When I was little, my grandfather had 3 acres under cultivation. When he got tired of my endless questions, he'd pick a tomato, wipe it on his shirt and hand it to me. The tomato was often the size of my face! When we went back to the house, there'd be tomato seeds on my face, in my hair, on my clothes, and my grandmother would ask in mock horror, "Norman, what have you done to this child?!" The taste of homegrown tomatoes carries with it evocative memories and most of them are good.
I think your last statement is the absolute. The effort we put into our gardens is what ultimately makes everything we harvest so enjoyable. Just like being a farmer.
I grew black cherry tomatoes this year on my kitchen deck in 5 gal. buckets. THEY ARE FANTASTIC. So sweet you can eat them off the vine. I highly recommend these.
I really did not think there was any question amongst tomato growers that homegrown tastes better than store bought. I have been growing tomato varieties for 35 years and after 4 years of retirement have "branched out" to more herbs, veggies and fruits. I have grown organically, and will continue to do so because my results speak for themselves. I do love your channel, something I found after I retired and I do agree with your philosophy, and love your videos,; I try to catch the live stream on Mondays but not always. You are a good resource for us veggie growers, Thanks Gardener Scott. I am growing in 9b Sacramento.
After eating the tomatoes I grew in containers, I'll never eat store bought tomatoes again! There's night and day difference in the taste. Since I don't use chemicals of any kind, I know they're really organic. I learned that even those in the stores labeled 'Organic' are sprayed after harvesting to keep them 'fresh' and looking wonderful for transporting and storage in the stores.
Whew! I was thinking it was mostly in my head, you know, like my dog is the cutest, my child is the smartest, etc. Of course my garden tomato is the tastiest. As a beginner gardener, I was happy with any tomatoes that got to edible ripeness. Now I am choosier about the varieties, for taste, and application and ease of growing. I love black cherry tomatoes, too, and this fall in Florida, I am excited to try Sungold Select II, but along side my black cherry. Those 'Lego' grow boxes look like they are doing a good job for you!
I'm so happy to hear you say that your homegrown romas don't taste as good as your other tomatoes. I grew them this year for the first time, mostly only because I hadn't grown them before and I wanted to grow a determinate variety. They have grown well and the plants are healthy but I just don't like the flavor so I won't be growing them again.
My tomatoes taste so good but so does everything else I grow. I grew celery and omg it smelled wonderful walking by it! I've never noticed that wonderful celery scent on any store bought. Next year I'll double it, it taste so much better. I refrigerator pickled a few of my cucumbers and I was astonished by how much better it is then store bought. I'll never do mine any other way lol. Next year I'll grow tons to can for sure. Next I learn how to pickle my peppers. It's a learn as I go thing and I'm really enjoying the process. I was scared to can my tomatoes. I did make 2 mistakes by not debubbling 2 jars but at least I learned and now I'll be more careful and hang a post it to remember it lol. I have 4 good pints and 2 I'll use for chili tonight. I give myself credit as I'm going out of my comfort zone and trying and learning! Thank you Gardner Scott you give me confidence to try new things everyday ❤️
In my garden I have had better production from Amish Paste vs. San Marzano for sauce canning. When I have to buy tomatoes I always go with the organic variety. My grandma would call store bought tomatoes "Porcelain Tomatoes". 🤣🍅 Thanks for all the great info. 👍👍
Us home gardeners often pick the tomatoes when they are ripe on the vine vs being picked when they are still green or barely changing color. Good info on all of the other reasons as well.
As someone who grew up in the 1960's & 70's... even though I did not care for the product, I just have to say the other line from the commercial. "Less filling!!!" 😀
In my opinion, Sun Gold tomatoes are the best tasting tomato I've ever had. I honestly haven't tasted one that is better! This year I planted Super Sweet 100s, mostly to have a truly red cherry tomato in my garden. It's good and very prolific, so I'll grow them again.
That is very interesting that tomatoes would like 90 degree temps. This year I am growing a variety that i always wanted to try. It’s Isis candy. I think I have found a new favorite.
I'm sitting right now enjoying a Terra-Cotta tomato in a salad! New for me! The black cherry is another first and a hit! Thanks for breaking down what I always knew to be true! Nothing like that fresh garden taste!
