Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old August 20, 2010   #1
heirloomdaddy
Tomatovillian™
 
heirloomdaddy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Los Angeles Z10
Posts: 291
Default Gold Medal taste review- REMARKABLE!!

Let me begin by stating the obvious- bicolors (for the most part) are known to not have much going on in the way of flavor. I was hoping that I might hold an exception to this opinion, and that I would find that my Gold Medal plant was putting out sweet, fruity, tasty tomatoes.

The results? Aside from being huge, beautiful, meaty, and creamy in texture, the taste was really something special. It somehow managed to taste about as flavorful as an out-of-season, picked-when-green and then gassed, rock hard hybrid tomato from the grocery store. This thing literally had NOTHING going on.

Moral of the story? Learn from your fellow t'villians experience. Of course we all have different tastes, but when 99% of any population tell you one thing, its very very likely that you will have the same take on the matter. I thought I could enjoy this tomato for it's simplicity and sweetness, but that was only detectable because there was almost nothing else to be tasted, including basic tomato flavor.

My advice? unless you are growing fruit for their looks, don't grow Gold Medal.

***I do look forward to trying lucky cross and little lucky though! I think a PL bicolor with flavor sounds like a great scenario***

Last edited by heirloomdaddy; August 20, 2010 at 02:16 PM. Reason: one more thing....!
heirloomdaddy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old August 20, 2010   #2
afrance30
Tomatovillian™
 
afrance30's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 212
Default

This is funny because I came on here to post about how happy I was with Gold Medal. It's my first year growing it and I did so because so many people on-line recommended it to me!

This is proof that you can't judge a tomato by what a few people say, you really do have to try it yourself. What is not-so-good to one may be the discovery of a lifetime for someone else. With Gold Medal, I finally found a tomato my son likes! He has always hated them and it took me awhile to get him to try a bite of a Gold Medal. He likes it exactly because it doesn't have the tomato taste.

I'm sorry it wasn't what you were hoping for, but it will for sure be a constant in my garden from now on. This is the fun of tomato growing... with so many varieties and tastes, there truly is a tomato for everyone!
afrance30 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old August 20, 2010   #3
remy
Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest™ Coordinator
 
remy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Z6 WNY
Posts: 2,354
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by heirloomdaddy View Post

***I do look forward to trying lucky cross and little lucky though! I think a PL bicolor with flavor sounds like a great scenario***
I think you will be quite happy with them. Are you growing both this year?
Remy
__________________
"I wake to sleep and take my waking slow"
-Theodore Roethke

Yes, we have a great party for WNY/Ontario tomato growers every year on Grand Island!
Owner of The Sample Seed Shop
remy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old August 20, 2010   #4
heirloomdaddy
Tomatovillian™
 
heirloomdaddy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Los Angeles Z10
Posts: 291
Default

Remy- I will be growing little lucky next year, which I purchased from you. I love everything about the descriptions i've read....great size too. I see that you love it.
heirloomdaddy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old August 21, 2010   #5
Stepheninky
Tomatovillian™
 
Stepheninky's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 682
Default

No experience with that one but not all Bi colors are bland or tasteless (I do agree some are or very mild). Though different people like different things thats whats great. I think there is a tomato out there for everyone.
Stepheninky is offline   Reply With Quote
Old August 21, 2010   #6
carolyn137
Moderator Emeritus
 
carolyn137's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
Posts: 21,169
Default

I think it's iffy to decide that a variety grown once and liked very much is going to be the same for others or indeed that same person when the variety is grown in another season. And I say that b'c the gold/red bicolors in my experience are very much affected by the weather in any one growing season.

I've grown lots of this type and one variety that's sweet and fruity tasting one summer can be bland and mealy when grown the next time. Does that always happen? No, but it's happened to me quite often.
__________________
Carolyn
carolyn137 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 26, 2010   #7
heirloomdaddy
Tomatovillian™
 
heirloomdaddy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Los Angeles Z10
Posts: 291
Default

These tomatoes have actually become tasty....more sweet and fruity, but the bare minimum amount of zip.

Not bad now! They are also a lot smaller now, as are all of my fruits. What is the reason for late season fruit getting smaller and smaller?
heirloomdaddy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 26, 2010   #8
dustdevil
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: WI, USA Zone4
Posts: 1,887
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by heirloomdaddy View Post
These tomatoes have actually become tasty....more sweet and fruity, but the bare minimum amount of zip.

Not bad now! They are also a lot smaller now, as are all of my fruits. What is the reason for late season fruit getting smaller and smaller?
Weather changing or Santa Ana winds not blowing the haze away...makes 'em stunted ;-)
dustdevil is offline   Reply With Quote
Old September 26, 2010   #9
Stepheninky
Tomatovillian™
 
Stepheninky's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 682
Default

I believe the smaller tomatoes are just due as dust devil said any type of stress on the plant. My latter ones have been small as well its been super dry and the heat here this summer was insane.

I have read somewhere that there is a hormone that accumulates in the growing tips, so after the first wave of fruit production and the plant starts to slow down you can top the plant. (prune away the upper most growing tips) and it will give the plant basically a second wind. So that the hormone will build up in the remaining branches and you will get more blooms and the fruits will be normal sized. I also read somewhere else that recommended the topping but the reason they gave was that the smaller fruit forms on the higher growth and that the nutrients have to travel from the roots to the higher growth and other parts of the plant absorb them on the way.

Either case I have not tried it yet as by the time I had read it it was just too late in the season but next year I will see how it works.
Stepheninky is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:04 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★