Why Does My Tomato Look Wonky?
It could be ‘cat-facing’
I learned a new garden term this year: “cat-facing” tomatoes.
Before this, I considered deformed tomatoes as just that: a bit wonky on the end with rough scarred places. I did not give any thought to why this happens or how it affects the quality of the fruit. But once I become interested in a concept, I have to delve into exactly what it means.
In this article, I refer to the blossom end of a tomato. For those who are unfamiliar with the growing habits of tomatoes, the “blossom end” of a tomato is the bottom: the opposite of the stem, where tomatoes have a small mark on the bottom indicating where the bloom originated.
First, a description of cat-facing
Cat-facing is when the blossom end of the tomato is deformed in a particular way. This malformation is distinctly different from blossom-end rot. Blossom-end rot is when the bottom end of a tomato becomes indented, dark, and rotten, caused by a calcium deficiency.
Cat-facing has not been researched quite as much as other tomato deficiencies, although most experts agree the problem appears to be caused by incomplete pollination. When a tomato is not thoroughly pollinated, the fruit will not develop completely.
