Soft/mushy spots on tomatoes?

[Cranraspberry]

Here’s a new one for us. My Moreton has started getting soft/dark/mushy spots on some fruit. The plant doesn’t look too bad, just some signs of fungal infections like on every other plant. No caterpillar holes that I can see. Google is telling me late blight - is this really it?

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[MissS]

Most likely your tomatoes are bruising from stink bug damage or some other injury. Yes you do have some fungal disease but for the most part your plants look to be very healthy. Cut the diseased foliage off and then spray with neem. It may help some with both problems.

[Cranraspberry]

@MissS thank you, how I hope that that is the case! Upon closer inspection I do see some spots on the fruit. After last year’s fusarium debacle I keep waiting for something to come and take all my tomatoes out.
The Moreton has been doing really well for us so far, and I really love the flavor, so of course he’s the one this happens to!

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[Shule]

Every once in a while, we get a big cherry tomato plant with late blight (I've only noticed it on volunteers in recent memory). It doesn't seem to tend to kill the plants here or cause foliar issues in my garden, but it does cause fruit to rot in a very identifiable way. I've found that harvesting the fruit as soon as it colors (and harvesting all the ripe fruit, spoiled or not) tends to help the symptoms to clear up, and future fruit to stop rotting. If any unripe fruits are rotting, pick those immediately, too. That's on vigorous cherry tomatoes in a semi-arid climate.

[MissS]

@Cranraspberry Hopefully that is just an insect bite. I'm also hoping that what you have on your leaves is Septoria Leaf Spot, which will not show up on your fruit, and not Bacterial Spot which will show up on your fruit. So watch those specks to see if they are progressing.

Those fruits with the soft spots may also be Anthracnose but it's hard to tell from your photos.

This is all the worst case scenario. As I said, your plants look pretty darned healthy.

[Cranraspberry]

@Shule thank you! I don’t know much about late blight, but always assumed it meant near instant game over for the plants, so that’s really interesting to hear. We are in a hot and very humid area, so this time of year tomatoes have it pretty rough with all the fungal diseases.

[Seven Bends]

For stink bug damage, I would expect the damaged area to surround the pinprick or bitten area (whereas yours looks adjacent), and I might expect the tomato to look more spotty/gnarly on the outside where the feeding occurred. Your symptoms look like the tomato is rotting from the inside without any significant external damage.

I think there's no need to worry about late blight. That's a very rare disease on tomatoes in this part of the country. In all the many years I've gardened here, I've only seen it once, and that was in mid/late September when it suddenly got cool and wet. Also, you'll see late blight on foliage and stems, and it's definitely not visible on your plant's leaves. Finally, late blight kills the whole plant very fast. If you had it long enough for your tomatoes to rot like that, the plant would look pretty dead by now I think.

The leaf symptoms look like septoria, which is very common around here. I wouldn't expect it to cause that fruit symptom. Still, it's a good idea to address it before it gets worse. Remove the diseased foliage and spray with copper (if you're organic) or daconil (if you're not).

Is this fruit symptom happening to just a few tomatoes on the plant, or most/all of them now? If it's just a few, and others are fine, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It may be a physiological problem caused by the weird weather we've had this year (drought followed by frequent heavy rains and humid heat). If the problem just started recently, it may simply be too much water. The problem may go away when the weather improves.

It could possibly be a nutrient problem. What have you fertilized with, how much, how often and how recently?

For what it's worth, I grew Moreton three years and it was always the worst plant for me as far as disease and overall plant health was concerned. That's why I've stopped growing it even though the tomatoes are tasty. I don't remember getting this particular problem, though.

I'd be interested in hearing more about what happens with this as the season progresses.

[Seven Bends]

Every once in a while, we get a big cherry tomato plant with late blight (I've only noticed it on volunteers in recent memory). It doesn't seem to tend to kill the plants here or cause foliar issues in my garden, but it does cause fruit to rot in a very identifiable way. I've found that harvesting the fruit as soon as it colors (and harvesting all the ripe fruit, spoiled or not) tends to help the symptoms to clear up, and future fruit to stop rotting. If any unripe fruits are rotting, pick those immediately, too. That's on vigorous cherry tomatoes in a semi-arid climate.

That's not a normal presentation for late blight. How did you determine that's what it is?

[Cranraspberry]

@MissS we had some anthracnose on peppers last year (at least I thought it was anthracnose), and those seemed to get kind of a depression in the center, sort of like a bullseye. The skin on these is perfectly smooth in the soft area. Will definitely be keeping an eye on it - we were just discussing last night with my husband that the Moreton was doing so well it might be my main “safety tomato” next year. Must have jinxed it!

I have one Jaune Flammee plant that really isn’t doing well - it is huge and with a ton of fruit, but has suffered from horrible BER (at least 60% of the fruit are affected) the whole season and recently started rapidly yellowing (just yellowing, without any apparent fungal issues or brown spots - last year fusarium started off that way for us). Hopefully the two aren’t connected.