Yes my favorite is also sungold so good specially when I eat it from the plants, thanks for the information so interesting, I learned a lot about tomatoes today ,,,thanks 💕
Yes raising my favorite and still testing for improvements ,I'm agreeing with Black Krim as they are 60 percent of my slicers now,I had 1,000,000 and sun gold and sun sugar but not keepers Honeycomb Hybrid and Midnight Snack is our salads. Berry's cherry I'm hearing good about 😂😂 Thanks again Sir
I love the flavor of the Dad's Sunset tomato, and Sun Gold cherry tomato. Next year, the Martino Roma, Dad's Sunset, Celebrity, Black Krim, and Sun Gold will be my primary tomatoes. I will also be growing smaller varieties in my polytunnel, Parks Whopper, Jolene, Debut hybrid, and Early Girl Bush. The Super Sweet 100 did very good for me; it is super prolific. The Sun Gold had the best flavor of the cherry tomatoes I've grown. The Black Cherry tomato also did very good, and had good production. The Sunrise Bumble Bee sadly didn't do well for me. The biggest problem being pest and disease resistance. The flavor wasn't as sweet as I had hoped for, squirls ruined most of the harvest, and production was much lower than expected.
Is another difference between store bought and home grown how ripe they are when picked? Don't they pick tomatoes for the supermarkets when they are not ripe - maybe just turned a light red - so they do not have the full benefit of what the plant provides vs. picking a fully ripe tomato off the vine?
I have found that, although still not as good as homegrown, store bought grape tomatoes are halfway decent. But, any of the larger tomatoes aren't worth buying, so I don't.
Love your choice of toms! Of course they taste better than the bland ones from the shops, but have you noticed that some `new ` varieties fail to inspire? A question for you, Scott. I notice that you don`t sideshoot your indeterminate tomatoes as we are all advised to do. Have you expained why in a previous video, or can you tell us why in another one? Thanks.
I grew Sun Sugar tomatoes this year, which are a subvariety of Sungold that are less prone to splitting due to having thicker skins. However, I don't know if I did something wrong, as the Sun Sugars do not taste all that good. In fact, they taste as bland as store bought tomatoes. By contrast, the Super Sweet 100s that I'm growing in the exact same conditions are quite sweet. Is it the variety? Am I growing them wrong? Are they simply not ripe enough?
The variety is a good one for sweet tomatoes and in some years I've enjoyed Sun Sugar better than Sungold. It could be faulty seed or picking too soon. Other microclimate variations could explain it, but that's less likely if the Sweet 100s are good.
I planted sun gold this year and am very disappointed. I don’t care for the taste of them. I also planted black cherry. The he are wonderful!!! I’m wondering if the sun gold tomato seeds were not the correct seeds. My peppers were definitely incorrect.
Hi Scott. Can you point us to this Chinese study that argues growing tomatos at 90 degrees is ideal ? I thought flowers will drop at that temperature ?
2 years ago watered mine every 3 days...no flavor. Last year, i barely watered, we had a drought, barely got any fruits. This year, plenty of rain, several varieties planted. Best flavor in the cherries. Ill mix those with my romas.
This year my tomatoes are kinda of watery and not as tasty as they should be. I planted them in ground in a bed I have never planted in before. Any ideas why? The weird thing is they have a wonderful after taste.
It could be the soil. My tomatoes taste better this year than last and I think a big reason is that my soil was still young and not fully developed last year. Healthier soil and more nutrients have an impact on flavor.
The tomatoes in the store are grown hydroponically and are bland watery blobs or picked so green and are ripened with gas to make them turn red, but are still green. The varieties are determinates so they can harvest all at once and to survive shipping. I’m finding a lot of bad cat facing this year on new heirlooms I’m trying, but we had late frost and then drought. The other problem is the green shoulders and cores that make a lot of waste. I think I will go back to oxhearts and Brandywines for my garden. Paste tomatoes don’t seem to have much flavor. Yellow tomatoes have a cantaloupe texture and not very acidic. Sun Gold, Sweet 100s and grape cherries are clear winners with no cracking and keep well on the counter. We all have different weather and soils and tomatoes will grow and taste differently everywhere.
