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Misshapen tomatoes
Patricia Parkes
Posts: 7
in Plants
The Marzano and Costoluto Fiorentino tomatoes grown in my greenhouse have produced weird clusters and shapes, will these fruits ripen and be suitable to eat?
I have also had blossom end rot on the Marzano.
Pictures attached.
0
Posts
Of course they're okay to eat, Patricia.
This misshaping can get quite amusing at times.
Those shapes are completely normal for those varieties Patricia. David's is a little unusual (as well as funny)!
Pics of Constoluto Fiorentino http://www.sarahraven.com/veg_fruit/seeds/veg_seeds/tomato_costoluto_fiorentino.htm
and San Marzano http://www.tesco.com/direct/tomato-il-san-marzano-lungo-vita-sementireg-italian-seeds-1-packet-300-tomato-seeds/748-3146.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=748-3146&ui=mercury&sc_cmp=pcp_GSF_Planting%20%26%20Growing_748-3146kpid=748-3146&sc_cmp=ppc_g__&gclid=CIjggMa0p8ACFesBwwodrGcA1w
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Is the 2nd photo supposed to be a Marzano, Patricia? It's actually a Costoluto - did you get the labels mixed up like I often do?
That isn't BER on the 2nd one - that's just how Costaluto sometimes grow and I just slice that highly compressed bit off before cooking. Some of the flowers are naturally malformed on that variety and the toms which develop from those have more of the compressed 'pleats' at the bottom.
When, in the fifties , I was employed on a farm in France as a number 6 garden assistant. I was put in charge of the Tomatoes in a prehistoric glass house.
The " Madame" who consider all English people to be " a carbuncle on the backside of humanity" used to rebuke me for growing what she called " cat faced rubbish."
i did try to prove that they tasted better ( which they most certainly did) than her favoured Marmande types. But she would not have it. So I had to catch the next Garry back to Newhaven. Tant pis!
Sorry, that should be the next Ferry not Gerry.
The Costolutos are just heavily ribbed as they should be. "Costoluto" means ribbed in Italian. That's "cat facing" on the very bottom of a Costuluto in the second photo as punica alludes to above. It's akin to a hernia, a malformation caused by a hiccup in the pollination process. Just cut around it.
Are they C. Fiorentina or C. Genovese, Patricia? They look like Genovese.
Thank you very much Italophile for that most interesting and informative information.
Very good advice.
Love that phrase 'cat-faced' - Purrfect description! Mine today - just beginning to turn colour. Every fruit I've ever had from Costoluto Genovese has been 'cat faced':
Great flavour though!
I too have had mishappen tomatoes, but I still ate them yummy !!!!