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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT gmail.com>]

I don't think it is a calcium deficiency because the soil test shows 
that it is actually calcium rich.  (I do add eggshells though, btw).  
Anyway the Ca may be bound and locked up by something else, but there is 
Ca in the soil.  This is definitely not what I would describe as a 
cavity.  It is more like a blackened core, and is only on one side (when 
I cut the tomato longways).  Externally, the toms and plants are picture 
perfect, and this only is affecting 20-30 percent of all of  Roma types, 
not every tom is affected.  The defect that I am picking out is the size 
of a dime, and looks like a smashed, blackened strawberry due to the 
white immature seeds.  Adjacent flesh and seeds seem normal.  I guess 
the best description would be a flattened tumor within the core of the 
tomato.


> > snip<   I'm getting lots of tomatoes this year, but I'm seeing a 
> > virus in my Roma X Amish paste that I have never seen before.  The  
> > plant and fruit looks perfect, but inside, there is a black, hard, 
> > atrophied area at the seed core where there are underdeveloped 
> > seeds.  I've been slicing the tomatoes lengthwise and scooping out 
> > the dime sized bad area, but I would like to know what caused it.  
> > I've been saving these tomato seeds for a few years now.  They are 
> > good paste tomatoes, mostly a cross between Roma and Amish paste-pear 
> > shaped and larger than the average Roma, but I haven't seen this 
> > problem before.  Is it a bug, a climate-related disease, or a virus?  
> > I haven't seen this occur in any of the other varieties.
> Your tomato problem is possibly a calcium difficiency.  It not only 
> causes
> blossom end rot and leaf curl but will sometimes cause what they call a
> "cavity".  Usually not in tomatoes but I have seen it happen.  Put 
> lots of
> crushed up egg shells in the ground that winter and the following year I
> didn't have the problem.