What makes tomatoes SOUR and disgusting?

[hasshoes]

Okay. . . after pulling tons of plants I should be happy I getting a few sungolds that are tasty. . . but this whole scenario is such a tease!!!

Here's the deal:

I've been getting tons and tons of "Togo Trifel" that are so cute but utterly inedible. I mean, I could stand the mealy, but these actually smell rotten before you cut into them.

They taste hideously rotten and sour. Like, on a objective level I believe 100% of anyone that tasted them would go "eww" and gag.

I chalked it up to the variety and bad weather.

Well I finally picked a Paul Robeson yesterday. Cut it open. . . exact same nasty sour taste as the Togo Trifel. I mean, total 100% exact taste.

What is causing this? I would be inclined to think it was 'first tomato syndrome" but I've been getting these nasty Togo Trifels for weeks.

Can too much rain or overwatering be causing this? They are also mealy.

I may have over watered a few weeks ago because my moisture meter kept saying "dry". I didn't really water Paul so much though.

Thanks for any tips. I'll be sooo bummed if I finally make it past this Late Blight nonsense only to get rotten tasting maters!

[dice]

I had a Pipo plant with verticillium wilt and a few fruit set
on it that was pretty horrible tasting last year. (Normal Pipo
is not that great to my palate, but nowhere near as bad as
those verticillium-infected spitters.) Black Sea Man had it this
year, and the fruit that were almost full-sized when branches
started to wilt ripened up and tasted fine. But the fruit that
set later, that were still pea sized when the v-wilt symptoms
started, were not so good, to the extent that I pulled both
plants and tossed them today, rather than let the half-dozen
or so fruit on them ripen.

So root disease can definitely degrade the flavor, even if the
fruit looks normal.

[tjg911]

seems reasonable to suspect the lack of sun and too much rain prevent the development of the proper chemicals to produce sweet flavors and typical tomato flavor. it's just a guess but it seems reasonable. you can't make any judgments about any new tomato variety this season. i grew 5 new hearts and have no idea what they really taste like. knowing hearts to be very good tasting tomatoes i can't imagine what i have tasted is correct.

tom

[ContainerTed]

Last year I grew one that was supposed to be called "Supertasty". The fact was that it was super "Yuuchh" - a real mealy, unsweet spitter. Never did figure out why it was so bad tasting. All the other varieties I grew last year were great. Still wonder about it from time to time, but right now I'm writing it off to either something genetic or one of those "Stuff Happens" thingies.

Ted

[piegirl]

do you perhaps mean Togorific? I grew togorific last year - SandhillsSeed - two plants came true and 3 were a cherry-ish 2 red and 1 lt. yellow. The true Togo - and it is the cutest tomato ever - had what we called 'that Togo' flavor. They were rather mealy, bland, little juice and produced quite a few. They were never sour but did get wilt and I would just trim off a stem and off they went again producing. The not-Togos had that 'togo' flavor and produced boat loads of blah tomatoes. Weather is probably a strong issue - we had loads of rain last year - they weren't sour but they were pretty disgusting. Fortunately no volunteers appeared this spring. I would grow it again just for the cute factor. Piegirl

[lj in ny]

I was wondering the same thing. I started way too many seeds this year and gave away a bunch of plants. I gave a Black Krim to a co-worker. She raised it in a 5 gallon bucket, fed it Miracle Gro, put it in a location where it got some sun but not a lot. She said they were aweful, sour. I gave one to my mom. She put hers in a 5 gallon bucket gave it Miracle Gro once in a location where it got a lot of sun and she said it was the best tasting tomato she's ever had. My BK is in the ground, no Miracle Gro (I'm organic), got the best sun in the garden but not optimum sun- it was a fabulous tomato- one of the best ever. Is it the sun??

[stevenkh1]

Originally Posted by hasshoes

Okay. . . after pulling tons of plants I should be happy I getting a few sungolds that are tasty. . . but this whole scenario is such a tease!!!

Here's the deal:

I've been getting tons and tons of "Togo Trifel" that are so cute but utterly inedible. I mean, I could stand the mealy, but these actually smell rotten before you cut into them.

They taste hideously rotten and sour. Like, on a objective level I believe 100% of anyone that tasted them would go "eww" and gag.

I chalked it up to the variety and bad weather.

Well I finally picked a Paul Robeson yesterday. Cut it open. . . exact same nasty sour taste as the Togo Trifel. I mean, total 100% exact taste.

What is causing this? I would be inclined to think it was 'first tomato syndrome" but I've been getting these nasty Togo Trifels for weeks.

Can too much rain or overwatering be causing this? They are also mealy.

I may have over watered a few weeks ago because my moisture meter kept saying "dry". I didn't really water Paul so much though.

Thanks for any tips. I'll be sooo bummed if I finally make it past this Late Blight nonsense only to get rotten tasting maters!

Great question. I had a few Amish Paste, Brandywines, & German Johnsons many weeks ago that I thought tasted sour & rotten - but, there was no sign of rot. Then I thought it was too much Triple 12 or lime as the taste was that sour and putrid. I stopped picking and let the tomatoes turn deep color for the sugars to develop. About 1-1/2 weeks later, the tomatoes tasted like tomatoes and all the tomatoes since then have normal taste. I'm not sure if it had to do with the vine/fruit not being fully developed because of the unusually cool summer or what...