tomato taste gone bad fast - Page 2

GreenFarmer · May 28, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nematode

Also if you are using a drip system, you can crank up the EC in the root zone by running them dry, as the water is absorbed, the ec in the root zone can get very high, up to 8-9 or so i have seen in some studies.

I have different size plants on the same circuit, so even with drip its difficult to create a dry environment all around.

oh that's simple to do in my flood and drain system, all i do is delay the waterings on my timer, and voila, i can let them dry as much as i need to. I will try this too. will look into sea salt too, sounds risky to throw it in the water, but i'm crazy lol any ideas about the thinner skin question? thanks

Nematode · May 28, 2015

got nothin on skin......

Dewayne mater · May 29, 2015

I have always heard that tomato skins thicken in response to too little water. They are conserving the water they have. That aligns with my out door growing experience of skins that thicken the hotter it gets. I think it could be a response to heat as well though because mine get thicker skins in summer even sitting in a reservoir of water that I never let dry.

Dewayne mater

GreenFarmer · June 1, 2015

thanks for the input everyone, I noticed a big improvement in taste now many days after i raised the EC today i added about 100ppm of sea salt to test the contribution to taste.

Nematode · June 1, 2015

So what EC/ppm or recipe are you running for good flavor?
Can you post a pic of the plants on high EC?

Nematode

GreenFarmer · June 2, 2015

ec is at 3.2-3.4 i dont have newer pics. all in all it looks like a great grow but the tomatoes are with a thick skin taste is back to very good. i grow in growrocks flood and drain every 2 hours and i think that it might be too dry for them that the skin is getting thick

GreenFarmer · June 5, 2015

update: the sea salt and raised EC + the waiting for them to further ripen gave spectacular improvement in taste so very fast. I was just eating a few, and i couldn't stop. apart from the thick skin, it is a great tomato. The main concern to me was to try and not dump my res ever. this res is now 5 months old, yes 5 months, just topped off and never dumped. I was able to prove that i can grow a full season recycling the res, and after they are harvested, i'm going to try and allow them to suck all the ferts from the res before i harvest them, this will make to 0% leaching into the ground 100% recycling system with minimal water usage + a great taste!

Nematode · June 5, 2015

Thats a real a complishment congrats.
Somewhere on the interwebs is a paper describing how to do just that. The trick is how to know what nutrients to add, I think they did it by estimating plant growth and weighing harvest, and calculating the make up solution, without resorting to spectrographic analysis.
Disposal is a huge problem for big greenhouses.

May 28, 2015	#17
Nematode Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: massachusetts Posts: 1,710	got nothin on skin......

May 29, 2015	#18
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	I have always heard that tomato skins thicken in response to too little water. They are conserving the water they have. That aligns with my out door growing experience of skins that thicken the hotter it gets. I think it could be a response to heat as well though because mine get thicker skins in summer even sitting in a reservoir of water that I never let dry. Dewayne mater

June 1, 2015	#19
GreenFarmer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: under my greenhouse Posts: 40	thanks for the input everyone, I noticed a big improvement in taste now many days after i raised the EC today i added about 100ppm of sea salt to test the contribution to taste.

June 2, 2015	#21
GreenFarmer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: under my greenhouse Posts: 40	ec is at 3.2-3.4 i dont have newer pics. all in all it looks like a great grow but the tomatoes are with a thick skin taste is back to very good. i grow in growrocks flood and drain every 2 hours and i think that it might be too dry for them that the skin is getting thick

June 5, 2015	#22
GreenFarmer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: under my greenhouse Posts: 40	update: the sea salt and raised EC + the waiting for them to further ripen gave spectacular improvement in taste so very fast. I was just eating a few, and i couldn't stop. apart from the thick skin, it is a great tomato. The main concern to me was to try and not dump my res ever. this res is now 5 months old, yes 5 months, just topped off and never dumped. I was able to prove that i can grow a full season recycling the res, and after they are harvested, i'm going to try and allow them to suck all the ferts from the res before i harvest them, this will make to 0% leaching into the ground 100% recycling system with minimal water usage + a great taste!