Tomato Catfacing: Why the Fruit Is Scarred and Puckered

What catfacing looks like

Catfacing is a physiological disorder, not a disease or a pest, so there is nothing to spray. The blossom end of the fruit is puckered and scarred, sometimes with brown corky bands, deep folds, or holes that run into the flesh. Large-fruited beefsteak types are the most prone; small cherry and paste tomatoes rarely catface. Because it disfigures the fruit rather than harming the plant, a catfaced tomato is safe to eat once you trim off the malformed tissue.

Why cold sets it off

The distortion is set weeks before you see it, back when the flower was developing. Extension guidance is that flowers do not develop or pollinate properly when temperatures drop below roughly 52 to 54 degrees F, and that night temperatures at or below about 54 degrees F cause the fruit to develop abnormally, even when daytime highs are in the 80s. That is why catfacing concentrates on the earliest clusters, which formed during the cool nights of late spring. Setting transplants out too early, before the weather has genuinely settled, is the most common trigger.

How to reduce it next season

• Wait to transplant until night temperatures stay reliably above the mid-50s F, generally one to two weeks after your last expected frost.
• Favor smaller-fruited or paste varieties if late cold snaps are common where you garden; they catface far less than beefsteaks.
• Use row cover or cloches to buffer chilly nights around young, flowering plants.
• Remove badly catfaced early fruit so the plant channels energy into the normal fruit that follows.

Sources

Reviewed 2026-07-18. We cite university Extension, government, and established horticultural sources — and never invent pesticide rates or dangerous treatments.

• UMass Extension - Tomato, Cat-Facing — Catfacing results from cool temperatures during flowering; flowers do not pollinate properly below about 52-54 F and night temperatures at or below 54 F cause abnormal, scarred fruit, most often on early clusters of large-fruited cultivars.
• University of Maryland Extension - Catfacing on Tomatoes — Catfacing is a physiological disorder producing misshapen, scarred blossom ends on large-fruited tomatoes, linked to cool temperatures during fruit set; the fruit remains edible.
• Alabama Cooperative Extension - Catfacing of Tomatoes — Cool weather during bloom disrupts flower development and causes catfacing; the disorder is cosmetic and concentrated on early, large-fruited tomatoes.

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