Plant guide:🍅 Tomato
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Sunscald on Tomato Fruit — tomato plant care
⚠ Minor

A pale, blistered patch on sun-facing fruit — sunscald from sudden intense light exposure after foliage loss.

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Sunscald on Tomato Fruit

Commonly affects: Solanum lycopersicum (Tomato)

A pale yellow to white blistered patch develops on the side of the fruit facing direct sun, often after sudden exposure following pruning or foliage loss. The patch can later dry into a papery, sunken scar.

Potential Causes

  1. 1Sudden exposure to intense direct sun after over-pruning removed sheltering leaves
  2. 2Foliage loss from disease (such as early blight) exposing fruit that was previously shaded
  3. 3A heatwave following cooler, cloudier weather with no acclimation period

Solution Steps

  1. 1Avoid removing more than a third of the plant's foliage at once when pruning suckers or leaves.
  2. 2Provide temporary shade cloth over exposed fruit during extreme heat.
  3. 3Harvest affected fruit promptly, as the damaged area is prone to secondary rot.
  4. 4Address any foliar disease causing leaf loss, since that indirectly exposes fruit to sunscald.

Prevention Tip

Prune gradually and treat foliar diseases promptly — sunscald is nearly always secondary to fruit losing its natural leaf cover rather than being an isolated problem.

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