roots with a pruner or gardening scissors. Be sure that you won’t end up cutting its base because it still needs to re-grow some parts later on.

3. Prepare the Trench

Then start digging a trench that is deep enough to accommodate the asparagus’ complex root system. The depth depends on the complexity of its roots. It can range from three feet deep to even more than three meters deep. Place the compost at the bottom of the pit and mound up a little bit of soil on the compost to solidify it up. Gently position the crown of the asparagus on the mound of soil, having the roots scatter throughout its sides. Evenly spread the roots.

4. Transplanting and Mounding it Up

Use your shovel in piling up the soil back on your dug up trench. Then water it so that the soil would harden. You can then put mulch on it to act as a protection from the external factors that might cause negative effects on your newly transplanted asparagus. Remember that these are very fragile which is why you need to keep a close eye on them on the first few days after they were transplanted.

You can also check out this video to see the actual process of asparagus transplanting:

Conclusion

With all of these being said, you can see that transplanting an asparagus is not that hard to do. You just need to have the needed technical know-how, the determination, and the right tools and methods.

With the help of this article, there's no doubt that you can do the transplanting process yourself the right way. Asparagus has a lot of nutritional benefits, apart from it being an important food ingredient. For sure, you'll be growing asparagus in your backyard or garden in no time.

If you like this article, feel free to share it with your family and friends to that they'll also learn from it. If you have any opinions or thoughts about the subject matter, you can share them with us by writing in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you guys.

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