Tomatoes and flavour

[Bill HH]

The problem we face is everyone has different taste buds. For me the three varieties you mentioned Bill aren't worth growing with regard to taste, but my mate swears by Shirley.

I think you may have gone a bit over the top on the size of containers I grow all my toms in the hallowed Morrison's black buckets about 10 to 14ltrs dependent on which size you get with no problem,I do feed heavy though at every other watering.

Black cherry are not as sweet as Sungold but are excellent on cheese on toast. I grow the original Tumbler not Tumbler Tom and find them much better. Another one I like is Green Zebra, nice firm flesh and tangy taste.

Tumbler and Sungold are both very prolific. I run my Sungold to 5 or 6 trusses depending on the year and get around 20 toms per truss.

A few pic's to make your mouth water.

Potty

Potty,
Do you think by going over the top with the containers will be to the detriment of the plants? You have me worried now. The three tumblers I have are the original ones so I got something right.

"and get around 20 toms per truss." With my poor eyesight I first read this as 20 tons!!!!!!!!!

[Rocketron]

I may be wrong, but I thnk the amount of sunlight impacts upon sweetness.

[Snadger]

Everyone has there favourites for taste. Gardeners Delight always do well for me and never leave the greenhouse.I'm surprised yours were tasteless?
I also grow a beefsteak variety that I keep going from my own seed each year. I find these are at there best when slightly unripe and just turning red. Once they are red, they are tasteless!
Cedrico is a hybrid similar to Shirley but better tasting I think.

I grew a black beefsteak tomato last year which cropped very poorly on a withering vine, looked awful, but tasted devine! Unfortunately i didn't keep any seeds as the few I salvaged were eaten with gusto!

[Kristen]

The problem we face is everyone has different taste buds.

Quite. Last year I grew all the ones my mates most raved about. Instead of 6-each of three varieties I grew 2-each of 10 varieties.

I didn't like any of them as much as my three regular varieties (none of which did I grow last year )

The Beefsteak ones were interesting, but took so long to ripen they were not paying their way for the space they took up! I need at least one that is early ripening ... and none that are late ripening

So my advice would be to find the varieties that you like the taste of, and perhaps grow one or two plants of the ones that other people rave about until you have discovered your short list.

I once grew, but never would again, Moneymaker, Ailsa Craig and some others that I now can't remember. Alicante maybe? Seeds of those varieties still sell well in garden centre - I dunno why as I have not come across people who have grown things like Gardeners Delight who prefer Moneymaker et al.

I grow all my toms in the hallowed Morrison's black buckets about 10 to 14ltrs dependent on which size you get with no problem,I do feed heavy though at every other watering.

One downside with smaller container is the fact that they may need watering more frequently in hot weather. When I grew in pots (they were about 12" diameter from memory) there were very hot summer days when I had to water 3x a day ... now I crop them in the greenhouse soil I water 2 or 3 times a week only.

[Bill HH]

I grew a black beefsteak tomato last year which cropped very poorly on a withering vine, looked awful, but tasted devine! Unfortunately i didn't keep any seeds as the few I salvaged were eaten with gusto!

Yes well you tell this Gusto guy to buy his own toms.

[Bill HH]

I may be wrong, but I thnk the amount of sunlight impacts upon sweetness.

Thats a possibility on my garden, ruddy trees all round, but my toms did ripen to a nice red colour.

[Thelma Sanders]

It really is a matter of taste cos I really don't like sweet tomatoes - preferring those with a good acid balance

My favs are Black Cherry (picked just before it looks ripe) and Black Sea Man a bush tomato, the first fruits are beefsteak size but the later ones are medium size. It sets a good crop without faffing and makes a fantastic salad tomato

[Bill HH]

It really is a matter of taste cos I really don't like sweet tomatoes - preferring those with a good acid balance

My favs are Black Cherry (picked just before it looks ripe) and Black Sea Man a bush tomato, the first fruits are beefsteak size but the later ones are medium size. It sets a good crop without faffing and makes a fantastic salad tomato

I said sweetnes but really it was overall flavour I found lacking,they seems watery and mushy.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Re#16. No Bill I don't think the larger containers will do any harm at all but you can get more of the small containers in.

I don't find watering to much of a problem at all, never water more than once a day even in the hottest weather. Maybe due to leaving a nice 3" space between the top of the compost and the pot rim and filling that every time.

Just one point Bill if your growing Sungold for the first time, just be aware that they first go a darkish yellow and then a deep orange, if you pick them to early you will not get the full taste hit.

