JoAnne Skelly: Tough tomato skins

I have ripe tomatoes! I bought my plants with flowers already on them at Greenhouse Garden Center. I always have the best luck with their tomato plants. The first to ripen were the orange cherries that I think are called “Sungold.”

I harvested a small to medium-sized red tomato on my other plant as well. In the past, I looked for tomatoes with the shortest growing season. Now that the last spring freeze is earlier and our first fall freeze is later, I might get away with varieties that require a little more growing and ripening time, but I don’t push my luck.

After all, this is still Northern Nevada with its fickle weather. I have a question though about tomatoes. Why are the skins so tough? I’ve tried many varieties through the years, but they all seem to have tough skins.

While crack-resistant varieties are bred to have thicker skin, I don’t think either of the varieties I purchased are crack-resistant. I have read it can be too little or inconsistent water, but I water thoroughly every day.

High temperatures can also make skins tough as the plant adapts to the heat to reduce sunscald. When heat is a short-term anomaly, providing shade during the hottest time of day can help reduce the tendency for thick skins to develop.

However, we live where high heat is at least a month-long occurrence in July, and often longer than that. Maybe I will have to seek out other varieties that I haven’t tried yet.

Or, I may have to change my attitude and appreciate thick skins because they reduce splitting. Another problem some tomato growers may be seeing is blossom end rot in which the end of the tomato first looks bruised and then turns dark and leathery.

This can affect zucchini, squash, eggplant and peppers too. For more information: https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/blossom-end-rot/.

On another note, I’ve been lucky so far and haven’t seen either the armyworms from last year or tomato hornworms. That’s encouraging, but I will not let down my guard. When raising vegetables, or actually any plants, we have to be on constant watch to catch pests or problems early before they get out of control.

A gardener’s travails might end, and then only temporarily, when winter comes. That is unless you have voles and rabbit’s leftover from summer eating the bark off all your trees and shrubs!

JoAnne Skelly is Associate Professor & Extension Educator Emerita at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Email skellyj@unr.edu