How to Grow the Best Tasting Tomatoes

Here is an interview from Margaret Roach and her A way To Garden blog.
http://awaytogarden.com/grow-best-tasting-tomato/

Do you have any tips about growing the best tasting tomatoes?

Yup, save seeds from your best tasting tomatoes...
and apparently, according to the article, don't rinse the seaweed.  

CC

CapeCoddess wrote: according to the article, don't rinse the seaweed.  

CC

That's not what it said. Silly CC.
  

Interesting. I was given some heirloom tomato’s by my neighbor one year and I saved some seed from them. She grew her’s using Miracle Grow products and they tasted  okay. I grew the same Tomatoes the following year and I used only Organic methods in mine..no synthetic chemical fertilizers just compost and such and I do believe I can taste the difference between the 2.…Organic is the only method for me. Much better flavor.

Where dad worked on a farm just after demob in 1947 there were still a lot of Italian ex POW's around the area.  They worked hard and had a big converted barn for their home.
 
The only thing missing was the brick built toilet so they used a moving trench system along the back of the barns hidden from the road but in full sunlight all day
 
Their tomatoes came from naturally emerging starts sown by their bowel actions.
 
Dad reckoned that those tomatoes were the best tomatoes he'd ever tasted , as a result when we had our three hole wooden seater down the garden brick built toilet  tank emptied by him and a neighbour ( last time was in 1964 ) . He trenched the old excrement in a 4 x4 deep & wide  wide trench , covered it with the spoil soil and grew the next year  tomatoes on this human fuelled hot bed  . The runner beans were also grown off it .


Yes ..... I have to agree the unsavoury idea did give brilliant tasting toms & beans . Nowadays the " Elf & Safe Key "  folks would have a duck fit at the idea of growing veg for human consumption on land likely to have human pathogens in it.

Holy crow!  

I re-read the article twice looking for the magic  amendment-of-the-month that's supposed to make tomatoes taste better.  Nada.   




 

boffer wrote:I re-read the article twice looking for the magic  amendment-of-the-month that's supposed to make tomatoes taste better.  Nada.   




 

I think the magic is salt and less water...?

For me, the magic is MM.  

It's the one constant in a gardener's world full of variables like weather and strains.  It's given me an opportunity to observe the effects of weather, from broccoli heading to tomato flavor.  

Although I buy most of my seeds from TSC (a lot of their seeds are grown in my climate), I haven't observed the advantages of local grown seeds.  I need to start paying more attention to that.

My MM isn't constant because my compost isn't constant. 2 years ago my compost piles saw the addition of seaweed for the first time, last years pile had an abundance of coffee grounds. This coming years will have chicken manure for the first time...and on and on it goes. And I never know if the percentages are constant, I just eyeball it.
  
meanwhile, salt and less watering I'm capable of...& probably already do. 
  
CC

I watched a video the other day of a man that said you should use a spray bottle to spray 100% apple juice (kept in the fridge) on the little tomato blossoms. Is this a common thing? Would it draw ants and other insects?

He said that it helps set the fragile blossoms to keep them from falling off and that the nitrogen in the juice prolongs their blooming. He was also "spanking" his tomatoes, lol.. no clue what any of that means really, but his plants looked great.
  

Cathy

catbranch wrote:I watched a video the other day of a man that said you should use a spray bottle to spray 100% apple juice (kept in the fridge) on the little tomato blossoms. Is this a common thing? Would it draw ants and other insects?

He said that it helps set the fragile blossoms to keep them from falling off and that the nitrogen in the juice prolongs their blooming. He was also "spanking" his tomatoes, lol.. no clue what any of that means really, but his plants looked great.
  

Cathy

Bunk and bad advice.

Thanks camprn.. glad I asked!

catbranch wrote:Thanks camprn.. glad I asked!

Sure thing!  

Hmmm interesting article. I feel I must be doing something right, my tomatoes are great.
I do think that we have been watering too much though and this year I hope we can decrease this.  We are changing system, interesting about salt....
thanks.

Salt (NaCl) can be a problem in garden soil. Perhaps this quote in the article needs some research.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex4246?opendocument

Spraying apple juice is, as camprn says, bad advice. It won't help flavor or pollination. "Spanking" might help pollination a bit, but is apt to break branches.

The best help for good pollination, not only for stopping blossom drop, but also for developing the best size and flavor possible is "buzzing" the flowers. The flowers have a natural resonant frequency which releases the maximum possible amount of pollen. Bumble bees know this and they will vibrate the flowers for this resonance. Listen to them as they work.

Lacking bumble bees, you can do the bee thing with a tuning fork. I got one off E-Bay for a couple bucks. The resonant frequency for tomatoes is Middle C.

