Lack of flavor this fall

duajones · December 30, 2010

For whatever reason, my fall tomatoes this year just dont taste as good as they did in the spring. Black and Brown Boar, which was the star of my 2008 fall grow out, isnt as good as it was then either.
As I had mentioned in a different thread, these plants looked great a couple of weeks after transplant and then went into some kind of funk for a whole month. I even lost a plant and this happened to several people in my area.
That lost month hurt me as far as early fruitset when temps were more ideal. I am leaning toward cooler night time temps being the culprit.

Cherokee Purple, which is one of if not my fave is rather bland as well

Suze · December 31, 2010

I'm sure you have a bit more leeway in Corpus than I do, but it seems to go from hot to cold/short days here in the greater Austin/Bastrop area too fast for me to get a really good fall crop most years. This fall was particularly tough, and last fall wasn't so great either.

Based on the rather sad results last fall, I only bothered with five plants in containers this time. I also left a Sweet Quartz F1 plant in one of my raised beds from the spring. It continued to set loads of fruit throughout the summer, and until a couple of weeks ago was doing fine.

Sun Gold F1 has been my very best fall crop plant for both taste and production. Another one that did rather well for me is Purple Haze RL F3 (selection I made in the spring that was substantially identical to the F1.)

Bloody Butcher was a real trooper as well.

The other two fall plantings - Atkinson and Better Boy F1 - managed to set and ripen several, but alas, the taste just wasn't there. Both were better than a grocery store tomato, but not nearly as good as the PH RL F3, Sun Gold, and BB.

In any case, I'm not bothering with anything other than small fruited (cherry/lg cherry) for fall crop in the future.

Edit/add - I am currently in the process of erecting a greenhouse, so might have a few more options next fall after all.

b54red · December 31, 2010

I too was disappointed in some of my tomatoes flavor this fall. Like you my Cherokee Purple was rather bland as were several others. The best tasting fall tomatoes I had were from my two spring Indian Stripe plants that managed to survive the whole season; but the fruits were fairly small. The best tasting true fall planted tomatoes were Carbon, Black Krim and surprisingly Big Beef.

bigbubbacain · January 9, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suze

Edit/add - I am currently in the process of erecting a greenhouse, so might have a few more options next fall after all.

Kudos on your plans for a greenhouse! Mine has been indispensible for more than just tomatoes thru the winter. It's also where I store my orchids and tropicals. Right now I have a 'Diva' cucmber and 3 pots of 'Matt's Wild Cherry' all loaded with fruit. You might want to invest in an inexpensive electric toothbrush for pollinating. It's sure made a difference for me.

duajones · December 31, 2010

I have been pulling most of my fruit at first blush because of mocking birds but I have some netting out now that I move around and attach with clothespins. Anxious to see if flavor improves letting them ripen more on the vine

cgs · December 31, 2010

While they have been slow about getting there...mine are still setting fruit here in Houston. Flavor is pretty good and texture is excellent. Recent rains are causing some cracking.

I had the Mockingbird problem in the Spring. This fall I hung red ornaments before anything blushed. It seems to have worked.

Oddly, the opposite happened with my tomato stealilng dog. He keeps taking red ornaments off of the Christmas tree expecting them to be tomaotes!

duajones · December 31, 2010

I havent had much in the way of rain but do have some cracking. Better Boy and I didnt think it was crack prone but nothing else is cracking

duajones · January 8, 2011

Letting the fruit ripen further on the vine has helped with flavor, moreso than I thought it would.
Black and Brown Boar is the standout as it was in 2008

b54red · January 9, 2011

I finally was able to eat some of the tomatoes I pulled off when completely green around a month ago just before the big freeze hit. A good number of the greenies just developed spots or rotted but I still had a couple of hundred that ripened. I was really surprised by the great flavor and texture of a couple of them. The Red Siberian was the best and nearly as good was Druzba. They tasted like they had been vine ripened. This is the first year I have ever had any tomatoes that were picked green and ripened inside that were this good. I hope it wasn't an aberration because I will try to plant more of those varieties for fall next year. If anyone else has had luck with any other varieties that ripened from green with full tomato flavor I would like to know. I'm just not going to eat fried green tomatoes every day for a month.
The worst variety to ripen like this was Mortgage Lifter which tasted very bland and had a mealy texture but still slightly better than the grocery store tomatoes. The rest of the varieties came somewhere in between those two extremes when ripening from totally green.

