Homestead

I am looking for acidic tasting and disease resistent prolific tomato varieties.Please let me know if you know any.
Thanks,
Regina

*****

Regina, since data has shown that almost all tomato varieties tested have about the same pH, or acidity, I think maybe you mean a tomato that has a strong assertive taste.

And what specific diseases do your tomatoes experience? Without knowing that it's really impossible to know what varieties to recommend per your wish for disease tolerant varieties.

I see you're in a 5b/6a area so that does mean that some systemic diseases aren't that plentiful, but no matter where one grows their tomatoes there's always the foliage diseases which are the most common tomato diseases in the world and there are no varieties that have **significant** tolerance against those.

Are you looking for hybrids or open pollinated types or it doesn't matter and do you have any colors or shapes that you prefer and will you be using them for fresh eating, salsa, canning, or whatever? ( smile)

Carolyn

It ain't been invented yet. haha

I use Early Girl myself. Small but mean.

Can always put some vinegar on em to raise the acidity too.

Aunt Gertie's Gold
Yellow Brandywine
Berkeley Tie Dye
Lime Green Salad
Green Zebra
Tangella
Earl of Edgecombe
Silvery Fir Tree
Picardy
Rutgers
Purple Calabash (some like it, many don't-I think it's okay as in "not a spitter", but have no plans to grow it again soon)
Green Gage (tart, but rather "one note", don't care for it at all)

Cuostralee is a great choice!

Lee

The most acidic/astringent tomato I've ever had was purple calabash.

A beautiful dark purple tomato... but very acidic.

Thanks,

Tom-

The most acidic/astringent tomato I've ever had was purple calabash.

****

Then you need to enlarge your horizons on assertive/astringent varieties and grow Noire des Cosebeauf, one of the most beautiful varieties I've ever grown, but beauty is only skin deep, as they say,LOL, and while you're at it try Sandpoint which is one of my all time spitters although Glenn Drowns at Sandhill and I disagree on that one big time. LOL

Carolyn

I do need to broaden my horizons - but not to any others MORE acidic than Purple Calabash! :) I bash Calabash, but it is a beautiful, ruffled, prolific, just truly gorgeous tomato - that is so acidic tasting I just couldn't eat it. Now if that's something someone wants and likes... than hey, that's their tomato... but I definitely don't want to broaden my horizons in the more acidic sense! :)

Hi Carolyn,

I've heard you mention several times that the acid level in most tomatoes is about the same. Yet most people identify a tart or acid taste in certain varieties and refer to it that way. That's just the way it hits their taste buds. Maybe we do mis-call if acidic when it should be called assertive. But do you think there are other factors at work that make people at least "believe" the taste is acidic? I never really understood that. I see people talking about the acid taste here qite a bit. Maybe those just have less sugar? Or something else that tricks to taste buds?

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

Don

Call it whatever you like. Some varieties have a "bite" to them which pleases me, other don't have the "bite". Homestead has been a constant pleasure for my taste. Most likely that's the taste I learned to love as a child from my parents' garden.

But do you think there are other factors at work that make people at least "believe" the taste is acidic? I never really understood that. I see people talking about the acid taste here qite a bit. Maybe those just have less sugar? Or something else that tricks to taste buds?

*****

Yes, I do think other factors are at work.

By mass spectroscopy about 400 different organic molecules have been IDed that appear to take a part in determining the taste of a variety. Last I knew none of them had been IDed as to specific genes.

So while acidity, as in actual pH, seems to be relatively constant for all those varieties whose pH has been measured, there are many organic compounds that depending on which ones are there or not there, give to a variety a certain taste.

Carolyn

Alan, you're making me want to add Homestead to my list, and it's ALREADY TO DANGED LONG.

Carolyn, I believe you once mentioned that you never detected the smokey taste that some do with the dark or black varieties. I never have either, but I'm new to those. But, to your taste, have you ever eaten a certain variety that obviously "tasted" acidic or tart to you? This past year I didn't really have many with a truly acidic taste. At least not overpowering.

And an aside. I gave some different varieties to friends this year and went into all these different names, and had them marked. My friends were only slightly impressed with the new names and varieties they had never heard of, and then said, "If we were blindfolded, we could not have told the difference in any of them." Lol! So much for my efforts at variety in tomato testing! They, like everyone else here thinks our old standard Better Boy can't be beat. Lot of truth in that. Everyone here grows them. For acidity they grow Rutgers.

Anyway...Happy Holidays

Don

But, to your taste, have you ever eaten a certain variety that obviously "tasted" acidic or tart to you? This past year I didn't really have many with a truly acidic taste. At least not overpowering.

