Acidic or not?

[Starlight]

Yes, it me again. Just full of questions this morning.

With all the new plants I am growing this year, is there some place to know whether they are going to be acidic tasting or not? How can you tell what your tastebuds might be biting into long before it makes a tomato?

Can you by color alone? Is there a chart somewhere or something. I would hate to tell somebody that they picked a low acidic tomato when reality they may have a highly acidic one.

Especially since I don't know if acidity in tomato can affect somebody's health kinda like peanut allergies.

[Yentlsil]

Hi,
At Tatiana seed catalog on the internet, many varieties mention the taste.
I doubt if a tomato, a well known anti-oxidant will cause more allergies... I would think vice versa...
I have read about allergy to tomato, actually mostly to ketchup, but what is in such a bottle : many E collorants or chemicals to delay expire date... So difficult to tell, but then again, I am no doctor, so better ask him/her?
Grts

[Worth1]

The acid in a tomato is about the same all around.
What changes this conception of acidity is the amount of sugar they have that covers up the acidity.

Worth

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Yes, it me again. Just full of questions this morning.

With all the new plants I am growing this year, is there some place to know whether they are going to be acidic tasting or not? How can you tell what your tastebuds might be biting into long before it makes a tomato?

Can you by color alone? Is there a chart somewhere or something. I would hate to tell somebody that they picked a low acidic tomato when reality they may have a highly acidic one.

Especially since I don't know if acidity in tomato can affect somebody's health kinda like peanut allergies.

The only way that YOu can tell if a fruit tastes acid to you is by tasting it b'c there's a human genetic component that's also involved in taste, as in your own genes. And no, only by tasting a fully ripe fruit can you tell, not before. Although there are countries where mostly unripe fruits are preferred, such as Spain.

By color alone? Nope. Many say that some varieties like the gold/red bicolors and the so called ivory white ones are low in soluble sugars, that doesn't work at all since high sugar content masks the acidity, that is normal,

There are No truly low acid tomato varieties, for the same reason I just gave in the paragraph above. About 20 years ago there were 20 low acid hybrids introduced commercially, most are not around now, one is, and I forget its name but it's cautioned that when using it for canning that the contents must be acidified, since that's needed to destroy any contaminating botulism spores which are only destroyed at a specific pH.

All kinds of confirmed allergies are determined by the specific genes that a person has, including nut allergies, and while I haven't researched it, I do know many who have specific allergies, including myself, and to date I've not heard any of them say that health in any was is compromised

Carolyn

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by Yentlsil

Hi,
At Tatiana seed catalog on the internet, many varieties mention the taste.
Grts

Thanks Yentlsil. Good idea! I'll go back and look up some of these cultivars and see what Tatiana says about taste and add those notes to my cards.

Worth and Carolyn.... Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. That really has helped me to understand alot better and to explain it better to other folks. Appreciate it!

[Father'sDaughter]

I love Tania's site , but I've learned that it's not someplace that will give me an accurate opinion regarding taste for all the reasons stated by Carolyn -- it depends on personal taste.

Once you've tried a few varieties and identify ones your really like, search for feedback on here for those varieties. When you find a member or members whose tastes mirror yours, look to see what other varieties they enjoy. In other words, stalk them.

[Gardeneer]

Acidity is real and it can be measured by a decent pH meter. But what you taste can be be obscured by the sweetness. Sweetness does not cancel out acidity but hides it.

Most tomatoes have a pH of 4.2 to 4.8 range. But if you happened to have a tomato with a pH of 4.2 but it is also sweet at the same time, you might not notice its acidity. You can even make a sweet tasting oil and vinegar salad dressing by adding sweetener to it.

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

I love Tania's site , but I've learned that it's not someplace that will give me an accurate opinion regarding taste for all the reasons stated by Carolyn -- it depends on personal taste.

Once you've tried a few varieties and identify ones your really like, search for feedback on here for those varieties. When you find a member or members whose tastes mirror yours, look to see what other varieties they enjoy. In other words, stalk them.

Stalk them. Makes alot of sense though. Good advice. Thank you! If you look over your shoulder and you see a shadow, it is just me.

Gardeneer.... My..My.. I didn't realize that tomatoes were that acidic normally. Those pH's are what my blueberries grow in. Very interesting. I appreciate you passing on that knowledge. Tomato.. An easy word to say, a common fruit enjoyed by most folks and yet there is so much to learn about it that you never knew.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Stalk them. Makes alot of sense though. Good advice. Thank you! If you look over your shoulder and you see a shadow, it is just me.

Gardeneer.... My..My.. I didn't realize that tomatoes were that acidic normally. Those pH's are what my blueberries grow in. Very interesting. I appreciate you passing on that knowledge. Tomato.. An easy word to say, a common fruit enjoyed by most folks and yet there is so much to learn about it that you never knew.

Straight ,

I was talking about the pH of the tomato itself , NOT soil.
Soil pH has nothing to do with fruits pH.

Gardeneer.

[Starlight]

Yep, I know you was. It just hit me that a tomato could have as low of pH as the soil I grow blueberries in. I would have thought a tomato would have been up in the mid 6's.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Yep, I know you was. It just hit me that a tomato could have as low of pH as the soil I grow blueberries in. I would have thought a tomato would have been up in the mid 6's.

If a tomato was in the mid 6's you wouldn't be able to water bath can them without adding a lot of acid.
Worth