Potty

[Bill HH]

Re#16. No Bill I don't think the larger containers will do any harm at all but you can get more of the small containers in.

I don't find watering to much of a problem at all, never water more than once a day even in the hottest weather. Maybe due to leaving a nice 3" space between the top of the compost and the pot rim and filling that every time.

Just one point Bill if your growing Sungold for the first time, just be aware that they first go a darkish yellow and then a deep orange, if you pick them to early you will not get the full taste hit.

Potty

Thanks Potty re the sungold.

[Penellype]

Last year I grew Sungold, Shirley, Totem and Bajaja. I've grown the first 2 of these for several years, but the last 2 were new to me. They all had their pros and cons, except Sungold, which I have yet to better. For some reason last year's Shirley were nowhere near as good as previous years, even though I treated them exactly the same. I grow them in 7-8 inch pots with gro-bag compost and feed them occasionally after the fruit starts to set. Strangely the fruit appearing now from the plants I over wintered in the sitting room taste better than fruit from the same plants did during last summer. The ones I grew outside fared even worse, which I found odd. Totem and Bajaja are both bush varieties which is why I tried them. The Bajaja fruits are too small for my liking - some were no bigger than peas. They also refused point blank to set fruit in the house, although they were fine in the garden. Totem was the earliest of all to fruit, but many of the fruits got greenback, which I understand can be caused by hot weather, which we certainly had.

Just a note about Sungold. When I tried growing them in pots in the house the first year I tried them I found that they produced much larger fruit which was yellow, not orange, and almost completely tasteless. I was so disappointed that I planted the plants outdoors in May along with all of the cuttings I had taken, and let them take their chances. To my astonishment the same plants produced the little orange fruit that is so sweet and tasty, and I would also say that this is one of the hardier tomato plants I have come across, coping much better with single figure temperatures (and blight) than Shirley. Outdoors, allowed to grow as they like, they produce hundreds of tomatoes per plant. I was picking a punnet full of ripe fruit from just 4 plants every day last summer. When I pulled them up their roots were several feet long.

[darcyvuqua]

Last year I grew Sungold, Shirley, Totem and Bajaja. I've grown the first 2 of these for several years, but the last 2 were new to me. They all had their pros and cons, except Sungold, which I have yet to better. For some reason last year's Shirley were nowhere near as good as previous years, even though I treated them exactly the same. I grow them in 7-8 inch pots with gro-bag compost and feed them occasionally after the fruit starts to set. Strangely the fruit appearing now from the plants I over wintered in the sitting room taste better than fruit from the same plants did during last summer. The ones I grew outside fared even worse, which I found odd. Totem and Bajaja are both bush varieties which is why I tried them. The Bajaja fruits are too small for my liking - some were no bigger than peas. They also refused point blank to set fruit in the house, although they were fine in the garden. Totem was the earliest of all to fruit, but many of the fruits got greenback, which I understand can be caused by hot weather, which we certainly had.

Just a note about Sungold. When I tried growing them in pots in the house the first year I tried them I found that they produced much larger fruit which was yellow, not orange, and almost completely tasteless. I was so disappointed that I planted the plants outdoors in May along with all of the cuttings I had taken, and let them take their chances. To my astonishment the same plants produced the little orange fruit that is so sweet and tasty, and I would also say that this is one of the hardier tomato plants I have come across, coping much better with single figure temperatures (and blight) than Shirley. Outdoors, allowed to grow as they like, they produce hundreds of tomatoes per plant. I was picking a punnet full of ripe fruit from just 4 plants every day last summer. When I pulled them up their roots were several feet long.

The trouble I had with sungold in the greenhouse last year was it's recklessness it just grew and grew and grew despite trying to train it as a cordon it seemed to bush and fork all over the greenhouse despite taking the side shoots off too!

The fruit was immense though the flavour and texture was probably the best tomato I had ever grown and such an abundance of fruit too.

[Penellype]

Agree about the recklessness - this is early September last year - Sungold on the left doing battle with the clematis up the archway, compared with Shirley on the right.

[Kristen]

For some reason last year's Shirley were nowhere near as good as previous years

Dark, cold and long spring perhaps? Light-hours (based on readings on my solar panels outputs) during spring were 25% down on normal (in Suffolk)

[Penellype]

Dark, cold and long spring perhaps? Light-hours (based on readings on my solar panels outputs) during spring were 25% down on normal (in Suffolk)

Could be, but the same plants, on my west facing sitting room windowsill, have been producing more tasty fruit over winter with much less light than there was last spring. I'm baffled really.