Blotchy ripening is cultivar specific and appears more frequently on older cultivars. There are also several fruit rots that affect tomatoes after the fruit has been picked. Below is a description of the common maladies growers may confront. This fruit-rot is more likely to develop on ripe or overripe fruit late in the season. Infection occurs when the developing fruit is still small but symptom expression doesn t appear until after the fruit is harvested.
Lesions are circular, approximately inch in diameter, and slightly sunken.
The internal tissue beneath a lesion is often grainy and lighter in color than surrounding healthy tissue. The center of the lesion often contains small, black, specks that represent the reproductive structures of the fungus. Secondary infections are common in fruit infected with anthracnose and as a result, multiple fruit rots may be present concurrently. Colletotrichum coccodes is the most common species of fungi to cause tomato anthracnose. This pathogen is seedborne or may overwinter in the field on infected debris.