Tomatoes taste like onions!

Roseinarosecity 4/25/2012, 12:27 pm

I tasted my first ripe tomato and it tasted like an onion! I have 4 tomatoes along the 4 northern squares of my 4x4 SFG box growing up a trellis. The other squares have onions I planted in the fall-still green. I'm hoping to harvest ~soon. It's my first time growing onions. But are all my tomatoes going to taste like onions?

I know that the southern lower edge outside of this box has an onion aroma because I was placing pavers next to it and as I cleared the dirt I could smell the onions as if I was disturbing roots.

BTW, it was a 'volunteer' tomato from my compost pile. Could that be the reason?

kbb964 4/25/2012, 5:01 pm

hmm maybe that is why someone told me not to plant my tomatoes near my onions Sad

givvmistamps 4/25/2012, 8:00 pm

My husband told me one of his coworkers put his hot peppers next to his tomatoes and wound up with hot tomatoes! I suppose that would be okay in a chili or some salsa, but not so much in a spaghetti sauce, perhaps, depending upon how you like it and what sort of hot pepper it is. So, I suppose the lesson learned here is, tomatoes can take up the flavor of it's neighbors if they have a strong flavor.

FamilyGardening 4/25/2012, 10:24 pm

oh no.....

my kids planted green onions in their self watering containers.....along with carrots and when the weather is warm enough they are going to plant a tomato in there too.....yikes....

thank you for sharing....sorry your tomato taste like an onion.....i think we will move our onions .....we planted them to help keep the afids off....but i know my five year old will be very disapointed if his cherry tomato taste like an onion What a Face

hugs

rose

Roseinarosecity 4/26/2012, 12:13 pm

The funny thing is that many 'companion plant lists' list onions as good to plant next to tomatoes. I am now waiting for the other tomato types to ripen, maybe this volunteer tomato was a dud. Maybe the other tomatoes, 'San Diego' and 'Champion' will be better tasting next to these onions. Don't carrots love tomatoes? Maybe I should plant a few seeds there as a barrier from the tomatoes.

What's going to happen when I pull out the onions? How long will the soil have the onion taste? Onion planters out there, what do you plant after you harvest your onions?

**camprn** 4/26/2012, 12:32 pm

I have not seen any evidence here that the onions are making that tomato taste like an onion.

I don't even know if that's possible. The volunteer tomato could have been a hybrid and the strange taste could have been because of that, or perhaps there were onions sliced nearby when the tomato was being tasted.

Planting hot peppers next to sweet peppers wont make the sweet peppers hot... it just doesn't work that way. I believe the soil is not going to taste like onions.

Lindacol 4/26/2012, 3:10 pm

My onions were in the same bed as the tomatoes, maybe 2 squares away and I had no problems with them affecting the tomato taste. The onions, about 8 squares of them, were harvested in june. There were 6 tomato plants also in that 4x8 bed and they tasted good all year.

The peppers were also in that bed, bell peppers from one seed packet and every once in a while I would get one with some heat. I didn't plant any other peppers and know for sure there were no other peppers growing within 200 ft. I think it just happens.

SherrieLou 4/26/2012, 4:31 pm

I'm not sure what caused this, but all of the charts I read on companion planting list tomatoes and onions as "friends" Tomatoes taste like onions! 1280598131

http://www.unclelukes.com/companion-planting/companion-planting-chart

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/hort/info/vegetables/companion.htm

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