Ramona Byrd

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My Nurseryman husband told me that here in California we
can not grow a lot of the ones that grow beautifully back east.
We have lots of nasties in our soil that prevents the less hybrid
ones from growing. The "Beefsteak" we get here does not taste
as good nor is it as big as the real thing we had in WV. And as
for a real mortgage lifter, there was one developed before the war years near my home town of Milton, WV. Still have pictures
somewhere that shows a small outbuilding totally covered with
them, roof and all. And my hill family says their veggies still taste good if they keep their own seeds from old varieties. They
have sent me lots of seeds over the years, and even in a sterile greenhouse, they die after growing 4 or 5 inches tall.
Might as well try to enjoy what we have and can grow.

tdgiffin

I remember the taste of my mom's and grandma's tomatoes, and the ones today just taste "flat" compred to those. I am not sure what is going on with them, but I think that everything may be getting hybridized, including some of the "heirloom" varieties. That is just my suspicion, and I may be wrong too.

golfer

I live in Maryland and it has been extremely hot this spring and summer. I think that it has affected the tomatoes. The skins are hard to chew and not as sweet.

Maksi

In my garden I have all kind of tomatoes, from cherry tomatoes to Tasty Toms and Pommodore and several wich name I don't know because they where give aways. But they all tast great and sweet even taste better then last year. Did your tomatoes catch enough sun and warmt? Tomatoes don't like watering from above, alway water them by their feet. When its very hot they must have a lot of water in the morning and in the evening.Tomatoes does like to be in the area with asperagus and beans (but mine are also near the corns)and they do also like a metal stick to grow at, not a wooden. Tomatoes don't like to be touched with smokey hands.

I don't know whats going on with your tomatoes but maybe these tips will help a bit. Oh and I never use hybride seeds because I can't use that seed again for the next year.

theoldgraymare

This year I grew Heatwave II and Sungold cherry tomatoes. Neither did as well as last year's Celebrity and sungold because of the heat and especially the $*&^%@(*($! leaf-footed bugs! Does anyone know of a way to control them other than with two bricks?

flikkem

Sweet 100's, a prolific cherry tomato variety, has good tomato flavor.

wickn34

Try using calcium for blossom end rot.

PATTIESPEARL

I have been buying the better boy and better girl tomatoes. When they make, they are terriffic. no tomatoes anyplace around here this year. First we had too much water too fast and too long,now we have scotching heat filled days that are burning the gardens up.

PATTIESPEARL

I have been buying the better boy and better girl tomatoes. When they make, they are terriffic. no tomatoes anyplace around here this year. First we had too much water too fast and too long,now we have scotching heat filled days that are burning the gardens up.

butterflywing

tomatoes are hybridized to look pretty and ship well and keep longer. to get something you have to give something. the old toms rotted easily, bruised up, were really ugly a lot of times and tasted great. there's nothing like the smell of a sliced tom right off the vine out in the sun, not in a greenhouse. we used to eat them in our grubby hands when we were kids. and that was even in the city. (not to mention that as you get older your taste buds become less sensitive and you miss out on some of the flavor of everything. that's why you hear older people saying: when i was young, soap [or something] used to taste much better than it does today. true!)


"I have been buying the better boy and better girl tomatoes. When they make, they are terriffic. no tomatoes anyplace around here this year. First we had too much water too fast and too long,now we have scotching heat filled days that are burning the gardens up."

both of those varieties were developed here in new jersey at rutgers university, which has an agricultural program with gardens open to the public at certain times of the summer. this summer their own tomatoes stink.