My favorite tomato quote is from Jessica Sowards, "Store bought tomatoes taste like disappointment."
It's a great feeling now when I walk in the grocer to bypass the entire produce section. Saving big dough and eatin good in the neighborhood!
When I was little, my grandfather had 3 acres under cultivation. When he got tired of my endless questions, he'd pick a tomato, wipe it on his shirt and hand it to me. The tomato was often the size of my face! When we went back to the house, there'd be tomato seeds on my face, in my hair, on my clothes, and my grandmother would ask in mock horror, "Norman, what have you done to this child?!" The taste of homegrown tomatoes carries with it evocative memories and most of them are good.
I think your last statement is the absolute. The effort we put into our gardens is what ultimately makes everything we harvest so enjoyable. Just like being a farmer.
I grew black cherry tomatoes this year on my kitchen deck in 5 gal. buckets. THEY ARE FANTASTIC. So sweet you can eat them off the vine. I highly recommend these.
I really did not think there was any question amongst tomato growers that homegrown tastes better than store bought. I have been growing tomato varieties for 35 years and after 4 years of retirement have "branched out" to more herbs, veggies and fruits. I have grown organically, and will continue to do so because my results speak for themselves. I do love your channel, something I found after I retired and I do agree with your philosophy, and love your videos,; I try to catch the live stream on Mondays but not always. You are a good resource for us veggie growers, Thanks Gardener Scott. I am growing in 9b Sacramento.
After eating the tomatoes I grew in containers, I'll never eat store bought tomatoes again! There's night and day difference in the taste. Since I don't use chemicals of any kind, I know they're really organic. I learned that even those in the stores labeled 'Organic' are sprayed after harvesting to keep them 'fresh' and looking wonderful for transporting and storage in the stores.
Whew! I was thinking it was mostly in my head, you know, like my dog is the cutest, my child is the smartest, etc. Of course my garden tomato is the tastiest. As a beginner gardener, I was happy with any tomatoes that got to edible ripeness. Now I am choosier about the varieties, for taste, and application and ease of growing. I love black cherry tomatoes, too, and this fall in Florida, I am excited to try Sungold Select II, but along side my black cherry. Those 'Lego' grow boxes look like they are doing a good job for you!
I'm so happy to hear you say that your homegrown romas don't taste as good as your other tomatoes. I grew them this year for the first time, mostly only because I hadn't grown them before and I wanted to grow a determinate variety. They have grown well and the plants are healthy but I just don't like the flavor so I won't be growing them again.
Don't forget that commercial tomatoes are bred to have tough skins to ship well.
My tomatoes taste so good but so does everything else I grow. I grew celery and omg it smelled wonderful walking by it! I've never noticed that wonderful celery scent on any store bought. Next year I'll double it, it taste so much better. I refrigerator pickled a few of my cucumbers and I was astonished by how much better it is then store bought. I'll never do mine any other way lol. Next year I'll grow tons to can for sure. Next I learn how to pickle my peppers. It's a learn as I go thing and I'm really enjoying the process. I was scared to can my tomatoes. I did make 2 mistakes by not debubbling 2 jars but at least I learned and now I'll be more careful and hang a post it to remember it lol. I have 4 good pints and 2 I'll use for chili tonight. I give myself credit as I'm going out of my comfort zone and trying and learning!
Thank you Gardner Scott you give me confidence to try new things everyday ❤️
In my garden I have had better production from Amish Paste vs. San Marzano for sauce canning. When I have to buy tomatoes I always go with the organic variety. My grandma would call store bought tomatoes "Porcelain Tomatoes". 🤣🍅 Thanks for all the great info. 👍👍
I want a greenhouse like yours so badly!!
Us home gardeners often pick the tomatoes when they are ripe on the vine vs being picked when they are still green or barely changing color. Good info on all of the other reasons as well.
Just wish winter was over for this year. Nothing like making a beautiful fresh salad to have with a BBQ for Christmas lunch on the beach.
