Manipulating Tomato Flavor?

[Melissa569]

Does anybody know any tricks to manipulate the flavor of a tomato, during the growth process?

In general, I love a VERY tomato-y taste. More specifically, a "sweet and savory" taste. Very close to the flavor of Prego spaghetti sauce I guess you could say. lol.

So normally, I prefer the red tomatoes (the darker the better) or even the black and purple ones. Especially heirloom.

The smaller tomatoes (like cherry) seem to be the closest to what I'm looking for. But I'm trying to get bigger tomatoes to taste more like that.

Any ideas? Is it possible? Or is it more about breed, than growing tricks?

[bughunter99]

Yes.

1. Select varieties known for excellent flavor profiles that match your tastes.

2. Optimize the tastes of the above varieties by using natural things like rock dust and compost to increase the mineral content and complexity of your soil.

3. Avoid products that will decrease your plants ability to take up minerals. (Keep your soil complex, alive and thriving with billions of natural creatures. Don't sterilize it, compact it or treat it badly).

4. Decrease watering when you see the first tinge of color on the fruit to avoid watered down tastes.

Stacy

[b54red]

Be sure your soil is not too alkaline. I have found that tomatoes from slightly more acid soil seem to have more of that old time flavor.

Avoid using most of the hybrid varieties as many are lacking in flavor. There are exceptions and you will find plenty of them on this forum.

If you really want a lot of flavor then grow some of the better black tomatoes; but plant them later so they are maturing during the very hottest time of the year. You will have less in numbers and they won't be as large but the flavor is amazing. A few that I have found that really benefit from the later planting are Indian Stripe, Spudakee, Carbon, Dana's Dusky Rose, Paul Robison, Cherokee Purple, JDs Special C Tex and of course Black Krim.

[Melissa569]

Thanks you guys, I will keep all this in mind. There are still some new varieties I would like to add.

[Got Worms?]

I second what Stacy said about watering. If you hold back with the water as they ripen, the flavor will intensify, but be careful of drastic changes in water uptake which could cause the skins to crack.
Charlie

[PaddyMc]

!) Get a soil test, and get your soil nutrents in balance
2) Test a LOT of varieties. Taste per-variety varies by location. Experiment.
2) Stress (especially water) your plants during the ripeing phase. This will reduce your harvest considerably in both size and number of fruit. But they will taste amazing. I always water stress during ripeing because I grow 800+ plants and can afford the reduced harvest, your needs may differ.

[beeman]

Just out of interest. Last year due to the drought we had a shortage of Toms available for canning, so off to the Farmers market. We found the same variety that I normally grow. What a shock the flavour was totally different than the one we grew, tasteless and insipid.
Will not buy in again, much prefer our taste.

[TightenUp]

Originally Posted by beeman

Just out of interest. Last year due to the drought we had a shortage of Toms available for canning, so off to the Farmers market. We found the same variety that I normally grow. What a shock the flavour was totally different than the one we grew, tasteless and insipid.
Will not buy in again, much prefer our taste.

noticed the same thing from a local farmers market. same varieties and crap flavor compared to mine

[Tapout]

The flavor of a tomato is first based of its genetic potential for that particular type of tomato.
1. minerals that are lacking to reach its genetic potential.
2. climate
3. disease

All these things can change the taste of a tomato. If all the requirements are met and you have reached the potential taste of the tomato, you can reduce watering during the ripening phase to intensify the flavor. Reaching the genetic potential of a tomato is trying to raise a tomato plant perfectly. Its the ultimate goal of anyone who grows anything and is the reason why most of us come to this forum.

[rockhound]

If you're making sauce and you prefer the taste of cherry tomatoes, why not grow a lot of them and run thru a food mill to separate the skins/seeds, then reduce down to a sauce?

[Tapout]

Originally Posted by rockhound

If you're making sauce and you prefer the taste of cherry tomatoes, why not grow a lot of them and run thru a food mill to separate the skins/seeds, then reduce down to a sauce?

I think Melissa was just referring to the taste of prego sauce not making sauce.

Melissa I would look for a tomato that suits your taste rather then trying to change the flavor of a existing one. Unless you don't mind taking the time to cross breeding several types of tomatoes to try and get what you want. It takes a enormous amount of time and effort.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Tapout

I think Melissa was just referring to the taste of prego sauce not making sauce.

Melissa I would look for a tomato that suits your taste rather then trying to change the flavor of a existing one. Unless you don't mind taking the time to cross breeding several types of tomatoes to try and get what you want. It takes a enormous amount of time and effort.

I agree with the above in terms of finding tomato varieties whose tastes you like. There are about 15-20 K OP varieties out there and what I think it takes is taking a look at those that appeal to you and growing them. And not for just one season if you're really high on a variety. There are many variables that go into taste in terms of where grown, how grown, what amendments are used and if so which ones how much and when, and for sure the weather in any given season,

And I agree that the primary determinants for taste are the genes that a variety has.

No one can really tell you anything about the taste of a variety, I mean they can, but since taste is personal and perceptual and even has a human genetic factor involved it's up to you to assess the taste of varieties that you grow depending on all of the variables I mentioned above.

If you read here at Tville you'll see someone praising this or that variety and some others saying they'd never grow it again.

I also would suggest that you look beyond just red and dark colored varieties as you mentioned above.

I've grown well over 3,000 varieties now and there are some wonderful tasting pinks and yellow/golds that come to mind as well as some green when ripes .

I know it's rather daunting to folks just starting to grow OP varieties b/c there are so many, but heck, that's part of the fun of developing a full flavored tomato obsession.

Carolyn

[chastom]

How about planting companion plants with the toms ,like basil ,this is said to enhance flavor .

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by chastom

How about planting companion plants with the toms ,like basil ,this is said to enhance flavor .

I am a huge advocate of companion planting. So believe me this is hard to post. But in side by side comparisons I never saw a taste difference for basil. Yield yes. Better yield! Less problems with insects and disease yes. Overall healthier plants!

But taste? No difference to my palate.

The only thing that I have personally used that enhanced flavor was Rosemary, and Rosemary can't be grown with Basil. They fight each other so badly that neither one ends up being beneficial to the tomatoes. However Rosemary is perennial in mild climates, so I usually pick a tomato or two to grow beside my Rosemary bush. Then my basil I plant with the rest of my tomatoes.

[PaddyMc]

Melissa,
Carolyn's absolutly right that no one can tell you what a tomato tastes like. That said, try Bianca Grande. It's a white bicolor (really very light yellow with a pink blush inside), for me it makes fantastic, sweeter (Prego-type) yellow sauce. Also Ernie's Plump, which is my all time favorite sauce tomato. Rich and "creamy" for lack of a better word. And crazy productive. I actually crossed it to both Porkchop and Coyote last year with the goal of creating a sweeter version (more like Prego). I'm growing the F1's this year (would be willing to send out a couple seeds) or I'd be more than happy to send you a bunch of F2's in the fall if you were interested in joining the grow-out project.