Where do you garden? Dry farming where I garden would mean maybe enough irrigation from December through March, but none during my tomato season.

Agree we'd need some clarification please. Do you live where that your plants are totally dependent on ground water and get no rainfall during these growing months? That's dry farming.

If you get rain they split, especially if you aren't watering them otherwise. It is the inconsistency that causes the splitting. But no, it is never too late to start watering them if you can keep the soil moisture levels consistent.

Dave

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm in the the San Francisco Bay area, East Bay. I don't think we've gotten any rainfall since fruit appeared on the plants. That's when I stopped watering them (maybe a little later). They're planted in a spot where there used to be a compost pile so the soil is very rich. I have them mulched with straw. I just wanted to see if they did OK without watering as I heard this can help make them sweeter. The plants seemed to be growing fine but then this splitting happened and I didn't even water them. Well, it's possible I might have accidentally watered them once weeks ago, but would that cause new fruit to split like this?

I'm not far from you, in Solano County. What kind of cherries? I've never tried going without irrigation, but my Sungold almost always split.

Splitting cherries

Thanks the link, nanelle. I think you may have just answered my question! These are technically "wild" cherry tomato plants. They grew out of the remnants of a compost pile where I must have tossed some tomatoes. They have the laddered trusses as described and the splitting looks exactly like what is show in the photos. So this is just something that happens with this variety? Bummer.