celebrity tomato flavor compared to other hybrids?
Comments (13)
daniel_nyc
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
Growing New Hybrid Tomatoes Bred For Flavor
Comments (8)Hi Bill, It is so nice to hear from you today. I hope y'all got some rain this week. We did! I agree with you that over-loving one's tomato plants is counter-productive because it gives you lots of watery, underflavored tomatoes. A term commonly used to refer to overwatering and overfeeding is "loving your plants to death". I am really careful about not overwatering (which, considering our droughts here, is not that hard as long as I don't turn on the soaker hoses too often) and not overfeeding. I've also noticed that plants that are overfed and overwatered have incredible pest problems and more disease issues as well. Bill, my absolute worst tomato year ever in my whole life was here in southern OK in 2004. I remember that I got the plants into mostly raised beds (two rows were at grade level in only slightly amended soil) with well-amended soil and I got them planted pretty early. By the end of May I had nice, tall sturdy plants covered with ripening fruit. In June, 12" of rain fell. Twelve inches. That was the end of what had seemed to be a promising tomato year. All the tomatoes had poor flavor and texture and most were spitters. I hope we never have 12" of rain in one month again during tomato growing season. The rain finally stopped falling sometime in July, but I didn't have tomatoes with good flavor until late August or early September. The next two years were drought years also plagued by wildfire, and in 2005 and 2006 we had really, really good-flavored tomatoes and a pretty decent harvest considering the drought and heat. For us, as for most of OK, 2007's spring and early summer was excessively wet and the tomatoes were late and poorly-flavored. Once again the rain stopped in July, and we got decently flavored tomatoes a month or so later. Last year's drought gave us tomatoes with great flavor, even after I completely stopped watering the garden when the water bills became unbearably high. So, I don't really want to "hope for drought", but it does give us our best-flavored tomatoes (and our hottest peppers too). Even though we had over an inch of rain this week here (1.7" to be exact), that only brings 2009's rainfall up to about 50% of normal, and the drought is forecast to persist or improve only slightly, so I am expecting a good tomato year here. This year I am going to grow about 30 plants in containers so I can control the moisure a little more for them than I can for in-the-ground plantings. I can't wait to see how you like SunGold. The only people I've ever known who didn't like SunGold were, perhaps, picking them too early or maybe overwatering them. You have to let them get a deep golden-orange. Sadly, the SunGolds split pretty easily and don't hold for a long time after being harvested which is why you don't see them for sale often in grocery stores or farmer's markets. If you like SunGold, though, and want to grow it to sell, there is a very similar improved variety called SunSugar that doesn't crack and holds for a longer period of time. The flavor of SunSugar (at least to my tastebuds) is identical to the flavor of SunGold. I get the best tomatoes when I give them only organic tomato food that is low in the necessary macronutrients. I like Espoma Tomato Tone which is a 4-7-10. (For anyone newer to gardening, that's 4% nitogen, 7% phosphate, and 10% potash.) What I really like about it is that it contains all the micronutrients tomatoes need: calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, sodium, and zinc. I give each plant a handful of Tomato Tone at planting time and then I don't necessarily feed them again unless they are showing signs of nutritional deficiency. I don't water any more often than I have to in order to get the plants to a decent size by the time flowering begins, and I water as little as possible once they are setting fruit, especially as fruit begins to ripen. I like to describe the effect of stress on tomato plants to new gardeners this way: The purpose of a tomato plant is to produce seeds to perpetuate itself. If the plant is living a cushy life and is not in danger of dying, it doesn't get in a big hurry to make seeds and, if it is an indeterminate tomato, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Why shouldn't it? The plant, after all, is living the good life and has reason to think that life will end any time soon. On the other hand, if a tomato plant is a little dry, a little hot, and a little thirsty and hungry, it tends to produce more seed, and earlier, because it is hurrying up to make seed to replace itself in case it dies. So, stress (up to a point) is good since it gives us more seeds (inside our fruit). For most of us here in Oklahoma, it isn't too hard to see to it that our plants get the stress they need--Mother Nature sort of takes care of that for us! LOL Dawn...See MoreNew Flavor Enhanced Hybrid Tomatoes
Comments (12)"While the article praises Fabulous, I can't ever remember anyone here posting it in their "favorites" list. Maybe Carolyn has a sound-bite on it." Raybo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since no one is responding in regard to the flavor of the Fabulous tomato, let me post the results of a 2007 taste test covering several heirloom, standard and hybrid tomatoes where one caption under a picture said, "Fabulous is probably the best tasting round red commercial variety that weÂve ever trialed. These are best packed in flat trays due to a somewhat tender skin." There are charts ranking the cherry and slicer tomatoes by yield and taste rankings. Very interesting results in all categories! Here's a link to an interesting article!...See MoreLooking for strong flavored, Tart ? Tomato types.
