That one rainy week my cherry tomatoes exploded

Last June we had five straight days of drizzle here in Portland, and I swear my balcony tomatoes doubled in size by Friday. I came home Thursday evening and found three cherry tomatoes had split right open from drinking too much water, it was wild. Has anyone else had a surprise harvest week that just blew up out of nowhere?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma30629d ago

@ninab95 exactly right about the split ones still tasting amazing, they're like nature's little juice bombs. If you catch them right after they crack, that's the sweetest tomato you'll eat all season. Best trick I learned for that Portland wet weather is to pick them a day early if you see a big rain coming, they'll keep ripening on the counter just fine. Mulching around the base also helps keep the soil from getting too soaked too fast, stops the roots from going into full panic mode. Those surprise harvest weeks are stressful in the moment but honestly make the best garden stories.

ninab9529d ago

Wait, did you say they actually split open from too much water? I always thought tomatoes could handle whatever rain threw at them, but I guess not... I used to believe you had to baby them with perfect watering schedules, but after seeing a friend's raised bed turn into a tomato jungle during a wet spell last summer, I changed my mind completely. It's like they just go into overdrive when the conditions line up right, almost like they know they have a limited window to explode. Those split ones are annoying but I bet they tasted incredible, all that sugar concentrated from the rapid growth...