Question about Sour Tomatoes

16 years ago

For the last 4 years my tomatoes have been sour tasting. The plants grow healthy and big. The soil is rich with lots of compost.

I have grown about 20 different varieties, cherry, heirloom, beefsteak,pink yellow, red, etc. they all taste lousy now.

I tested the soil and it is neutral. If I add fertilizer, the plants grow and flower and all I get is green golfball tomatoes, they are too happy growing to fruit.

How do I get my tomatoes tasting sweet, like they used to years ago?

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Comments (5)

n1111z
16 years ago
Wow, peoples' tastes are so different. I can't stand a sweet tomato. I'm searching high and low all the time for tangy tomatoes with a bite, and adding salt by the ton. I can't imagine what you could do to sweeten up tomatoes, probably have to do it by variety??
cyrus_gardner
16 years ago
You mentioned your soil being nutral. Is that ph=7?
It COULD be a reason? .

To me, all tomatoes taste soure, to some degree. Even though they
all have some sugar contents, but acidity seems to be always overwheling.
But even then I like that sour taste. Why do we add vinigar to our garden salad?
Isn't that the sour taste is good? So if tomatoe is already soure, just add little or no vinegar to it.

I find adding just a touch of sugar and a dash of salt to soure tomato
makes it very delicious.
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sue_ct
16 years ago
It might be related to the variety. What have you been planting? Certain varieties tend to be described as very sweet and others are preferred by people who DON'T like sweet tomatoes. I would stay away from those if sweet is what you are looking for. Try doing a search for "sweet tomatoes" and you will come up discussions on both sides. Have you grown cherries? Sweet 100 and Sungold are probably mentioned most frequently but there are others. If those don't taste sweet to you, I would look at how you are growing them. The worst sour, mealy tomatoes I ever had were purchased from the only vender at the farmers market who had nice large plants when it was still cold out and all the other venders insisted it was too early for tomatoes. I wondered if the growing conditions had caused it but I will never know for sure.
blameitontherain
16 years ago
Kweenann,

Not to be an alarmist, but...

Did others who ate them also think the tomatoes tasted sour? If you grew 20 varieties and ALL tasted sour to you, it could be a medical condition.

Rain
cyrus_gardner
16 years ago
Actually ,I myself like sour bout juicy tomatoes in salads. So I do not
have to add a lot of vinegar to it. Making tomato sweter, on the other hand
is quite simple; add a dash of sugar to it. There is more to tomatoes just
being sour or sweet. I also like the shape, color and appearance.
We eat with our eyes and nose before our mouths.