Kitchen Garden Forum

Last night I picked my first greenhouse tomatoes, the yellow cherry variety, Sun Baby, a variety that can usually be guaranteed to be full of flavour.

Somewhat disappointingly however the taste was really bland.

The plants are being grown in a greenhouse border (ring culture)with a fresh mixture of garden soil plus two large wheelbarrow loads of very well rotted horse manure. Daily watering consists of 20 minutes each evening by an automatic watering system(around the roots)plus a twice weekly per plant liquid feed of Tomorite. During the recent hot weather, and if I am home, I have also splashed some water around the border early morning.

I am also growing Ailsa Craig, Alicante, Big Boy and Vanessa with the Sun Baby and all the plants are looking very healthy and are laden with ripening fruit with no obvious signs of disease/blossom end rot etc.

I wish to avoid further disappointments in the "taste department" and I wonder if anyone can suggest what I may be doing wrong.

I would not say that Sun Baby has very strong flavour, Sungold is much stronger. The watering seems rather a lot, half that would be enough, best to dig an inspection hole and check.Maybe the manure was still rich in nitrates, who can tell, garden compost might have been a better choice.

Allan,

Take your point about the nitrate level but I am assured that the manure is at least 10 years old! although I am not able to check that out. I have reduced the watering time to 10 minutes and will buy a moisture meter. Thanks for your reply.

I have grown sungold this year for the first time, having been recomended them by a fellow allotmenteer.
They are the best toms I have ever had, The plants are very sturdy and about 5ft tall and the toms are fantastic, they hardly ever get home because they get eaten as soon as they are picked.
I will definately only be growing sungold next year

I've just harvested my first batch of Sungold toms, after they were recommended by Forum members. They seem to ripen quite quickly, I probably have left a few on too long as I wasn't sure how orange they were going to go! Have to agree on the flavour though, made my tomato and lentil soup very tasty!!

I read in an American gardening book that if you place red plasic at the base of your toms they ripen quicker.
I have hung a largish sheet of plastic behind some of my toms and they have ripened quicker than the ones without red plastic. Has anybody else had any experiances with this

I once bought a short roll of red plastic sheet for just this purpose. I laid it under the bush toms in my cold frame. Quite soon the foliage completely obscured the red plastic so I don't think it can have had any effect apart from being a good mulching sheet. The toms were excellent but I don't think the red plastic can have had much to do with this.
I guess it is only going to work if, like you've done, you place the plastic directly under the toms.

John

I've got Sungold and Sunbaby, the latter of which is slightly more acidic but quite sweet. I wonder if it's too much water?

But only on the information you've supplied, because if you refer back to an article by the VERY talented Terrry Marshall on the subject of watering Tomatoes (you'll have to search, sorry !) he has indicated HIS well-worn watering recommendations, and, obviously, it really is "How Long is a piece of string..." but the more you grow, the better you get at it, and there isn't another way, unfortunately.

It's so dependant on the variety you're growing, the amount of 'soil' you've got it growing in, how much wind or sun there is that day, and ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING....
Don't you think?
Wellie

I went for Sungold soon after its introduction, it set a new standard of sweetness in its time but I found that by comparison Sunset from Fothergill had the edge on it for plant habits. I happen to have both growing alongside this year, the fruit itself tastes much the same, but for sheer strength tomato-ish flavour the reds such as Gardeners Delight and Supersweet 100 have it. However so much depends on the treatment of the plant and whether it is ripened on the growing plant.
If given the stark choice of a poor variety well grown and a good variety mis-treated I would go for the former but we can surely make the best of both worlds.
Allan

Just another thought Mike - if you've got lots of Sunbaby to spare, you could always cook them. That will definitely improve their flavour.

Red plastic eh! Now that is a first.

Following on from Allan's first reply and his suggestion that I may be overwatering, I have now got myself a moisture meter. The initial readings , some 12 hours after the last watering, seem to indicate that too much water could be a definite reason for the problem. Watering time now reduced.

Some interesting replies - many thanks to all who did so.

Tigger

I am still finding packs of last years "cooked down" tomatoes in the freezer!

Now that I am "chief cook and bottlewasher" following my divorce, I have discovered that I have spawned two "tomato hating children" although they do like sauce.

I wonder what yellow tomato sauce tastes like?Hmmmm,might not look that good on chips though!

If they like sauce, you could try baking the tomatoes with a little olive oil - add onions/herbs/garlic/whatever if you wish - then blitz them in a food processor and bottle them as you would jam. They keep for a year or more, don't use space in the freezer and can be added to all sorts.

Thanks for that,I will try roasting/baking some as suggested.