INVESTIGATION ON GREEN-BACK OF TOMATOES

The investigation on the occurrence of greenback of tomatoes started in 1961 at the "Hessische Lehr- und Forschungsanstalt Geisenheim" but is carried out since 1962 at the "Institut für Gemüsebau der Technischen Hochschule München in Weihenstephan".

What is green-back and where does it occur? While ripening there is a lot of colour disorders in tomato fruits which cannot all be named as green-back.
In our mind green-back is a disorder in the fruit colour which encloses the surrounding of the calyx in different breadth more or less entirely.
There is usually an exact line between the green and the remaining normal coloured fruit.
This green-back can alter its colour after picking, but only to a yellowish red.
The pulp underneath these distinctly different coloured parts of the fruit is hardened, therefore the fruit has no market quality.
In the described part there is not only a lack of normal colour but also a lack of the starch conversion which is normal in the fruit.
Also the dissolving of the pectin filled middle lamella is missing.
These disorders only occur with varieties where the fruits are pale green while immature with an overlay of dark green around the stalk-end which extends in (streaks a little way round the cheeks of the fruit (grünfrüchtigen" oder" geflammten") as for instance "Sieger", "Rheinlands Ruhm", "Ailsa Craig", but not on "Moneymaker" and other sorts where the fruits are uniformly pale green in colour while immature, having a

Symposium on Vegetable Growing under Glass

F. Venter

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1966.4.19