Post by poppopt on May 26, 2017 10:04:32 GMT -5
Greetings!
It's my first post here on the Not Just Tomatoes forum. Glad to have found you all.
I am trying to find out what factors go into the actual tomato flavor of a home grown, ripened on the vine, ready to slice and eat directly after picking, tomato, and perhaps learn things that don't matter as much.
There are those who can't get done telling me that as soon as a tomato has just a hint of color, it can be picked and allowed to 'ripen' and have just as good a flavor as one left on the vine to ripen. My taste buds do NOT agree. The best tomatoes I've ever eaten were indeed left on the vine to ripen fully. But that was in my own garden, out in the open, just the way nature would do it.
I've been considering whether I could grow tomatoes in a more confined or controlled environment and still get the same great taste. Soil can be built and worked up very much the same, whether in a hoophouse or an open field. If I put a hoophouse up for my tomatoes, I would have to water. Would it make a difference in flavor between collected rain water, well water, filtered pond or stream water, or (gulp) city water? If I put a hoophouse up for my tomatoes, it would also give them a life under plastic and they'd never get much direct sunlight, would that affect the tomato flavor?
It would certainly be possible to start tomatoes under plastic and then remove the plastic during the months when they'd be safe in the outdoors, the normal growing season. (I'm in zone 6b.) I could even put the plastic back over them when the danger of frost shows up. But putting up and taking down plastic is not exactly something I'd like to be doing on quite that regular a basis.
Also, I'm sure variety does matter. There are varieties of tomato that just don't have as much of that flavor that I'm talking about. The flavor or a good Pink Brandywine or a good Cherokee Purple or a few others like them are pretty hard to beat. The varieties I'm most likely to find even at the local farmers market are usually types grown more for shipping quality and volume, not flavor or taste. (There are exceptions.)
I have considered the idea of growing under plastic all year long, which would be a challenge, for sure, with having a heated greenhouse as well as having to warm the soil the tomatoes are growing in, but honestly do not even want to do it if the FLAVOR won't be there. Fluffy carpet fiber flavored tomatoes are available in most every grocery store any time of year. I don't want to compete in that realm. But if, if I could actually grow something that tasted like a REAL homegrown, fully vine ripened tomato, under plastic, at any time of the year, I might just be interested in giving it a try. (FWIW, I'm not so much interested in doing it hydroponically. I have my reasons, don't want to get into them so much here, but would rather be doing it in soil.)
I thought maybe a few of you may have already been around this block before, if not growing year round, at least growing under plastic or with season extension even. So if you have some knowledge or experience, I'd be interested in what you have to say.
Thanks!
PopPopT
It's my first post here on the Not Just Tomatoes forum. Glad to have found you all.
I am trying to find out what factors go into the actual tomato flavor of a home grown, ripened on the vine, ready to slice and eat directly after picking, tomato, and perhaps learn things that don't matter as much.
There are those who can't get done telling me that as soon as a tomato has just a hint of color, it can be picked and allowed to 'ripen' and have just as good a flavor as one left on the vine to ripen. My taste buds do NOT agree. The best tomatoes I've ever eaten were indeed left on the vine to ripen fully. But that was in my own garden, out in the open, just the way nature would do it.
I've been considering whether I could grow tomatoes in a more confined or controlled environment and still get the same great taste. Soil can be built and worked up very much the same, whether in a hoophouse or an open field. If I put a hoophouse up for my tomatoes, I would have to water. Would it make a difference in flavor between collected rain water, well water, filtered pond or stream water, or (gulp) city water? If I put a hoophouse up for my tomatoes, it would also give them a life under plastic and they'd never get much direct sunlight, would that affect the tomato flavor?
It would certainly be possible to start tomatoes under plastic and then remove the plastic during the months when they'd be safe in the outdoors, the normal growing season. (I'm in zone 6b.) I could even put the plastic back over them when the danger of frost shows up. But putting up and taking down plastic is not exactly something I'd like to be doing on quite that regular a basis.
Also, I'm sure variety does matter. There are varieties of tomato that just don't have as much of that flavor that I'm talking about. The flavor or a good Pink Brandywine or a good Cherokee Purple or a few others like them are pretty hard to beat. The varieties I'm most likely to find even at the local farmers market are usually types grown more for shipping quality and volume, not flavor or taste. (There are exceptions.)
I have considered the idea of growing under plastic all year long, which would be a challenge, for sure, with having a heated greenhouse as well as having to warm the soil the tomatoes are growing in, but honestly do not even want to do it if the FLAVOR won't be there. Fluffy carpet fiber flavored tomatoes are available in most every grocery store any time of year. I don't want to compete in that realm. But if, if I could actually grow something that tasted like a REAL homegrown, fully vine ripened tomato, under plastic, at any time of the year, I might just be interested in giving it a try. (FWIW, I'm not so much interested in doing it hydroponically. I have my reasons, don't want to get into them so much here, but would rather be doing it in soil.)
I thought maybe a few of you may have already been around this block before, if not growing year round, at least growing under plastic or with season extension even. So if you have some knowledge or experience, I'd be interested in what you have to say.
Thanks!
PopPopT