Tap the tuning fork to get it vibrating, then touch it to the stem of the blossoms. If they are ripe for pollination, pollen will spew out of the flower. I find it works best at mid-morning, after the dew dries, and before heat kills the pollen.

Keep in mind that the bulk and quality of the flesh of the tomato is directly proportional to the number of fertilized seeds. So the more pollen grains delivered to the stigma, the more seeds will be fertilized.

If you don't see bumble bees working the blossoms, don't take chances; be intentional and become the pollinator yourself. Your tomatoes will reward you for it.

The best help for good pollination, not only for stopping blossom drop, but also for developing the best size and flavor possible is "buzzing" the flowers. The flowers have a natural resonant frequency which releases the maximum possible amount of pollen. Bumble bees know this and they will vibrate the flowers for this resonance. Listen to them as they work.

Lacking bumble bees, you can do the bee thing with a tuning fork. I got one off E-Bay for a couple bucks. The resonant frequency for tomatoes is Middle C.

Tap the tuning fork to get it vibrating, then touch it to the stem of the blossoms. If they are ripe for pollination, pollen will spew out of the flower. I find it works best at mid-morning, after the dew dries, and before heat kills the pollen.

Keep in mind that the bulk and quality of the flesh of the tomato is directly proportional to the number of fertilized seeds. So the more pollen grains delivered to the stigma, the more seeds will be fertilized.

If you don't see bumble bees working the blossoms, don't take chances; be intentional and become the pollinator yourself. Your tomatoes will reward you for it.

Wow pollinator that is totally fascinating, I had no idea that the number of seeds pollinated determines that much... Very interesting

camprn wrote:Salt (NaCl) can be a problem in garden soil. Perhaps this quote in the article needs some research.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex4246?opendocument

The article states, "Do not use high salt containing manures as an organic amendment for saline soils." 

What are examples of high salt containing manures?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:

camprn wrote:Salt (NaCl) can be a problem in garden soil. Perhaps this quote in the article needs some research.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex4246?opendocument

The article states, "Do not use high salt containing manures as an organic amendment for saline soils." 

What are examples of high salt containing manures?

CC

A few fact sheets.


http://ag.arizona.edu/animalwaste/farmasyst/awfact8.html

http://www.algreatlakes.com/PDF/factsheets/ALGLFS15_Fertilizer_Salt_Index.PDF
Google is a wonderful thing.

I'm adding this one because I want to read it after work.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/guides/texas-vegetable-growers-handbook/appendix/tables-commercial-vegetable-growers-handbook/

One of the advantages of raised beds is that salts don't accumulate like in the ground. They are readily flushed out by normal watering.

I read a book a few years ago called "collapse" about the collapse of societies in the past, such as easter island, greenland... etc   it is all historical, but a very interesting book that really shows how societies in the past have destroyed themselves.  
Anyways, the very first chapter involves present day Montana, and the effects of current industry practices, that are in essence bringing up high sodium that exists deep in the ground, destroying many crop fields.   Clearly a problem. I imagine concentration is critical.  I used to live on the coast of oregon which would generally be way too cold for tomatoes, but I had a ravine alongside my house and it was protected from the strong summer winds. It would have been exposed to lots of salt there, but they thrived.

Pollinator, after reading your comments about pollination, I have gone to our office and checked our tuning forks we use to test hearing etc.... and GUESS WHAT.... they are "C"
SO I AM going to bring one of them home for my tomatoes, I am so excited to be able to Duplicate fully (almost fully) the services of the bees.  ( I keep one sample of each tomato variety in my greenhouse for seed saving purposes AND earlier tomatoes.

Pollinator thank you!  I have observed the bumble bees vibrating the flowers and read THIS PAPER a few years ago (being a biologist I love research - and I have had my own bees in the past).  Thanks to your advice I just bought a middle c tuning fork (256 hz) on ebay for $5. 

On the bee note I watched a carpenter bee visiting my zucchini and spaghetti squash flowers this morning - but she was going backwards!  Females first, males last!  At least I can easily hand pollinate those guys

CapeCoddess wrote:

camprn wrote:Salt (NaCl) can be a problem in garden soil. Perhaps this quote in the article needs some research.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex4246?opendocument

The article states, "Do not use high salt containing manures as an organic amendment for saline soils." 

What are examples of high salt containing manures?

CC

 Urine soaked beddings from bull pens s is a high salt manure . But remember if you will that we are making a soilless growth medium when we make Mel's mix ...there is not any soil in it .
 
MM when made to Mel's methods is just slightly acidic in the range that most plants thrive in .