What Makes Tomato Have Thick Skin? Grumpy Explains

About this Episode

A reader struggles with thick-skinned tomatoes. Plus, Grumpy’s gripe of the week.

Question Of The Week

"Why are the skins on my Better Boy tomatoes still so tough even though they still taste good? I know it'snot my teeth. I (laughs) just had a good checkup." - Cynthia

Grumpy's Answer: First, the soil may be too dry. When the plant is practically dying for water, it thickens the skins on the fruit to conserve water, so make sure your plant shave consistently moist soil while they're fruiting. Second, it could be strong sun and high temperatures. Tomatoes grow thicker skins to prevent sun scald that causes brown patches to form on the skin. The solution here is to provide light shade during the hottest part of the day.

Gripe Of The Week

My gripe is about crepe myrtles in Argentina. Well anyway, so I'm doing on the treadmill, you know, and we start going through all the city and the parks and everything, and I start seeing this flowering trees that are very, very familiar to me. And after a second or, or two, I realize they're all crepe myrtles and they're blooming and they're all over the place there. They're all lining all of the streets, they're all in, in the parks and all the public spaces. And what really catches my eye is every one of them is pruned properly. There's not a stump in Argentina.

They've all got multiple trunks, they're pruned correctly, well-spaced branches, nice shape, flowers up top. And I think, "Why the heck do I have to go to Buenos Aires to see a properly pruned crepe myrtle?Why can't I see one here in Birmingham?" So this is making me mad. So I don't cry for thee, Argentina, because at least you have people there that know how to prune a crepe myrtle.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 30 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.