Help? My cherry tomatoes are flavorless....

I planted a cherry tomato plant that my son gave me last year, then this year I ended up with 3 different volunteers from that plant which was awesome. I transplanted them to a different spot in the garden and they have been doing wonderful. I picked my first ripe ones the other day and they looked beautiful and delicious, but they really didn't have much flavor at all. Almost bitter really.

My Cukes are not far from them (small garden, small yard) and they have been delicious! So I figure the soil must be good? What can I do to make them taste better? I have lots and lots of them growing now and I don't want to harvest a million tasteless cherry tomatoes! Any advice please and thank you.

I don't know what kind they are, here's a picture if that helps?

Hi, sorry to hear about your tomatoes. Are your cherry tomatoes hybrid? I read (Oregon State U publication) that seeds from hybrid varieties produce a mixture of plant types, most of which are inferior to the parent.

If that's not the case, we'll wait for the experts....

=)

I agree with Moonglow. If your cherry tomatoes from last year were hybrids, the volunteers this year will likely have reverted to one of the varieties used to make the hybrid so you can't be sure what variety you have now.

Hi Moonglow! I have no idea if they are or were hybrids? My son gave it to me last summer, he bought 2 and gave me 1, and he doesn't remember what they were. They are beautiful, but not too tasty. Thank you for your response and I hope someone will know how i can make them taste better!

I guess I have found the downside to volunteers, huh NatureLover1950? lol
If anything we can still eat them in salads with lots of ranch dressing! Yummy.......:p
Thank you for responding also.

If you have loads of fruits, look out for a recipe for chutney as you add other ingredients to that, but the advice about seeds from unknown plants is always worth remembering, we gardeners always try to push the boundaries of nature eh, there are lots of tomato breeders who are hybridising them now, they are specially bread for flavour, colour or size etc, and over here in UK if it said F! on the packet of seeds, then I am almost sure this indicated that and seeds from them will not be of good quality or flavour, maybe you were just unlucky this time and you will know better next year, maybe next year you could try a few different types of cherry tomato and as you now know you can grow them well, then you will soon learn what ones are palatable for your own taste, REMEMBER to label them so you can keep a record of them for flavour, heavy or light cropping etc, it becomes fun and addictive, believe me. good luck. WeeNel.

add spoon full of sugar to each hole at planting time. ur tomatoes will be lipsmacking sweet.

angeleyes347,

You're joking, right? Never heard that one before!

The sugar in the planting hole is a little like adding agricultural molasses. It gives a little something extra for the beneficial microbes that may be in the soil. I've never tried it, but there's no reason to suspect it wouldn't have a similar effect as using molasses in compost.

David

If you want reliable results you'll have to start with a reliably named variety. If it's an F1 hybrid, made afresh each year by crossing two carefully inbred strains of two named varieties, it's generally a waste of time saving seeds. Most catalogues and garden centres will tell you whether the variety is F1 or not. Sungold is a good example. It's probably the best tasting cherry tomato of all; but you'll have to invest a small sum in a new packet of seed each year, or a slightly larger sum in some named plants from a reputable supplier. A good open pollinated variety, from which you can save seed, is Gardener's Delight.

Having said that, terroir is important; even the best tasting varieties benefit from being grown in good soil with a proper balance of nutrients. Buy a specialist tomato fertiliser and use it strictly in accordance with the instructions. Never fall into the trap of thinking that if x grams is good, 2x grams must tbe better!

gymgirl i read in in jerry baker's terrific garden tonics. page 300.

Sugar in the hole is a crock. It is a good way to attract ants and slugs,Sheesh

Volunteers are always a gamble - may be great, may be lousy. Essentially, you're acting as a plant breeder, without intending to. :)

If these did come from a hybrid, then each plant could be different. Some could be lousy, some could be great, or they might all be mediocre. They won't necessarily all even be cherry tomatoes, or all the same color as the original plant. (BTW, I notice that the tomatoes in your picture are green. I assume that you just didn't have the ripe one to photograph, but I did want to say that if your original plant was green when ripe, there's no assurance that its children will be.)

To me, this would be really cool, and I'd excitedly look for the different varieties. However, if you're not excited by plant breeding, and you have limited space, and you'll be highly annoyed if you don't get any tomatoes to actually eat, then it will be less fun.

If you _want_ to get excited by plant breeding, I recommend the book _Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties_.

But either way, if you want to be more sure of tomatoes to eat, I'd recommend buying some plants of a known variety, whether or not you also keep your experiments growing.

Burnet