*****

Sure, I've grown many that I considered had an assertive ( I prefer that adjective to acidic or tart) type taste, and in her Dec 5th post above Suze listed many of them and I agree with most of what she posted.

Notice that Rutgers is also on that list, and I could say the same about many of the older commercial varieties such as Valiant and New Yorker and Wisconsin 55 and the like.

I've grown Better Boy and Big Boy quite a bit and I don't find themn to be assertive at all. Both have one parent in common, a large pink heirloom called Teddy Jones, and no, that variety is not available anywhere b'c obviously it's still used in the construction of hybrid seed for both of those varieties.

There will seldom be agreement on taste of varieties b'c taste is both personal and subjective and has a human genetic association as well and taste can vary depending on the summer it was grown as to weather as well as soil used, amendments used, and other variables.

Certain varieties seem to have some agreement such as the ones we're talking about here now, per Suze's list, as well as my mentioning Noir Des Cosebeauf and Sandpoint.

Carolyn

Well, I had a nice reply written but that dang minty chocolate add popped up again and ruined what I had typed. I tried to fix it again, and it got worse. Twice.

These ads! Gimme a break! Grrrrrrrrrr.

Don

Carolyn, I believe you once mentioned that you never detected the smokey taste that some do with the dark or black varieties. I never have either...

TomatoDon,

I have, but it has been rare for me. Not so much that it is valued for taste, but for the novelty of it. Black Krim (2005): several fruits had pronounced "salty" taste. Paul Robeson (2005): some ripes had a decidedly "smokey" flavor.. that was very unusual to me.

I have grown both since and none replicated either of the respective flavor components. I must assume that the assertion of these flavor traits is mostly dependent upon environmental conditions.

Reg

And a few years later may I add: Everyone has different taste buds, smelling capability, and the tomatoes reflect the soil, water, and sun they live in.... I have found that tomatoes grown in "close" proximity to Hot peppers, and certain herbs can be so much more zesty! Oh, and resorting to non-hybrid "Heirloom" varieties is also a thing that one can consider....

Search "Grandma's Pick" tomato seeds, they have a wonderful acidic flavor. I bought these seeds 3 years ago and have planted them in the garden since. It was like finding GOLD! Every summer Grandma's pick is the BEST on a sandwich, also Supersteak and Beefsteak tomatoes are yummy and acidic as well. Hybreds do well for us in our area.

I also call tomatoes acidity but what i really mean is a tomato that's not sweet..i really don't care for very sweet tomatoes. i grew up eating Celebrity and Champion thats the flavor that i like, then years later i found Old Brooks and Big Boy that to me taste acidity or not sweet..does any one else think these tomatoes taste acidity ???

Acidic... tart... assertive... I use the term zingy. :)

Situation 1: I live in central Saskatchewan and have an aunt who lives in Alberta. One year, we unknowingly both planted Sunstart tomatoes (I don't recall the seed sources). I brought along a big box full of my extras to share with family when we visited that fall. My aunt tasted them and said that my Sunstarts were much sweeter than hers. That year I had kept up on the weeding and watering.

Situation 2: Another year, our youngest was born at the end of June and was a colicky baby for her first four months. Weeding never happened that year and we scavenged what we could from the garden through the summer and fall, whatever managed to grow under the tall cover of thistles and other weeds. There weren't many, but those were THE zingiest tomatoes I have ever tasted. I had grown that variety before - Applause - and I have grown it since. Even plants grown from that same seed packet, zingy as they *have* been, have not had the... well, KAPOW!... that those fruits did that particular year.

My opinion is that while there is a predisposition towards sweetness or away from it built within the variety, environmental factors can be a bigger determinator of ultimate flavour punch.

What I consider acidic (flavor-wise) is a tomato that makes my tongue tingle in a similar fashion as lemon juice and vinegar, and stings if I put the juice on my skin. Usually, I find it a pleasant taste. One time I had a Lemon Boy F2 that felt like it was eating away my tooth enamel (that one was better swallowed than chewed).

As to the pH of these tomatoes, I can't say, but it should be easy enough to test! :) I feel kind of like certain amino acids might have something to do with it, as well as citric acid and ascorbic acid. You can get citric acid at places like nuts.com and add it to your tomatoes (it might have the taste you like—if you like it).

What I consider a tart tomato doesn't have to make my tongue tingle, but it has a sharper flavor.

What I consider assertive doesn't have to be sharp, and it doesn't have to make my tongue tingle. It's just more bold in taste.

It's possible that although the pH might be a certain level, the levels of specific acids in a tomato might differ from tomato to tomato, and those acids might react with some people's tongues more than the acids of another tomato. I mean, some acids are more likely to bind with some elements. I think some acids have more flavor than others, too.

Jaune Flamme

Juliet F1

Silvery Fir Tree