Catfacing

Tomatoes that grow up puckered, scarred and folded at the blossom end, like a face. Cold weather while the flower was forming, and nothing you did wrong.

Disorder Disfiguring Doesn't spread

What you'll see

Deep creases, folds and holes at the blossom end of the fruit, with brown corky scarring in the clefts.
Fruit lobed, kidney-shaped or fused together rather than round.
Only the earliest trusses affected on a plant whose later fruit is perfect.
Large beefsteak types much worse hit than cherry or plum tomatoes.
Flesh inside the fruit sound and perfectly edible once the scarred part is cut away.

Why it happens

The flower is built weeks before it opens, and cool weather — nights below about 12 °C — while it is forming disrupts the cells that will become the fruit wall. What you see in July was decided in May. Thrips damage, herbicide drift and very heavy pruning of an indeterminate plant can produce the same distortion.

A cold spring, plants set out too early, or a cold snap during early flowering. Large-fruited heirloom and beefsteak tomatoes are far more prone than small-fruited types. Peppers and strawberries show their own version.

Treating it

Nothing can be done to a fruit already forming this way; cut the scarred part out and eat the rest.
Pick the catfaced fruit off if the plant is carrying a lot, so it puts its energy into the sound ones.
Wait for the later trusses, which are almost always clean.
Check for thrips and rule out herbicide drift if the distortion continues into warm weather.
Do not change the feeding; this is not a nutritional problem.

Keeping it away

Plant out after the cold nights are past, and use fleece or a cloche if a cold snap threatens early flowers.
Grow smaller-fruited cultivars where springs are cold, and keep the beefsteaks for a later sowing.
Warm the soil with black plastic or a cloche before planting.
Avoid very heavy pruning and disbudding of young plants.
Keep the plant evenly watered; wild swings make everything about fruit development worse.

Who gets it

Tomatoes above all, especially large beefsteak types; also peppers and strawberries.