See link below for my experiences (you can ignore the seed mixup portions)...cold weather caused late planting (almost 2 weeks later), cold nights caused blossoms to drop until much later than normal, but for some reason plants got huge, and then plants started producing loads of large tomatoes...and then I had the misfortune of tasting them.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0820254531890.html?5

Yeah weather didn't cooperate this year for most of the country. Not going to be a really great harvest year for most of us so take comfort from the fact that you aren't alone. And here in the middle country we were luckier than many on the east coast.

Still the season isn't over yet so a turn in the weather towards fall could salvage some production for you.

Dave

Kris, I'm a first year gardener, so I might not know what I'm talking about, but looking at your blog, I have a couple of guesses what went wrong. First, you might still have overwatered your plants. The plants are healthy, but too much water often leads to bland tasting tomatoes. The other reason are your selection of tomatoes you grew. Other than your Mortgage Lifters, none of the other tomatoes that you chose are consistently on the recommended list for best flavor. And regarding your Mortgage Lifter, a sample size of one isn't good enough. There are a lot of posts in the forum where for some particular reason some delicious tasting tomato in one region is bland tasting in another region depending on the climate and the soil conditions. I think that's why people choose a few varieties every year, have some keepers that they grow every year (for productivity or flavor) and then rotate new varieties into their garden to try to see if other ones will grow well for their micro-climate. Anyway, just my opinion. Hope you keep at it next year.

Tomatoes are so wimpy that predicting yield is "fruitless".

Plant more!

Kris, I'm sorry you found the ML disappointing. Ours are very yummy, with the flavor just as I had expected. And very prolific, too. Maybe later in the season yours will taste better. Do let me know!

Edie

I dont know what it is exactly. But I see and grow these 10 foot tall, green and lush, addicted to water, loaded down with fruit plants and finally take a bite of a perfectly ripe fruit only to spit it out as fast as I can because its so bland it reminds me of a grocery store tomato. Then I take a walk over to the other beds where it looks half like a tomato plant cemetry, with brown leafs everywhere, sparse foilage, some small green leaves, where watering doesn't happen that much and all the tomatoe's on these plants are undersized and maybe even some deformed. I pluck one off a half dead brownish vine and take a bite and BAM, I say to myself "this is the best freakin tomato I've ever had WOW". Like I said, I dont know what exactly it is, but the more I neglect them the better they taste.

Damon

My first tomatoes were very bland as well. I'm pretty sure the problem was the record-breaking amount of rain we have had here. The tomatoes tasted watered down. Now that we are getting more dry weather the flavor is improving remarkably. Perhaps try watering them even less. As long as they aren't wilting they will be fine. This will allow the flavors to concentrate more, and it will mean a little less work for you as well.

Great blog by the way!

Here is a link that might be useful: Kim's Garden

Such is this thing we call "gardening".
Some years are just better than others.
Last year, I grew tomatoes for squirrels to eat. I got 2.
This year, I'm getting a bunch every day. The dining room table is loaded with toms.
Roll with it.

Re: the watering. I water once a week. Some people try not to water at all. We get no summer rain in Cali. If you water a lot you do get big plants, but yeah, sometimes the fruit tastes.....

I think your original problem was the same as ours here in Muncie, Indiana. Too cool temps at night. That makes them get ripe slower in the summer, and then when those tomatoes grown at cool temps ripen up, the flavor just isn't there. Like they've been refrigerated, right?
Now that we finally got some weather in the 90 degree range and warmer night temps, they should start tasting better. I don't think it's the water or anything else you've done. If you were overwatering with the kinds of cool night temps we had most of the summer, you'd have all kinds of blights and leaf spots. Hang in there!

