Tomato flavors

[CinnamintStick]

I am growing alot of different varieties of tomatoes because I don't know what I am looking for in a tomato. I tend to taste alot with my nose. If it smells good to me it wins before I even taste it.

I have gone to alot of wine tastings and found my taste change alot over the years. I think my taste has developed to learn to enjoy a variety. I hope that happens with the tomatoes too.

[b54red]

Luke I have never grown BTD but have grown the BTDP and it is a bit on the tart side if you eat it a little early. It sounds like you are looking for what most people call that old time tomato flavor. Tarasenko-6, Zogola, Lescana, Lumpy Red, Terhune, Cowlick's Brandywine, Druzba, and many more have that kind of flavor but to increase it you should hold off on the watering just before the tomatoes reach the first blush stage. Another thing that increases the intensity of flavor in tomatoes is ripening in hot weather. I have always found the earliest ripening fruits to be the mildest while the ones that ripen in the hot dry weather of August and September to be the most intense.

My BTDPs have set like crazy this year so you may not have given them enough water during the blooming stage. It is not too late as I have had good luck with BTDP setting fairly good in the heat if it is given a lot of water and a bit of Miracle Grow and I am assuming the regular BTD will do the same.

[WVTomatoMan]

@barkeater:

Based on your list you might want try Bonny Best.

Randy

[Sun City Linda]

Barkeater, I also grow Moskvitch and find it to be a great early SWEET tomato

[habitat_gardener]

Another tomato with assertive flavor is Purple Calabash.

[creister]

Silvery Fir Tree is tart to say the least. I would also say that Lida Ukranian and Azoychka are tart as well.

[attml]

Also wondering about the over watering. I highly recomend not watering your plants for 2-3 day prior to harvesing tomatoes or extremely little if you are in a hot spell. I have found this tends to make for much better tasting tomatoes!

One of the more acidic tasting tomatoes that I have grown in my garden has been Stump of the World which I love! It is one of only a few plants in my garden that I grow more than one plant. If you like what I would describe as "tart", which isn't what I would consider to be a normal tomato adjective, then the cherry tomato Snow White would be the closest that comes to mind. When I think of things that are"tart", I think of something more like a grapefruit or sourpatch candy. I'm not saying it is wrong to describe tomatos as tart that is just not someting I normally use to describe tomato flavor. I hope that helps!

Mark

[barkeater]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

Barkeater, I also grow Moskvitch and find it to be a great early SWEET tomato

Linda,

I imagine the soils and growing conditions in SoCal verses Northern Vermont couldn't be any more different! Aren't the soils an alkaline pH out west compared to the acidic soils in the East? That might explain why your Moskvich are on the sweet side.

[barkeater]

Originally Posted by WVTomatoMan

@barkeater:

Based on your list you might want try Bonny Best.

Randy

Bonnie Best sounds like a good one. Usually each year there is a theme in the new tomatoes I try and I've been meaning to try some of the 1800's/early 1900's ones like Bonnie Best, Livingston's Favorite, and others. Next year might be the year to do that.

[WVTomatoMan]

@attml:

My personal theory: People started referring to non sweet tomatoes as tart instead of acidic when chemical analysis showed there was basically no difference in the acid levels of a sweet tomato versus a non sweet tomato. And, the opposite of sweet is bitter or sour, but those terms really don't describe it very well. Tart seems more appropriate because it infers non sweet with a bit of a zing.

Randy

[PaulF]

To Barkeaters list I would add Old Brooks.

[JohnWayne]

From the Merriam Webster online

Tart

1: agreeably sharp or acid to the taste <a tart apple>

I have seen people shiver when they'd bite into a tomato. Those are likely to be the same people who would never dream of eating sour kraut or even begin to look sick as they watch me remove the slice of lemon from my iced tea at lunch, salt and eat it with great relish.

I find that sugar or salt either one will dull the sharp edge of something sour and many people will drink lemonade who would not touch a lemon.

But as mentioned above, they say tomatoes are as a general rule the same basic PH. Hard to accept when I can pick up a supermarket tomato in winter and strain for the least bit of flavor or hint of tart/sour.

Maybe there is something to the idea of refrigeration killing the flavor of a tomato?

At any rate, When I cut open a home grown tomato and find it tastes like Mott's Clamato juice cocktail, I will be one happy camper ! LOL It has just the right amount of "Whang"

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by WVTomatoMan

@barkeater:
Based on your list you might want try Bonny Best.

I grew Bonny Best one year and found it to be a good basic productive medium red tomato. Definitely better than Early Girl, which is recommended around here as a basic productive red. If I had the space and wanted to do a lot of canning, Bonny Best would be a good choice. I haven't tried any of the others on barkeater's list, though.

Silvery Fir Tree was too...tart? sour? for me. It has beautiful finely divided foliage and was the only determinate that behaved like a determinate in my climate: big flush of tomatoes, then done.

I've grown Druzba a couple times and loved it.

[nctomatoman]

This may be hard to believe, but I've yet to grow Bonny Best, June Pink, John Baer, Spark's Earliana, Pritchard's Scarlet Topper - or what I believe to be the real Chalk's Early Jewel and Stone (both my attempts were not the right variety, to my thinking). So though I've done all of the available Livingston varieties (and love some of them), I really must go and try some of the turn of the century standards!

[Ivy123]

As a fellow newbie to the vast variety of tomatoes..And I only remember my ma's tomatoes as the standard to which I judge...I'm thinking that finding a tomatoe tasting/testing to be an excellent idea..Although I have no Idea how to find one but research is my middle name.So, dag-gone-it I'll figure it out lol...

And I figure that growing tomatoes that have a really nice balance of sweet/acidic would be the perfect place to start...Middle of the road, that way you dont have far to travel to one side of the road or the other, which ever you prefer.. All you have to figure out is which ones are a good balance/middle of the road lmao