catfacing on boxcar willie

[frankbenjones]

I have severe cat facing on a Boxcar Willie plant. It is in a raised bed with a German Giant and a Opalka. The German Giant has a bit of catfacing on the ends but not much and not deep (just surface) and only on some fruite. The Opalka seems to be free of catfacing but the Boxcar Willie seems to have sever catfacing on all fruit and it's "deep" and isn't just on the surface. I've included some pic's below. I have 15+ other plants in other beds/containers and this is the only one with sever catfacing. It is also the only Boxcar Willie I'm growing.

Any ideas as to what I can do to prevent this on any new fruit? The plants are all healthy, tall, green and have a good amount of fruit set.

[Urbanfarmer]

Maybe someone else knows better, but in our experience, some of the heirlooms can show severe cat-facing and deformation, and it's just because........they're heirlooms.

[JamesL]

I don't know about knowing better, but what Urban said is kinda true. Some varieties have the issue more than others. It could be caused by poor pollination, which you can potentially help.
Get a cheap battery operated toothbrush and buzz the blooms daily. If it doesn't help with the catfacing at least you will get more tomatoes.

[lurley]

Box car Willie was one for me that throws almost perfect looking fruit so I would think it's environmental?

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[frankbenjones]

I will buzz the plant daily over the next few days to see if that helps. I've read that cooler temps can cause it, so maybe it's an enviromental thing as Lurley says but it's the only plant that seems to be having this problems.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by frankbenjones

I will buzz the plant daily over the next few days to see if that helps. I've read that cooler temps can cause it, so maybe it's an enviromental thing as Lurley says but it's the only plant that seems to be having this problems.

Yes, it's usually cold weather at the time blossoms are forming that can cause cat facing.

Box Car Wille, Mule Team, Great Divide Red Barn and a couple more were bred by Joe Bratka's father.Joe found seeds in a toolshed in glass jars already named, couldn't get any of them to germinate , sent them to me and I was able to get the ones I mentioned above up and going.

So I grew all of them for several eyars for seed offers and SSE listings and even though I livein the sub tundra in upstate NY I neversaw cat facing on any of them.

In addition to cold weather during flowering it's also known that high soil N levels and any disturbance to flowering parts during pollen shedding can increase cat facing.

Carolyn

[dice]

I have grown Boxcar Willie a few times, I never saw much catfacing
on the fruit, and I grow in a climate where I see lots of it on larger
fruited, mid-season and later varieties due to cold weather during
fruitset, which can happen any week during the growing season.
(I had an Alacrity plant, a selection from Earliana, where every fruit
was catfaced one year. Good flavor, though.)

What the cold weather during fruitset does is cause pollenation to be
incomplete in the flower. Some ovaries get pollenated and others do
not. The ones that do not end up not developing in the fruit, and it
grows abnormally shaped from the ovaries that did get pollenated.

If you have something else affecting the flowers (like a bug), perhaps
the same thing can happen for reasons other than less than optimal
temperatures during fruitset. A chance mutation that interferes with
fertilization even if there is plenty of pollen there could also cause
catfacing.

[remy]

I've never seen catfacing on Boxcar Willie either. Too bad you only have one plant. Since your other varieties are ok, it might be a weird thing with that plant in particular sort of like when people get mule plants.
Remy