[Cranraspberry]

@Seven Bends thank you, I was hoping you’d weigh in! We’ve had several healthy fruit from the plant, but the last three have had the soft spots. The green ripening fruit seem to be fine, but I think the spots only become evident once the fruit are at least half way ripe, so it might be too early to tell. None of the other plants in the same bed or in other spots seem to be having this issue (knock on wood).

I’ve been feeding the plants every 7-10 days with Texas Tomato Food (maybe 1/3-1/2 gallon per plant or so of the 1Tbsp/gallon dilution?) and have side dressed with Tomato Tone a few times when we had rainy stretches. Also spraying weekly with a hydrogen peroxide solution which is helping (I planted a spare Brandy Boy in our donation plot and haven’t been tending to it quite as well as I should, that poor guy’s foliage is in really rough shape at this point compared to mine), but definitely need to do more pruning.

[Cranraspberry]

For what it's worth, I grew Moreton three years and it was always the worst plant for me as far as disease and overall plant health was concerned. That's why I've stopped growing it even though the tomatoes are tasty.

I remember you had mentioned this in one of my previous threads. It had been doing really well for us so far, and I assumed that the climate in NJ is close-ish to what we have here, but maybe the July humidity is just too much for it to handle. I think I’ve asked before, but what are some of your favorites for our area? I’m not having great luck with the Big Beef that I expected to love (small plant and not great fruit set compared to everything else) and the Jaune Flammee is frustrating me so much I might just yank it at some point, now Moreton is acting up. Interestingly Cherokee Carbon has been absolutely stellar and Momotaro started off scraggly but is really catching up and tastes wonderful.

[Cranraspberry]

And because you TJers are the only people who will understand my pain - here’s yesterday’s Moreton cut up for a tomato sandwich. I was really looking forward to many more!

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[MissTee]

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I’m sorry I don’t know what is possibly the culprit here, but can rule a few things out.

Photos show Late Blight. Happens in cold, wet weather in September. It does kill plants and doesn’t just go away. Within 2-3 days of noticing something is ‘wrong’, the plants are black and decimated and beyond saving. I have tried bringing indoors some of the unripe, unblemished fruit, but most of it rots anyhow. Knock wood you don’t experience this!

Normally stink bug damage will show multiple dots/bite marks and some puffiness. It doesn’t really affect the fruit badly and can be cut out.

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[Cranraspberry]

Okay I just cut into the tomato and found this. I cut off right at the soft/rotted area. Might this be BER? Or some kind of physiological crack that let bacteria in? I didn’t bring home the second damaged fruit, but will inspect it more closely tomorrow. The picture of it that I took doesn’t seem to show any BER, but might be the angle.

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[Cranraspberry]

@MissTee thank you! We’re in a community garden and I often walk around staring at other gardeners’ plants and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen late blight here either (watch me jinx that one too haha). I am more than happy to rule that one out, it sounds and looks terrible.

[Seven Bends]

@Seven Bends thank you, I was hoping you’d weigh in! We’ve had several healthy fruit from the plant, but the last three have had the soft spots. The green ripening fruit seem to be fine, but I think the spots only become evident once the fruit are at least half way ripe, so it might be too early to tell. None of the other plants in the same bed or in other spots seem to be having this issue (knock on wood).

I’ve been feeding the plants every 7-10 days with Texas Tomato Food (maybe 1/3-1/2 gallon per plant or so of the 1Tbsp/gallon dilution?) and have side dressed with Tomato Tone a few times when we had rainy stretches. Also spraying weekly with a hydrogen peroxide solution which is helping (I planted a spare Brandy Boy in our donation plot and haven’t been tending to it quite as well as I should, that poor guy’s foliage is in really rough shape at this point compared to mine), but definitely need to do more pruning.

That fertilizing seems fine. I thought maybe your plant looked a little pale in your pictures, but maybe that was just the lighting. From what you said here, it seems like they've been fertilized enough (possibly more than necessary). But if in fact the plant IS pale, you may want to fertilize it once with a higher-nitrogen fertilizer and back off the other products for a bit. Maybe things are a bit unbalanced in your soil. Is your pH good?

Ag extension services seem to be saying that there's no evidence hydrogen peroxide works for controlling fungus or bacteria on vegetable plants. I haven't tried it and am not taking a stand one way or the other. Your plants definitely look better than mine as far as foliage disease is concerned, so maybe it's working well. But given your fruit rot problem, maybe it would be good to try one or two sprays of copper or daconil.

Googling "bacterial soft rot" and "tomato fruit rot" seems to get me closest to your tomato symptoms, but nothing looks exactly the same. It does seem possible that insect damage allowed bacteria or fungus to enter the fruit, and if those insects are gone now, maybe your problem will go away. I agree with the advice to remove all the symptomatic fruit as soon as you spot them. Good luck, and please keep us posted.

