Newbie: What are your favorite bicolored / unusual tomato varieties - Page 2

wienerdog · March 1, 2011

Carolyn , in your post, numer 9 in this thread, you state in regards to bicolor tomatoes-

"There are about 150 named ones in the SSE YEarbook and I've grown maybe 10-15 of them, but starting a few years back don't grow them now. The main reason is b'c while variety X can be sweet and lucious one season, the same variety grown the next year can be mealy and bland. They are very much influenced by weather."

Is there something in the genetics of these tomatoes that make their taste inconsistent from year to year and more affected by yearly weather variations?

barkeater · March 1, 2011

wd,

I think I can give my experience until Carolyn responds. The bicolors I grew were great when the weather was hot and dry when they were ripening. However, after a few rain storms and cool weather they became soft and mushy like many heirloom varieties do.That is how most tomatoes were - until the hybrids were developed over the last 30 years to prevent that "problem" for commercial growers. Too bad they bred out the flavor when adding crack resistance.

March 1, 2011	#16
wienerdog Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Northern Illinois Posts: 6	Carolyn , in your post, numer 9 in this thread, you state in regards to bicolor tomatoes- "There are about 150 named ones in the SSE YEarbook and I've grown maybe 10-15 of them, but starting a few years back don't grow them now. The main reason is b'c while variety X can be sweet and lucious one season, the same variety grown the next year can be mealy and bland. They are very much influenced by weather." Is there something in the genetics of these tomatoes that make their taste inconsistent from year to year and more affected by yearly weather variations?

March 1, 2011	#17
barkeater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NE Kingdom, VT - Zone 3b Posts: 1,439	wd, I think I can give my experience until Carolyn responds. The bicolors I grew were great when the weather was hot and dry when they were ripening. However, after a few rain storms and cool weather they became soft and mushy like many heirloom varieties do.That is how most tomatoes were - until the hybrids were developed over the last 30 years to prevent that "problem" for commercial growers. Too bad they bred out the flavor when adding crack resistance.