thick-skinned-and-tasteless--tomatoes-that-is-not-me
dch222
Posts: 5
I have been growing tomatoes successfully for about 30 years both in the greenhouse and outdoors, always directly in the ground rather than in pots or grow-bags. I never take much notice of which variety I buy and have always obtained really tasty fruit. Sometimes I buy plants and sometimes I grow from seed.
I recently moved house and now only have a tiny greenhouse frame thing which only has room for a single grow-bag, so this year I planted three garden-centre plants in a grow-bag and another three outside in pots of 50% compost 50% earth. Again I can’t remember the variety, but I have just picked the first fruit and find that they are thick skinned and tasteless.
They have been well fed with Tomorite and watered throughout – grow-bags seem to need watering twice daily in the hot weather.
Any ideas please?
Posts
In my opinion it is all down to variety, because home-grown tomatoes usually beat supermarket tomatoes hands down.
I thought it was something weird about this year. I grew my usual varieties and they are thick skinned with nothing like the usual flavour. But I live in France.
Having trouble with tomatoes myself this year (although this is the first year in quite a while that I've attempted it and I'm in a new area with different growing conditions etc). Mine are planted in either pots or grow bags, all have grown incredibly well and have probably too many trusses of fruits. However with the exception of a few so far they are just not ripening. I have a horrible feeling that despite all of the hard work I've put in its not going to be a very successful tomato harvest this year. Only plus side is that the few that have ripened and we've been able to pick and eat have tasted like something from heaven. Like yourself I just picked random varieties so can't remember what's what but they're all behaving in the same fashion
Someone mentioned the same issue on here recently and Italophile answered. If you can find that thread you'll get the reason - sorry I can't remember what the answer was but weather came into it.
The thread called 'Tomatoes' last week (in Problem Solving ) has info about ripening if you can locate it. The search button at top of page is useful for that!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks Fairygirl I'll have a look and see if I can hunt it out.
Heat is the key for ripening so if you can keep them cosy they should be ok! I've removed some flowers and any small fruits now from mine as they won't make it and it's a bit pointless keeping them on the plants. Even in the last few days a lot of green fruits have turned and most of them are orange going on red. Mine are all under cover anyway as it's just not warm enough up here through the night now and it's quite Autumnal during the day - often only 15/16 degrees.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thank you. I was wondering if it might be just a heat issue. We were forecast another week of beautiful weather and I was crossing my fingers that it'd be very hot and give them the push they needed but sadly the weathermen lied (again!) and its gray and raining today and nowhere near warm enough. And our overnights have gotten a little chilly over the last couple of weeks so I might have to see what I've got that I can cozy them up with and hope for the best.
Heather, ripening is all down to temperature. Nothing to do with direct sunlight. Optimum temps for ripening are anything above low-20sC. They will ripen at lower temps but correspondingly slower. Once daytime temps get down to the low teens consistently you're better off taking them inside to ripen.
Skin thickness and taste are usually down to the variety as Welshonion said above. Though, as I've reported here before, a tomato can thicken its skin in the absence of adequate moisture. It's more likely to happen in very hot weather. It's the tom's way of preserving moisture.
Perhaps I haven't watered enough, but I've grown tomatoes for years. It has been hot this year in the late 20s and early 30s, need rain badly. I live in Dordogne, France.
I've got the same problem.