Re: What is your most productive tomato?
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2024 7:14 pm
The length of your season may be the limit of production on a indeterminate tomato. Long seasons, more fruit.
WRT taste, and ripening off the vine, I've found a huge difference between ripening in a 'cool room' where the temperature ranges from 65 to 70F, vs ripening upstairs in temperatures that tended to 75F and above.
Ripening in 75F and above, I found that tomatoes tended to converge on a single taste: "tomato" "it's a tomato" "it's a soft, over-ripe tomato".
Off the vine, a lower ripening at cooler but not cold temperatures (not below 60F) produced the best textures and tastes from all tomatoes I've grown.
Taste testing when growing out crosses is the final judgement. Like karstopography said, no distractions on the palate. I take a slice from top to bottom for tasting. I will lay out a few to compare. I give every bite some time for aftertaste, because that is important to me, personally. What is the taste that lingers after you eat it.
So I get my first impressions, it's a tomato... it's a sweet tomato... it's a tangy, tomato... OMG it's as good as an apricot.
And then I do repeats on another day, and get other folks to taste. Rarely changed my first impression, though, on any tomato.
But it is true that the really good ones, you get even more nuances the more individual fruits you taste.
WRT taste, and ripening off the vine, I've found a huge difference between ripening in a 'cool room' where the temperature ranges from 65 to 70F, vs ripening upstairs in temperatures that tended to 75F and above.
Ripening in 75F and above, I found that tomatoes tended to converge on a single taste: "tomato" "it's a tomato" "it's a soft, over-ripe tomato".
Off the vine, a lower ripening at cooler but not cold temperatures (not below 60F) produced the best textures and tastes from all tomatoes I've grown.
Taste testing when growing out crosses is the final judgement. Like karstopography said, no distractions on the palate. I take a slice from top to bottom for tasting. I will lay out a few to compare. I give every bite some time for aftertaste, because that is important to me, personally. What is the taste that lingers after you eat it.
So I get my first impressions, it's a tomato... it's a sweet tomato... it's a tangy, tomato... OMG it's as good as an apricot.
And then I do repeats on another day, and get other folks to taste. Rarely changed my first impression, though, on any tomato.
But it is true that the really good ones, you get even more nuances the more individual fruits you taste.