fireduck, Rain getting on them especially when alternated with dry/hot weather, less even watering (i.e., waiting till it dries out too much to water), and not harvesting them a day or two sooner, greater daily temperature variation ... watch for morning condensation ... same effect as rain.

Cheers

PC

Fire duck, my CP's are not pretty. Plenty of radial cracking. But they are so prolific in my garden and taste so good, I don't mind losing half a tomato for slicing. Wish they didn't do this though.

Well, I have read the problem can often be a watering problem. I was wondering if there were different "strains" of CP...like some other tomatoes. Last year's maters were perfect.

I have started picking mine sooner, as PC suggested, and it has greatly reduced the cracking. I wonder also if there are different strains as some have CP's with no green shoulders when ripe. Most of mine have green shoulders when ripe, a few don't.

makes sense...

"These can happen while the fruit is still green, so early picking isn't a complete fix."

Complete fixes are very rare in farming for these sorts of problems, so that goes without mentioning. There are other tomatoes that have splitting problems and can be harvested acceptably, with delicate skins and high potential for splitting due to the osmotic forces of rainhumidity/condensation. But if you have good cultural practices considering the splitting tendency of CP, you will significantly improve your odds of getting acceptable tomatoes.

If you are getting a significant amount of splits or cracks before the pink/light red stage of ripeness (~3 days before table-ripe), odds are you need to adjust your cultural practices considering some of the other factors:

"Rain getting on them especially when alternated with dry/hot weather,
less even watering (i.e., waiting till it dries out too much to water),
and not harvesting them a day or two sooner, greater daily temperature
variation ... watch for morning condensation ... same effect as rain."

Sometimes, the weather makes this near impossible since we can't control the temperature/humidity/condensation abrupt variations, but at least we can do the watering right, which when dry/soak cycled is usually responsible for the splitting when green.

Indian Stripe (seeds link) and Indian Zebra (seeds link) are both reputed to be strains of Cherokee Purple (or conversely, CP a strain of them), and I believe this, though it is not a universal consensus. So, fire duck you ought to get some and give it a try if you are worried about a repeat: Both seem smoother, and I would add size plays a roll, too since *smaller tomatoes have less leverage to split* if you carefully think about the stress on the growing skin. While those two should be the same strain, there is anecdotal evidence that Indian Zebra is somewhat larger than Indian Stripe but that is a subject for testing in your own gardens.

Cheers

PC

(I don't vouch for the linked seedswoman but it was cheaper than some others and seems like a very serious heirloom tomato person and dedicated seller. Both are also available from Marianna's (seeds link) at a higher shipping cost (I believe a $2 surcharge over regular handling costs which are high, for small orders under $15)

Thanks for all this info. Here in SoCal we have had very strange weather (for SoCal). It actually rained 1" last week...and unheard thing for us in summer.

What is the final verdict ?

My CP did very very poorly and was way too late.

I might stop growing it in 2016. Instead will grow more Black From Tula.

Sey

Final Verdict :

I wont be growing CP in 2016. In addition to BFT and Brown Heart , I am thinking about replacing CP with Indian Stripe. Any body has seeds of IS for trade ? I have JBT, Brown Heart, Kumato (F3) and BFT in this category.

Sey

UPDATE: 11/10/15

I got a heirloom tomato from store that is more likely to be Black Seaman. It will replace CP .

Sey