Comments (31)It does sound like your garden has gotten depleted of organic matter. I have very coarse sandy soil, and can't produce anything on fertilizer alone. Once I amend it with lots of organic matter, I don't need to use fertilizers of any kind and get very productive healthy plants. Because organics break down very fast in my soil, I have to amend my soil yearly to keep it productive. I mostly add two-three inches of chipped mulch each year, which breaks down by the next spring and is usually adequate. What you are describing sounds like the same problem the commercial food industry has been running into. Depleted soil becoming less productive and requiring more fertilizer. I suggest what others mention above. Add lots of compost and/or manure, and grow less, but healthier plants....See MoreTomato Flavor Enhancement through Genetic Engineering?
Comments (32)Doof-I think I KNEW you in grade school... :) I don't know how you ever drew a link from eating bugs in grade school to GM tomatoes, but somehow you did! I don't think the GM tomatoes offends me that much but Carolyn stated they really don't taste that good... I have difficulty getting my mind around growing something that doesn't taste good. Yes it's good for you but if I was into that I'd be eating bran and being regular. Or growing Purple Calabash - they were so beautiful but tasted just plain AWFUL... UHG! It's always nice to have the only purple tomato on the block - but if it tastes yucky... ? Or the first with the smelly tomato - but if they smell is offensive?? Yah, I have limited space - Id rather grow a lucious yummy beaut... I can jar up and eat over the winter... :)...See More
hudson___wy
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoWe grew Celebrity this year as an experimental variety for garden growing (we grow our tomatoes in our GH) in Zone 3, Wyoming - with frost protection as needed - just to see if we could do it - successfully. I was actually surprised with our success! We planted only two plants - propped/staked/tied a permanent GH plastic shield on the south side of the heavy duty tomato cages with the protection of our home on the north side. We would throw a frost blanket over the whole thing on frost nights. The plants are still alive and tomatoes are still ripening - even now - in October. Some of these photos were taken today. I agree - they have a thick skin! They were actually a good sized tomato - 6 to 12 oz and prolific. Not my most favorite taste (although way better than the grocery store) and way down my list of varieties to plant (in the GH). But - they did surprisingly well outside - and I think we would grow them again in a garden environment.
grubby_AZ Tucson Z9
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agohudson___wy
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
8 years agodaniel_nyc
8 years agohudson___wy
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoya - I know what you mean Daniel - I have similar results with Brandywine as you apparently have with Celebrity! Here is another photo showing the tomatoes on both Celebrity plants - plenty of tomatoes and good sized ones there. I am not particularly a fan of the Celebrity variety - but we report the results - and interested gardeners decide!
I don't know about you - I doubt I will ever have a REAL opinion. There is no way I am going to grow 15-20 plants from 3-4 seed sources - to get a REAL opinion - haha! I prefer to just read about results from 15 to 20 members on this forum and form opinions and make decisions from everyones experiences!
I doubt I will grow tomatoes outside in the garden again and therefore doubt I will grow Celebrity again. But if you are looking for an all purpose - good tasting - good producing - determinate variety - you may want to give this one a trial. It also has 4 1/2 stars on Burpee - I noticed.
hudson___wy
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoMarcantonio,
I can give you a positive report on the flavor of the Celebrity Tomatoes. We ate a few again today and I had forgotten how good they taste!! They are not as good as a Brandy Boy but certainly worth growing if the plant does well in your garden.
Our frost protection could not protect the plants from frost last night - the plants are done! Still - October 12th is not bad for Wyoming planted outside - especially considering how prolific they are! We have already harvested as many as what are still remaining on these plants!
I pulled most the remaining tomatoes off the plants today - I think most of them will ripen on the counter? Even though the plants were killed with last night's frost - with our frost protection - I doubt the tomatoes were damaged. You can see that there are 6 oz tomatoes but there are as many 8-10 oz tomatoes. It is also worth mentioning that the Celebrity tomatoes crack very little - must be because of their thicker skin?
We report - you decide - haha
Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
8 years ago
fireduck
8 years agoSeysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
8 years agodino2die
last year
digdirt2