Tomato Disorder : Internal white tissue

For years we have been plague with 'white' bits on the tomatoes which I blamed on the green stink bug. This year I can't blame it on the stink green bug as I have hardly seen any but the 'whites' are worse than ever. On the outside all our tomatoes looks perfect. But out of 10-15 tomatoes we slice open only one might be perfect with no whites inside the skin. Variety we planted this year : Beefsteak.

At long last I managed to find out what the problem was or at least a name for it. It is called 'internal white tissue'. It is caused by high temperatures (our summer is so incredibly hot it is not funny !) during the ripening period along with low available potassium trigger the symptoms. It looks like I will have to collect plenty of cow poos along with other things high in potassium if I want the perfect tomato next year.

According to sources on the net : Internal white tissue is a disorder where the affected fruit rarely shows any external symptoms. However, when ripe fruits are cut, white hard areas are present in the outer walls.

This whole tomato has 'internal white tissues' right down to the very bottom.



Sliced sections of 1 tomato. Only the bottom third has no 'whites'.



Skin removed. Note the hard white tissue layer.