Can you eat cracked tomatoes

If you know how why those cracks and splits form, you can take measures to reduce the chance of them happening. But believe me, I would rather eat a split homegrown tomato from the garden than a picture perfect grocery store tomato any day of the week. Freshly split tomatoes are perfectly safe to eat; the split is purely cosmetic. If you have smaller cracks or splits along the top that are white, brown, or black, those are also safe to eat, but you will want to cut away the cracked part.

If you notice mold growing in those cracks, cut off the entire top part of the tomato, as you may be able to salvage the rest for eating. Tomato splitting is primarily caused by inconsistent watering or a dry spell followed by a heavy rain.

Water flows between the tomato fruit and the rest of the plant, so if the plant is under drought stress, water will be pulled out of the tomato fruits. At the same time, when that tomato plant gets several inches of rain, it will quickly start sucking up all that water, some of which will flow back into the fruits.

In some cases, the tomato fruits can absorb too much water too quickly, causing it to expand and put too much pressure on the skin, creating a split. If there is any sign of infestation on the Tomato get rid of it. If it looks like a fungus issue does not put it in the compost as the fungus may find the rest of your compost hospitable and reoccur next season. If the damage is minor eating split tomatoes is okay. Cut out the damaged section and put it to good use.

When it comes to preventing splitting, however, too much nitrogen fertilizer can actually cause your tomatoes to grow too fast and split. You can pick tomatoes as soon as they turn slightly pink. This change in color marks the breaker stage, when tomatoes have reached their full size. Because tomatoes will continue to ripen even off the vine at this point, you can pick them and keep them at room temperature ideally between 70 and 75 degrees F till you're ready to eat them.

That said, you can leave them on the vine to keep ripening, but picking them early can safeguard them from unexpected rainstorms. In short, most cracked tomatoes are safe to eat.

But take into account the size and depth of the crack. If the tomato split runs deep into the fruit, there's a chance insects, bacteria, or fungi have entered the tomato. This especially applies to cracks that run vertically from the stem down. Horizontal cracks, however, tend to be shallower and heal themselves more easily, which makes tomatoes with this kind of split more salvageable. This goes without saying, but if you don't want the damaged skin visible, you can simply slice your tomatoes around the splits.

Mary Claire Lagroue. By Mary Claire Lagroue April 14,