Picked my first................2014

[vegboi]

My first tomato! It was a Moneymaker, grown in MPC with B and Q own brand tomato feed, so the flavour was not spectacular, but still tastier than the ones you buy in the supermarket. Looking forward to the glut now!

Martin why does the brand of feed determine the taste


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[Scarlet]

I think it was more the choice of tomato Vegboi. Moneymaker is way on the bottom of the list for tomato flavour in most gardeners opinions!

[Martin H]

Martin why does the brand of feed determine the taste

I don't know for certain that it does. Any organic chemists on the forum?

I started from the observable / documented facts that:
- Supermarket tomatoes are pretty tasteless;
- Supermarket tomatoes are grown hydroponically;
- Hydroponic growning tends to focus on the main elements N/P/K with some magnesium, manganese and suchlike.

This year was my first growing tomatoes in pots. I used MPC and fed with Verve tomato feed ("contains added magnesium and seaweed extract"). I grew Moneymaker, Alicante and Red Pear but all three varieties have been rather tasteless just like supermarket ones.

Many years ago I grew tomatoes in greenhouse soil and in my memory they were much more flavourful than this year's crop.

From all this I deduced that:
- maybe growing in MPC is pretty much equivalent to hydroponic growing;
- maybe the lack of flavour is down to some missing minerals that aren't present in the chemical feed but are available to plants grown in normal soil.

This could be rubbish, though. I suspect that most flavour chemicals are hydrocarbons. A biochemist / organic chemist might be able to enlighten us.

[Scarlet]

I haven't grown red pear but the other two varieties I find are bland. (Though everyones tastes are different!)Try something else next year...

[Bill HH]

I don't know for certain that it does. Any organic chemists on the forum?

I started from the observable / documented facts that:
- Supermarket tomatoes are pretty tasteless;
- Supermarket tomatoes are grown hydroponically;
- Hydroponic growning tends to focus on the main elements N/P/K with some magnesium, manganese and suchlike.

This year was my first growing tomatoes in pots. I used MPC and fed with Verve tomato feed ("contains added magnesium and seaweed extract"). I grew Moneymaker, Alicante and Red Pear but all three varieties have been rather tasteless just like supermarket ones.

Many years ago I grew tomatoes in greenhouse soil and in my memory they were much more flavourful than this year's crop.

From all this I deduced that:
- maybe growing in MPC is pretty much equivalent to hydroponic growing;
- maybe the lack of flavour is down to some missing minerals that aren't present in the chemical feed but are available to plants grown in normal soil.

This could be rubbish, though. I suspect that most flavour chemicals are hydrocarbons. A biochemist / organic chemist might be able to enlighten us.

I have to agree with you martin, I am constantly disappointed with my indoor tomatoes, I have had much better flavoured ones from the supermarket. That is apart from sungold which have been a revelation.I sometimes wonder if I am picking them too early or eating them to soon after picking, I am beginning to think a few days resting time enhances flavour.

[gardendancer]

Today I picked my first ever Cauliflower - it is quite a baby one -picked it because I suspected it might be starting to bolt, but I'm so excited to eat it none the less. Have stayed away from cauliflowers as I thought they might be difficult, But they all seem to be doing pretty well, despite complete neglect on my part.

[BigV]

Sweet corn! Smallish cobs and not 100% formed but absolutely delicious. A very quick trip from plot to plate to keep their sweetness.


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[Penellype]

I have to agree with you martin, I am constantly disappointed with my indoor tomatoes, I have had much better flavoured ones from the supermarket. That is apart from sungold which have been a revelation.I sometimes wonder if I am picking them too early or eating them to soon after picking, I am beginning to think a few days resting time enhances flavour.

I think resting them enhances flavour too. I now pick all my outdoor tomatoes when they start to turn and ripen them indoors, partly to try to escape blight and partly for flavour. I think when you grow tomatoes in MPC or hydroponically you are giving them a lot of nutrients and causing them to grow faster, possibly to the detriment of flavour, whereas when you grow them in the soil they are a bit slower and develop more flavour as a result. I think it is quite well known that soil grown tomatoes taste better than those grown in compost. Its probably due to the concentration (amount per unit of water) of the flavour causing chemicals rather than actual different chemicals causing more taste.

Sungold actually gave me a superb illustration of the difference. I grew some in pots the first year I had them and they produced normal sized yellow tomatoes (not cherry) which tasted of almost nothing. I nearly wrote Sungold off completely as a result, but I stuck the plants in a corner of the garden and the rest is history, as they say!

[meteor]

Picked my first melon this season; variety Ogen and my first celeriac; variety Prinz. I had the celeriac for dinner today ( yummy) and melon for breakfast in the morning, I had a sneaky sample already; heavenly. It looks as if I am going to have a glut of melons over the next few weeks with several different types about to mature.

[Small pumpkin]

Picked my first parsnip.

[Hazel at the Hill]

First of the black tuscan kale. Need to look up how to prep/cook it!

[FlawlessVictory]

First of the black tuscan kale. Need to look up how to prep/cook it!

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I'm really looking to growing the kale seeds I have, I like ornamental look of the plants.

[Penellype]

Rainbow chard. Not grown this before and I can't say I was particularly enthusiastic. Perhaps it will taste better in the winter when I don't have so much else to eat.

[Penellype]

Leek. I'd despaired of my leeks this year, having sown them early in an attempt to get them to grow to a decent size. By mid summer almost all of them had bolted and I nearly pulled them out, but decided to cut off the flower buds and leave them. This morning when I was pulling out the nasturtiums that were killed by yesterday's frost I noticed that some of the bolted ones had formed a 2nd leek at the side of the bolted part. I ate one of these today, and apart from being a bit small (about 1cm across) it was absolutely fine.