[Seven Bends]

For what it's worth, I grew Moreton three years and it was always the worst plant for me as far as disease and overall plant health was concerned. That's why I've stopped growing it even though the tomatoes are tasty.

I remember you had mentioned this in one of my previous threads. It had been doing really well for us so far, and I assumed that the climate in NJ is close-ish to what we have here, but maybe the July humidity is just too much for it to handle. I think I’ve asked before, but what are some of your favorites for our area? I’m not having great luck with the Big Beef that I expected to love (small plant and not great fruit set compared to everything else) and the Jaune Flammee is frustrating me so much I might just yank it at some point, now Moreton is acting up. Interestingly Cherokee Carbon has been absolutely stellar and Momotaro started off scraggly but is really catching up and tastes wonderful.

I think this link will take you to my earlier answer about varieties: viewtopic.php?p=98791#p98773

Cherokee Carbon has been great for me as well -- very healthy and extremely productive, plus delicious. Better Boy has been our mainstay hybrid red, but it's not doing particularly well this year. All three plants of it have lots of early blight this year. Two of them are growing through it okay, but the third looks terrible. Fruit set has been okay but not as good as normal so far this year. Whopper (Parks) is a similar tomato and generally reliable. I definitely recommend trying Supersonic. Of the three new hybrids I'm trying this year (Steak Sandwich, Brandy Boy, Jersey Boy), Jersey Boy is the healthiest and has set the most fruit. Steak Sandwich is the least healthy but is the only one to have produced a nearly-ripe tomato so far (not quite ripe enough to taste-test yet). Your experience with Big Beef matches mine. I grew it two or three years with poor results and have given up on it. That's frustrating, because it does so well for so many other people.

Jaune Flamme was kind of a sparse, leggy plant for me, but it produced tons of fruit all season long and I had no trouble with blossom end rot. My problem with it was that I strongly disliked the taste, so much so that I pulled the plant because I didn't even want to add them to sauce.

It's too early to have much of an opinion on the heirlooms I'm growing this year. Standouts so far for plant vigor and fruit set are Chris' Greek Mama and Gallego, plus Polish Elles and one of the Bulgarian tomatoes I'm growing (either Bolgarskie Chudo or Bulgarian Old Sort, need to check next time I'm at the garden). No ripe fruit from any of my heirlooms yet. I'll post when I have more results.

[Cranraspberry]

@Seven Bends now that you mention it it does seem a little anemic looking compared to my other plants. So does the Flammee in the same bed, but not sure that one is a good indicator since it hasn’t been doing great from day one. I’ll try giving them a shot of MG and see what happens. Haven’t tested pH, but that’s a good idea.

And thanks for the refresher! I have a Stump as well, but the squirrels/chipmunks keep getting to it before I do.

[Shule]

Every once in a while, we get a big cherry tomato plant with late blight (I've only noticed it on volunteers in recent memory). It doesn't seem to tend to kill the plants here or cause foliar issues in my garden, but it does cause fruit to rot in a very identifiable way. I've found that harvesting the fruit as soon as it colors (and harvesting all the ripe fruit, spoiled or not) tends to help the symptoms to clear up, and future fruit to stop rotting. If any unripe fruits are rotting, pick those immediately, too. That's on vigorous cherry tomatoes in a semi-arid climate.

That's not a normal presentation for late blight. How did you determine that's what it is?

Sorry. I identified it by the unique appearance of the fruit rot (which was similar to the picture in this thread, but the skin was more transparent and you could see more going on inside the fruit). However, in looking at pictures of late blight now, they look different than what I saw the other times I looked it up. So, I'm thinking someone posted pictures of whatever my plants had and thought it was late blight when it wasn't.

The difference between what my plants had and the late blight pictures I'm seeing today is that the late blight pictures today look a lot more like BER and the torrado virus, they cause fruit deformity, they cause fruit dehydration and such. The fact that they rot in a certain location / percentage of the fruit is the same. What my plants had caused a rotting inside the fruit that you could see from outside the fruit from one side, or so (it didn't affect fruit size, shape, or hydration). It's kind of weird. I should take pictures if I see it again. It doesn't cause flat circles like anthracnose, and it spoils the whole fruit, very quickly (not just part of it). The spoiled fruits were extra soft and punctured / leaked juice easily. I only remember ever seeing it on yellow volunteer cherry tomatoes (with fruits about an inch in diameter). (I might have seen it other times on other fruit colors, though.) I saw it on one two years ago, and another variety maybe two or so years before that. It didn't spread to other plants. It could cause black spots outside the fruit, too. There might have been some foliar stuff going on (but not a lot compared to the fruit rot).

[Shule]

I'm not seeing any pictures of the main rotting that closely resemble what my plants had. However, the black spots that sometimes appeared looked similar to the first picture here with the yellow fruit.