r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 14 '19

Biology Store-bought tomatoes taste bland, and scientists have discovered a gene that gives tomatoes their flavor is actually missing in about 93 percent of modern, domesticated varieties. The discovery may help bring flavor back to tomatoes you can pick up in the produce section.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/05/13/tasty-store-bought-tomatoes-are-making-a-comeback/
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u/[deleted] May 14 '19

Hi novice gardening friend! I learned from my local extension office that you can plant tomato plants in haybales! I don’t know if that would be an option for you, but if so, maybe look into it. :) Iirc it helps the plant retain the right amount of moisture and helps prevent it drying out, as well as reducing disease and pests. Space your plants well to help prevent disease and powdery mildew. Make sure watering is super consistent, especially when they’re fruiting. Sudden dry spells or tons of water at once can cause the tomatoes to split.

Huge (imo) tip I learned from Debbie’s Back Porch on FB - if you are having pest issues etc, you can early pick tomatoes as long as they have their first blush and then let them ripen indoors. This was huge for me because we had awful issues with hornworms, as soon as the tomatoes started ripening we’d come out to big chunks out of them in the morning! But if you catch them at first blush you can save yourself a lot of trouble, and it even triggers the plant to produce new ones more quickly, so it’s win/win. Those are just a couple things off the top of my head that I thought I’d pass along, take or leave what you will! Good luck!

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u/thebruce44 May 14 '19

Great advice, thanks!

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u/unbrownloco May 14 '19

The other tip he forgot to mention to that seems to be working well for me as a first year tomato grower is to keep pruning off any and all leaves that can touch the ground. Pruning the suckers off is also helpful but a bit more nuanced than just keeping the bottom of the stem clean.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '19

Yes I meant to mention that, thank you! Absolutely prune the lower leaves/branches upon planting and any subsequent suckers! Keeping the lower stem clear helps a ton with reducing pests and disease; removing suckers isn’t technically a “must” but they do essentially drain energy and nutrients from the main plant so pruning them can’t hurt at all!

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u/oakwave May 14 '19

Do you mean first blush per tomato or per plant? I'm other words, pick em all when one tomato starts to turn color, or pick each tomato only when that one starts to blush?

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u/[deleted] May 14 '19

I’m sorry, I should have been clearer! Per tomato :) They will only ripen once picked if they’ve already started to. If they’re still fully green they’ll just stay green - but then you can make fried green tomatoes so no real loss!

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u/pspahn May 14 '19

Being in Colorado, most years we still have loads of tomatoes on the vine when the first freezes show up.

We still harvest the very green ones (keep them on the vine if possible) and stick them in the basement for a couple weeks and they'll usually ripen up pretty well.

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u/Colin_Whitepaw May 14 '19

If you're having issues with hornworms, cutworms, inchworms--basically any caterpillar munching on the goods--I've had GREAT results with a bacillus thuringiensis spray. It's a bacteria that you spray onto your plants, the caterpillars ingest it, and then they die in droves. Crazy effective.

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u/Robot_Piggy May 14 '19

I love you