So interesting about store bought vs garden. I see all your basil=no tomato 🍅 worms🐛 So true I've found out too! Thank you Gardener Scott!!! 👍
As someone who grew up in the 1960's & 70's... even though I did not care for the product, I just have to say the other line from the commercial. "Less filling!!!" 😀
I love, love those Black Cherry Tomatoes too!!😃
I love the black cherry too. My husband says it doesn't taste tomatoey enough lol. Good thing I have " real" tomatoes growing too.
In my opinion, Sun Gold tomatoes are the best tasting tomato I've ever had. I honestly haven't tasted one that is better! This year I planted Super Sweet 100s, mostly to have a truly red cherry tomato in my garden. It's good and very prolific, so I'll grow them again.
I agree, but only if sweetness is what you're after. Sometimes that really strong tomato taste is what I want. Especially for sauces and such.
I did a video about that and my family agrees: ua-cam.com/video/Pmwvw8prEtA/v-deo.html
That is very interesting that tomatoes would like 90 degree temps. This year I am growing a variety that i always wanted to try. It’s Isis candy. I think I have found a new favorite.
I'm sitting right now enjoying a Terra-Cotta tomato in a salad! New for me! The black cherry is another first and a hit! Thanks for breaking down what I always knew to be true! Nothing like that fresh garden taste!
Yes my favorite is also sungold so good specially when I eat it from the plants, thanks for the information so interesting, I learned a lot about tomatoes today ,,,thanks 💕
I’m enjoying some sungold tomatoes while I watch. Super tasty
Excellent video.
Juanne Flamme tomatoes produced the quickest, yielded the most and the best i've tasted this year.
I highly recommend them.
Thanks- very useful. I will give itb a try!
Great info Scott! I recently found your channel. Your information is spot on and I’ve been enjoying it.
Yes raising my favorite and still testing for improvements ,I'm agreeing with Black Krim as they are 60 percent of my slicers now,I had 1,000,000 and sun gold and sun sugar but not keepers
Honeycomb Hybrid and Midnight Snack is our salads.
Berry's cherry I'm hearing good about 😂😂
Thanks again Sir
I love the flavor of the Dad's Sunset tomato, and Sun Gold cherry tomato. Next year, the Martino Roma, Dad's Sunset, Celebrity, Black Krim, and Sun Gold will be my primary tomatoes. I will also be growing smaller varieties in my polytunnel, Parks Whopper, Jolene, Debut hybrid, and Early Girl Bush. The Super Sweet 100 did very good for me; it is super prolific. The Sun Gold had the best flavor of the cherry tomatoes I've grown. The Black Cherry tomato also did very good, and had good production. The Sunrise Bumble Bee sadly didn't do well for me. The biggest problem being pest and disease resistance. The flavor wasn't as sweet as I had hoped for, squirls ruined most of the harvest, and production was much lower than expected.
Is another difference between store bought and home grown how ripe they are when picked? Don't they pick tomatoes for the supermarkets when they are not ripe - maybe just turned a light red - so they do not have the full benefit of what the plant provides vs. picking a fully ripe tomato off the vine?
I'd like to know too?!
It supposedly does not make a difference between vine ripened and those allowed to ripen on the counter (after they start to turn).
Yes, many tomatoes are picked under ripe for transport and then boosted with ethylene gas to ripen later. It affects the flavor.
I'd be seriously curious to see how tomatoes taste in a Hugelkulture gardening method!!!
This guy should read children’s books. He’s so pleasant
I have found that, although still not as good as homegrown, store bought grape tomatoes are halfway decent. But, any of the larger tomatoes aren't worth buying, so I don't.
Love your choice of toms! Of course they taste better than the bland ones from the shops, but have you noticed that some `new ` varieties fail to inspire?
A question for you, Scott. I notice that you don`t sideshoot your indeterminate tomatoes as we are all advised to do. Have you expained why in a previous video, or can you tell us why in another one? Thanks.
I do selective side shooting. Here's a video that explains some of it: ua-cam.com/video/6ImOAcigUgI/v-deo.html
Gardener Scott, di you ever use the leaves for salads or cooking. The leaves smell so delicious
I don't, but it's worth a try.
It's been wet in ny early on but I hope it's less going forward so the matoes sweeten up...
