Common Tomato Problems, and the Varieties That Dodge Them
Most tomato disappointments come down to a handful of problems. Some are about how you grow; some are about what you grow. Here are the big three and the varieties bred to shrug them off.
Late blight
Late blight is the one that flattens a whole patch in a wet August, with greasy dark patches on leaves and fruit. It is weather-driven and hard to stop once it arrives, so resistant varieties matter most in damp regions.
Mountain Magic, Defiant, and Galahad all carry strong, bred-in late-blight resistance and still taste good, which is the rare combination worth seeking out in a blight-prone summer.
Cracking
Cracks, concentric rings or radial splits, come from uneven watering: a dry spell followed by a soak swells the fruit faster than the skin can grow. Steady, deep watering is the fix.
Thicker-skinned varieties and many hybrids resist cracking better; thin-skinned cherries like Sungold are the most prone and should be picked promptly.
Blossom-end rot
The sunken black patch on the bottom of a fruit is blossom-end rot, a calcium-uptake problem driven by inconsistent watering rather than a true disease. It shows up most on paste tomatoes and in containers.
There is no resistant variety as such; the cure is even moisture and not overdoing the nitrogen. Mulch and consistent watering prevent most of it.
Varieties mentioned
Sources
- Growing tomatoes in home gardens · University of Minnesota Extension
- Mountain Magic, a blight-resistant F1 hybrid tomato · HortScience