Super tasting tomatoes....

[MagnoliaMan]

Has anyone had expeience with the tomato called 'Fabulous?' It is supposed to be extremely high in furaneol, a volitile compound, albeit one of 10 in tomatoes that creates GREAT tomato flavor. It is supposed to have a characteristic of heirloom tomatoes that few modern hybrids possess. Talk to me! I love tomatoes!
MagnoliaMan

[hendi_alex]

Your post prompted me to google 'tomato taste test'. Was interesting to me that I've never even heard of most of the top rated varieties from this first link.

https://morningsunherbfarm.com/ssp/tomatorating08

Here is another interesting selection, with the author giving the basis for picks.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2008-02-01/Americas-Favorite-Tomatoes.aspx

Then googled 'best tasting tomato' and got this interesting result of 60 favorite tomatoes from Cottage Living.

https://www.cottageliving.com/cottage/gardens/article/0,21135,1043298,00.html

Here is a 2002 result of favorite heirloom tomatoes published by Fine Gardening.

https://www.finegardening.com/pages/g00125.asp

Looks like I'll have a tough time narrowing down the selections to try for summer of 2010.

[hendi_alex]

BTW, one of our local S.C. seed companies, Park Seed Co, carries 'Fabulous' seeds. Their description does give the variety lots of superlatives.

https://www.parkseed.com/gardening/PD/5387/

[TZ -OH6]

I'm sceptical that it will pan out to be a 'fabulous' variety.


I don't ever believe seed company propaganda for new hybrids, look at Burpee's catalog for Red Lightening and then read the grower's reviews. Public taste testing is also problematic because there are so many non-tomato people doing the tasting. Its kind of like letting people who dring alot of wine coolers judge a wine tasting event. On top of it you have the problem with flavor variability within a variety due to growing conditions and ripeness at contest time, so I always trust gardner's (who have grown many varieties) opinions most.


Regarding "Fabulous"... Do you have massive problems with disease?

There are a lot of great tasting determinant hybrids out there (developed for reliable production), the problem comes from those with multiple disease resistances (six for Fabulous) claiming to be tops in flavor, because consideration for flavor has to be tossed out the window when breeding/selecting for those resistances (because they are so hard to come by). A live so so tasting resistant variety is better than a dead nonresistant great tasting variety.

[hendi_alex]

This rec. pulled from the previously cited link below would seem worth trying to me. I have always loved 'better boy', nicely acid and juicy. For fresh eating, I happen to like a tomato with relatively large juicy seed area. Also love Brandywine but don't like its limited production. Anyway it is hard for me to imagine anything but a very good tomato coming from that cross. Also 'black krim' and 'carbon' black keep getting rec's from repeating sources. That is the key to me for taste tests and rec's. My weighting hindges upon how often does a particular variety show up in different sources. Of course "the proof is in the pudding," bring on those tomatoes!

'Brandy Boy'
Most tomato-lovers will cite 'Brandywine' as the best heirloom tomato, but it takes long to fruit and then doesn't yield many tomatoes. Last year 'Brandywine' was crossed with 'Better Boy'—truly one of the best-tasting, heaviest-producing, most disease-resistant hybrid tomatoes—an inspired match which produced fruits with all the size, sweet-tangy taste, and thin-skin of 'Brandywine' and the abundant crop of 'Better Boy.' No weird science here. Just an amazing tomato that you need to grow. (75 days)
Burpee's burpee.com

https://www.cottageliving.com/cottage/gardens/article/0,21135,1043298,00.html

[MagnoliaMan]

'Celebrity' (determinate) and our favorite 'Jet Star' (indeterminate) have been our regulars, but we will try 'Fabulous' if we can find it locally. We tried 'Merced" (determinate) but didn't get good results. 'President' was the same. I can tell you that we have the regular tomato diseases and nematodes in our garden, rotate or not, so if 'Fabulous' makes it, it will most likely be a keeper. Gonna look severely for 'Fabulous.' I haven't found out if it is deteminate or not.

[MagnoliaMan]

A newspaper article in the gardening section cited a taste test done by master gardeners here in KS, via KSU extension. 'Scarlet Red' won and is supposed to have a "flavor enhancing gene." I'm guessing that it also is high in furaneol. No one ever says what their disease and nematode resistance is, all of which are problems for me. Guess I'll find out the hard way!

[tomatodude]

I'm with TZ on this one....trust the gardener's perspective on flavor and not the "hype" that some companies use to promote some tomatoes..

My neighbor and I always compete for the largest tomato, first tomato, best tasting tomato, so forth.....we are only local farmers who enjoy gardening, and on occasion, like to rub it in..
Last year he grew several varieties that I was also growing..we trade secrets once in a while,,,
Gardener to gardener, the best tasting tomatoes, and I rank this on a balance of acid and sugar...I dislike overly sweet tomatoes....
Best tasting beefsteak was Olena Ukrainian..takes a long time to mature and weighed in over a 1lb..
Best tasting medium sized tomato was the heirloom Rutger..well balanced flavor..
Best tasting black tomato was the (tie) Black Krim and Carbon. Both exhibit a hint of fruity flavor with some slight saltyness..
Best tasting Cherry was the Tommy Toe.
On to the Hybrids...
Best tasting was BHN 589...close second was BHN 444..

Celebrity is also highly marked in my book...as is the Better Boy and Husky Red Cherry.

That's a gardener's opinion on great tasting tomatoes...now just because I haven't grown other types doesn't mean they don't taste good. Trust your taste buds and grow what tastes good to you.

[MagnoliaMan]

Upon a SERIOUS search of multiple local nurseries I haven't been able to find 'Fabulous.' I have been told that it will likely be in next year's production.
However, I found 'Scarlet Red,' here at a local nursery (south central KS), somewhat of a rarity around here. It appears to be rated VF1,2; ASC, GLS. My sadness is that it is not "N" or nematode resistant rated. This is a problem in my soil. I will give a full report in July or August, ya'll!
Onward and upward to better tasting tomatoes...
Magnoliaman