December 30, 2010	#1
duajones Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Corpus Christi,Texas Z9 Posts: 1,996	Lack of flavor this fall For whatever reason, my fall tomatoes this year just dont taste as good as they did in the spring. Black and Brown Boar, which was the star of my 2008 fall grow out, isnt as good as it was then either. As I had mentioned in a different thread, these plants looked great a couple of weeks after transplant and then went into some kind of funk for a whole month. I even lost a plant and this happened to several people in my area. That lost month hurt me as far as early fruitset when temps were more ideal. I am leaning toward cooler night time temps being the culprit. Cherokee Purple, which is one of if not my fave is rather bland as well __________________ Duane Jones

December 31, 2010	#5
duajones Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Corpus Christi,Texas Z9 Posts: 1,996	I have been pulling most of my fruit at first blush because of mocking birds but I have some netting out now that I move around and attach with clothespins. Anxious to see if flavor improves letting them ripen more on the vine __________________ Duane Jones

December 31, 2010	#6
cgs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 59	still setting While they have been slow about getting there...mine are still setting fruit here in Houston. Flavor is pretty good and texture is excellent. Recent rains are causing some cracking. I had the Mockingbird problem in the Spring. This fall I hung red ornaments before anything blushed. It seems to have worked. Oddly, the opposite happened with my tomato stealilng dog. He keeps taking red ornaments off of the Christmas tree expecting them to be tomaotes!

December 31, 2010	#7
duajones Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Corpus Christi,Texas Z9 Posts: 1,996	I havent had much in the way of rain but do have some cracking. Better Boy and I didnt think it was crack prone but nothing else is cracking __________________ Duane Jones

January 8, 2011	#8
duajones Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Corpus Christi,Texas Z9 Posts: 1,996	Letting the fruit ripen further on the vine has helped with flavor, moreso than I thought it would. Black and Brown Boar is the standout as it was in 2008 __________________ Duane Jones

December 31, 2010	#2
Suze Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 3,027	I'm sure you have a bit more leeway in Corpus than I do, but it seems to go from hot to cold/short days here in the greater Austin/Bastrop area too fast for me to get a really good fall crop most years. This fall was particularly tough, and last fall wasn't so great either. Based on the rather sad results last fall, I only bothered with five plants in containers this time. I also left a Sweet Quartz F1 plant in one of my raised beds from the spring. It continued to set loads of fruit throughout the summer, and until a couple of weeks ago was doing fine. Sun Gold F1 has been my very best fall crop plant for both taste and production. Another one that did rather well for me is Purple Haze RL F3 (selection I made in the spring that was substantially identical to the F1.) Bloody Butcher was a real trooper as well. The other two fall plantings - Atkinson and Better Boy F1 - managed to set and ripen several, but alas, the taste just wasn't there. Both were better than a grocery store tomato, but not nearly as good as the PH RL F3, Sun Gold, and BB. In any case, I'm not bothering with anything other than small fruited (cherry/lg cherry) for fall crop in the future. Edit/add - I am currently in the process of erecting a greenhouse, so might have a few more options next fall after all.

December 31, 2010	#3
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I too was disappointed in some of my tomatoes flavor this fall. Like you my Cherokee Purple was rather bland as were several others. The best tasting fall tomatoes I had were from my two spring Indian Stripe plants that managed to survive the whole season; but the fruits were fairly small. The best tasting true fall planted tomatoes were Carbon, Black Krim and surprisingly Big Beef.

January 9, 2011	#9
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I finally was able to eat some of the tomatoes I pulled off when completely green around a month ago just before the big freeze hit. A good number of the greenies just developed spots or rotted but I still had a couple of hundred that ripened. I was really surprised by the great flavor and texture of a couple of them. The Red Siberian was the best and nearly as good was Druzba. They tasted like they had been vine ripened. This is the first year I have ever had any tomatoes that were picked green and ripened inside that were this good. I hope it wasn't an aberration because I will try to plant more of those varieties for fall next year. If anyone else has had luck with any other varieties that ripened from green with full tomato flavor I would like to know. I'm just not going to eat fried green tomatoes every day for a month. The worst variety to ripen like this was Mortgage Lifter which tasted very bland and had a mealy texture but still slightly better than the grocery store tomatoes. The rest of the varieties came somewhere in between those two extremes when ripening from totally green.