Unripe Shoulders on Hearts

[MissTee]

A lot of the hearts I’m growing have ripened with unripe green/yellow shoulders, wasting about a third of the fruit. Wondering if this is environmental based on poor weather conditions. (Cold, then hot and drought).

I grew some of these varieties last year and my experience was the fruit ripened fully throughout. I have saved seed from these. Will saved seed replicate this year’s results?

[Tormahto]

Yellow shoulders are generally thought to be weather (heat) related. In my garden, yellow shoulders usually means mediocre tasting fruit. I'll take green shoulders any day, as the rest of the tomato tastes fine.

[Uncle_Feist]

K deficiency.

[mama_lor]

Some red hearts I've grown have had this problem. There's definitely a nutrition component in there as well. Cold nights will contribute.

[MissTee]

Interesting, thanks for the info. We had a cold month of June, plants were fried with cold and wind damage. Also colder nights in the past month. They have been well-fertilized with Muskie Liquid fish (5-1-1) watering a every 7-10 days for the first month to get them going, then more balanced Dramm liquid fish feedings (2-4-1) every 10 days since. Come to think of it, it’s the hearts in containers with the unripe shoulders. The ones in-ground are fine. So next year will have to give the containers a bit more food.

[brownrexx]

I am growing a heart this year for the first time and early in the season the entire fruits were red and now I am seeing green shoulders on tomatoes from the same plant so I believe it must be weather related since we have had terribly hot and dry weather. I do some watering but probably not enough to keep the tomato plants happy. I do not add fertilizer.