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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7419
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Very disapointed with my tomatoes.
I was hoping to have some good Beefsteak tomatoes but not this year. The plant tray was marked Beefsteak but these are not beefsteak. They have less flavor than cardboard. Very symmetrical sections inside, perfect round all the same size so they are not beefsteak.
I'll bet it was the weather this season more than anything. Many of the folks I visit with complained with the lack of flavor in this year's crop. A wrong variety like you talk about will certainly be discouraging but even some historically excellent tasting varieties are bland when there is too much rain. Excess water washes out the flavor. I have thirty five varieties and most are now doing OK about a month later than normal, but some either did not produce at all or were disappointing.
Such is the plight of the home gardener. Every year has its challenges. This year has been a strange one indeed. We are of an age...in my forty-five years of gardening this is one I would like to forget and not see the likes of again; a three week late start, too much rain early along with cool temps, then hot and dry and now a roller coaster of hot and cool.
Such is the plight of the home gardener. Every year has its challenges. This year has been a strange one indeed. We are of an age...in my forty-five years of gardening this is one I would like to forget and not see the likes of again; a three week late start, too much rain early along with cool temps, then hot and dry and now a roller coaster of hot and cool.
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pepperhead212
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 2882
- Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
- Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b
Gary,
It sounds like you got some of those tomatoes bred for commercial growers - perfect appearance, and almost no juice (good shippers) or flavor. Where did you get those plants? Around here, there are some local nurseries that start their own seeds, and have better varieties than the chain stores. Somebody on another forum recently brought up Big Beef - a tomato I grew several years ago that won the taste test of all the tomatoes I grew that year. The only reason I stopped growing it was that it was not heat resistant, and I had a few very hot summers in a row. This is a hybrid, proving that all hybrids are not flavorless! I am going to try it again, since the last two summers have stayed in the low 90s, and I'll put them in a self irrigated container. My tomatoes in those produced better than any others ever have, and, though some may think that constant water results in washed out flavor, it is not like flooding - it is simply a constant moisture, and this resulted in incredible production, so much so that I am going to grow fewer and farther apart next year, so they will be easier to find!
It sounds like you got some of those tomatoes bred for commercial growers - perfect appearance, and almost no juice (good shippers) or flavor. Where did you get those plants? Around here, there are some local nurseries that start their own seeds, and have better varieties than the chain stores. Somebody on another forum recently brought up Big Beef - a tomato I grew several years ago that won the taste test of all the tomatoes I grew that year. The only reason I stopped growing it was that it was not heat resistant, and I had a few very hot summers in a row. This is a hybrid, proving that all hybrids are not flavorless! I am going to try it again, since the last two summers have stayed in the low 90s, and I'll put them in a self irrigated container. My tomatoes in those produced better than any others ever have, and, though some may think that constant water results in washed out flavor, it is not like flooding - it is simply a constant moisture, and this resulted in incredible production, so much so that I am going to grow fewer and farther apart next year, so they will be easier to find!
I know this is an old thread.
I can only grow TYLCV resistant tomatoes now. None of them taste very special. I do have red currant, they actually have a tart tomato taste although, the skin is a bit tough. I am waiting on my orange cherry.
My plants are in twently gallon pots, so they are watered every day. I have planted good tomatoes before like Cherokee, and Black Krim which should have tasted good, but were also bland.
I am probably watering too much, but how dry can I get the tomatoes for better flavor and still not kill the plant in the pot?
I can only grow TYLCV resistant tomatoes now. None of them taste very special. I do have red currant, they actually have a tart tomato taste although, the skin is a bit tough. I am waiting on my orange cherry.
My plants are in twently gallon pots, so they are watered every day. I have planted good tomatoes before like Cherokee, and Black Krim which should have tasted good, but were also bland.
I am probably watering too much, but how dry can I get the tomatoes for better flavor and still not kill the plant in the pot?