In your opinion, would it be a good idea to grow sunflowers and tomatoes together so that the tomatoes can grow up the sunflower stalks?
Possibly. It depends on the variety. I have used very tall and thick sunflower stalks as tomato trellises before after I cut down the stalks.
@@GardenerScott how do you mean "after you cut down the stalks?"
I let the sunflowers grow tall, cut them at the base, and use the sturdy stalk as a trellis.
I grew Sun Sugar tomatoes this year, which are a subvariety of Sungold that are less prone to splitting due to having thicker skins. However, I don't know if I did something wrong, as the Sun Sugars do not taste all that good. In fact, they taste as bland as store bought tomatoes. By contrast, the Super Sweet 100s that I'm growing in the exact same conditions are quite sweet. Is it the variety? Am I growing them wrong? Are they simply not ripe enough?
The variety is a good one for sweet tomatoes and in some years I've enjoyed Sun Sugar better than Sungold. It could be faulty seed or picking too soon. Other microclimate variations could explain it, but that's less likely if the Sweet 100s are good.
I planted sun gold this year and am very disappointed. I don’t care for the taste of them. I also planted black cherry. The he are wonderful!!! I’m wondering if the sun gold tomato seeds were not the correct seeds. My peppers were definitely incorrect.
Sun Gold usually have a very sweet taste, but less "tomato" flavor. Faulty seed is often to blame when the flavor doesn't match.
@@GardenerScott I’m guessing it was incorrect seeds. I can’t remember where I got them.
Hi Scott.
Can you point us to this Chinese study that argues growing tomatos at 90 degrees is ideal ? I thought flowers will drop at that temperature ?
It's in the description of the video. www.techscience.com/phyton/v91n9/47710/html
Tomatoes seem to taste best, when picked on a warm afternoon.. especially cherry tomatoes.
2 years ago watered mine every 3 days...no flavor. Last year, i barely watered, we had a drought, barely got any fruits. This year, plenty of rain, several varieties planted. Best flavor in the cherries. Ill mix those with my romas.
This year my tomatoes are kinda of watery and not as tasty as they should be. I planted them in ground in a bed I have never planted in before. Any ideas why? The weird thing is they have a wonderful after taste.
It could be the soil. My tomatoes taste better this year than last and I think a big reason is that my soil was still young and not fully developed last year. Healthier soil and more nutrients have an impact on flavor.
Do you leave the mushrooms?
I do. They only last a few days and help enrich the soil.
The tomatoes in the store are grown hydroponically and are bland watery blobs or picked so green and are ripened with gas to make them turn red, but are still green. The varieties are determinates so they can harvest all at once and to survive shipping.
I’m finding a lot of bad cat facing this year on new heirlooms I’m trying, but we had late frost and then drought. The other problem is the green shoulders and cores that make a lot of waste. I think I will go back to oxhearts and Brandywines for my garden. Paste tomatoes don’t seem to have much flavor. Yellow tomatoes have a cantaloupe texture and not very acidic. Sun Gold, Sweet 100s and grape cherries are clear winners with no cracking and keep well on the counter.
We all have different weather and soils and tomatoes will grow and taste differently everywhere.
Yup I’m seeing heaps of cat facing too this year
Can you help me understand what actually gives them their taste? Is it malic acid or something else?
There can be hundreds of compounds that affect the flavor of tomatoes. It mostly comes down to the balance of sweet and acidic tastes.
@@GardenerScott see i always crave them but don't know exactly what it is that makes them taste the specific way that makes me crave 'em
Garden fresh tomatoes are remarkable 🍅
Tomatos from the store are much higher in solinine...than home grown sun ripened tomatoes do .
I grew tomatoes from shop bought tomatoes. The taste was the same. Weak and watery. Home gown are the best!
BRB, gonna go fight my tomato plants
roma is so overrated imo
I agree, stopped growing after the 2nd year. Try Opalka's, my personal favorite.
Try Amish Paste instead!
@@cathyb4770 I am trying Amish paste this year. Have a couple gallon bags in the freezer set for canning in the fall.
Giving the Amish paste a run this year, so far nice size tomatoes and good production.@@beverlyzientara4502