Not at all trying to brag but I have not seen the issues that others are experiencing and this is my best year ever. My problem is that the plants are SO big, I have to repeatedly top them to allow harvesting. I am too old to maneuver around tomato branches. One thing that I did differently this year was to mulch heavily. I used straw at the beginning and now add grass clippings. We also have had a mild summer but I am convinced that the mulching has kept the soil temps more consistent. I planted deeply in the spring. I have also had to water only maybe once or twice a month and I doubt that much rain water is reaching my tomatoes. This neglect has created some amazing flavor in some of the plants. Others' flavor is just so so, but the growth and yield is amazing.

My peppers weren't mulched hardly at all and look pathetic, like all the previous years. I am sold on the mulch, mulch and then mulch some more.

Last year was a very bad tomato year for me, it was so cold in June and July that they were like a MONTH late in ripening. And then it got worse, several summer rains started off the late blight and ended the season early as well. Hardly worth all the work.

This year has been GREAT though. I started too many, actually got them planted or given away, and had a hotter June and July and early ripening. I've been very pleased with the yields and flavors.

Melissa- Don't give up on the flavor issue, 8 is not a very big sample size when there are 100's of tomatoes out there to try. After several years of trialling 60-l00 varietes a year, I've found some I consider to have great taste and that gelatinous texture. They are mostly hearts and pastes.

Heidi
Tegucigalpa small paste, very wonderful gelatinous texture
Verna's Orange Oxheart meaty, fruity taste, very early
Herman's Yellow
Sochulak
Jetsetter first year, surprised, very nice uniform unblemished
Nepal also round, unblemished, nice
San Marzano
Legend

And I like the smaller tomatoes with thick skins to resist cracking and a tomatoey taste rather than a sweet taste-

Juliet very firm, meaty, no crack, consistently my #1 most vigorous seedling and earliest to fruit, I've been growing it from seeds to stablize it and they have been getting bigger and more paste-like
Principe Borghese
Siberian Pink
Bloody Butcher unusual taste

From top small tomatoes- Juliet F?, Plum Giant, Tegucigalpa, Heidi, Italian Light Globe

Top- Gogogsha, center Verna's Orange Oxheart, Jetsetter, Black Sea Man, Herman's Yellow, Nepal-

I agree with damon, the less care I take, especially with any heirlooms I buy, whether from seeds or store, the taste just doesnt stop!! My carbons and cherokee purples are loaded with toms, my Mr stripeys from Lowes are loaded too, etc. I will never not stake them again, because I didnt stake, and its sad the 500 pounds of toms I have rotting on the ground, but still, I have many more than I can eat already. Im saving all my seeds from the carbons and CP's, they are the greatest ever, but I have always read that heirlooms, esp. do not like excessive fertilizer or water. I dont know if thats true, just know that I am a lazy gardener, so my stuff gets watered when it rains, and if they dont have enough fertilizer from the poop I put in the garden on top of the soil I have, good luck to them!!:) Im happy for what I get, and for some reason, they are doing pretty well for the neglect I throw at them. I will try and post some pics tomorrow, you will die when you see my garden before, earlier this week, and what I have tried to do tha last few dyas. You wouldnt even believe anything could grow in there!! So Im trying to be good and weed everything out, its backbreaking work, but I hope to have a good winter garden, and learn from my experience with my tomatoes this year, so I can be a better grower next year! Dont give up!! just dont baby the tomatoes too much, it seems to never work for me:)

I must confess that I am another one who has not watered her tomato plants ONCE this season. Due to all the rain. And because of laziness. But hey I'm getting away with it and the 'maters taste fantastic for the most part.

The only other thing I could add would be to stop picking them at first blush. Home grown tomatoes should be picked ripe, maybe a slight less or a slight more ripe depending on taste and texture but as far as I know the only reason to pick them at first blush would be to ship them across country. Nice blog.

Other reasons to pick at first blush are to prevent splitting after heavy rains, to minimize insect damage, to remove them from the vicinity of wildlife for whom a red tomato is a magnet, etc.

And to get them before they succumb to the Late Blight that is rapidly consuming my vines.