Hi! Why are my Roma tomatoes tasteless? They're not watery at all, and they don't have a nice texture either. Thanks!
Hi PenfoldGW I have grown the Roma Plum Tomatoes free with Gardners World for first time and must admit am disapointed. Ive done everything right but they havent yealded many and they are tasteless and a wierd shape compared to plum tomatoes in the supermarket. So hey you win some, lose some. Ive grown some from seed from a sugar drop tomatoe bought from supermarket last year and they have been better.
Have harvested a good amount of my Roma. They are grown from seed that is three years old now, bought from GC. Have always thought them a little sweet for me, so mix them with the other varieties I grow to make sauces/soups. This year no difference in flavour ( mixed with Sunchocola and Tigerella but mostly Roma) and have made two batches already.
Howdy! Update: The 3rd one was a bit better, and each one we harvest is better than the last. So, they've actually turned out well enough We will be doing a different variety next year though, a salad variety. Thanks!
Try the Tigerella @PenfoldGW as one. It is a bit slow to start, which is why we have a cherry too, but it tastes good and is colourful 130 toms to date from four plants, with as many to ripen yet.
My Roma are huge now and just turning read, they are a cooking tomato so will be used for sauces, although grilled on toast with salt and pepper they are delicious.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
There used to be a regular forum user who (I think) lived in a hot part of Italy and grew lots of tomatoes.
In his opinion many British gardeners both over feed and over water their tomatoes. He always reckoned that it was heat (rather than sun) that was needed to produce a good tasty crop and that the 'treat 'em mean' principle was the best to follow.
I don't often grow toms (always away when they're ready for picking!) but when I do, I follow his advice and water and feed well until the fruits are starting to set. Then lay off the feed. Water only when the soil has started to dry out and remove the bottom leaves to let the fruit see the sun.
His advice always made sense because some of the sweetest, tastiest tomatoes I've eaten were produced in hot climes (France and Greece mainly) by smallholders gardening on sun baked plots - who I'm pretty sure were not watering and feeding their plants every pair of plates.
In some ways this should have been an ideal year for toms - very high day time temps and little rain (blight!). In practise, night time temps (here at least) have been in single figures more often than normal and we've had lots of windy days (again - much more than normal) which would make staked plants more difficult to manage.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
The advice from Italophile certainly makes sense. As time has gone on, I've gotten better at removing leaves and the weather has been.. well, you know. The Romas could have been baked into a sauce right there on the vine! I've given them a little water each day as advice says they should have a consistent supply. I have probably applied food 5 or 6 times over the whole season. We're eating them with mozarella and they're quite yummy! What is the tomato we should have for a proper caprese?
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AnnieH
In his opinion many British gardeners both over feed and over water their tomatoes. He always reckoned that it was heat (rather than sun) that was needed to produce a good tasty crop and that the 'treat 'em mean' principle was the best to follow.
I don't often grow toms (always away when they're ready for picking!) but when I do, I follow his advice and water and feed well until the fruits are starting to set. Then lay off the feed. Water only when the soil has started to dry out and remove the bottom leaves to let the fruit see the sun.
His advice always made sense because some of the sweetest, tastiest tomatoes I've eaten were produced in hot climes (France and Greece mainly) by smallholders gardening on sun baked plots - who I'm pretty sure were not watering and feeding their plants every pair of plates.
In some ways this should have been an ideal year for toms - very high day time temps and little rain (blight!). In practise, night time temps (here at least) have been in single figures more often than normal and we've had lots of windy days (again - much more than normal) which would make staked plants more difficult to manage.
He is very knowledgable about tomatoes.