Totally tasteless 'totem' tomatoes

[bigdog]

Rescued a 'totem' bush tomato plant and gave it loving care. It has rewarded me with a bumper crop of utterly tasteless, sludgy (and practically seedless) toms.
I kept the b***er in a small greenhouse, watered it every day, fed it once a week with a high potash feed and talked nicely to it - and this is how it repays me!
I'm fairly inexperienced with tomatoes, but, if this type of ingratitude is characteristic, I won't bl**dy bother in future.

[Alice]

Welcome to the Vine Bigdog. What a shame about your tomatoes. Sadly some varieties are a bit lacking in flavour - or do less well in some areas than others. But there is lots on here about recommended varieties. Hang around and see what results other grapes got. Better luck next year.

[TrulyGreen]

Ooooh I had the same experience. Rescued a Totem from our local Home Base Bumper crop and the only toms in my garden turning red. Have only tried one and it tasted of nothing

Watching James Martin Digs Deep today and he was told by Gardeners World that watering toms from the top means that the surface feeder roots send the water to the fruit (rather than being taken up by the deeper water roots) and that this leads to tasteless toms. Any thoughts on this......is it the variety or the way we grow em.......nature or nurture? I'm thinking of ring culture for the GH next year.

[Alice]

Interesting point truly green. Thanks for posting that. Will have a look into it and maybe conduct a trial of my own next year,
Anybody else any thoughts on the subject.

[sewer rat]

Watching James Martin Digs Deep today and he was told by Gardeners World that watering toms from the top means that the surface feeder roots send the water to the fruit (rather than being taken up by the deeper water roots) and that this leads to tasteless toms. Any thoughts on this......is it the variety or the way we grow em.......nature or nurture? I'm thinking of ring culture for the GH next year.

Although I'm not growing toms this year at all, I did have lots last year and I grew them the same way as my cucumbers. They are all either sown or transplanted into 3" pots and when they are ready to be planted out, the 3" pot that housed the plant is dug in beside the plant and I water through this. This has 3 benefits
1.the water goes direct to the deeper roots
2. The base of the plant stems stay dry and are less susceptible to rot
3. I can apply dry plant feed via the pots and it gets watered in over the space of a week or so.

[Flummery]

A number of years ago I bought 6 different plants from a nursery (to add to the few I'd raised from seed). It seemed like a cheaper way of trying lots of different toms rather than buying lots of packets of seed. I found the same as you with Totem. Also Big Boy was a disappointment. However, as we've discovered on another thread, one wo/man's great tomato is another's tasteless lump!

[plotman]

Interesting point truly green. Thanks for posting that. Will have a look into it and maybe conduct a trial of my own next year,
Anybody else any thoughts on the subject.

Ive always watered tomatoes from above,fed once a week and every year have bumper crop. I grow in greenhouse in tubs and also outside and although greenhouse does better i still get great return, So itsnot the watering. My headache is although i scrub greenhouse every yr with ***** fluid i still get infested with whitefly. Any suggestions??

[plotman]

Oh and i meant to add flavours great. Thats the tomatoes not the whitefly )

[womble]

Ive always watered tomatoes from above,fed once a week and every year have bumper crop. I grow in greenhouse in tubs and also outside and although greenhouse does better i still get great return, So itsnot the watering. My headache is although i scrub greenhouse every yr with ***** fluid i still get infested with whitefly. Any suggestions??

Yes, its my first year with a greenhouse, so don't take this as gospel. But I planted lots of french marigolds in there and apart from one or two whitefly at the start of the year, I have seen none.
It also brings in loads of hoverflies and aphids so haven't been a aphid either, well they were a bit to start with on the chillis, but once the marigolds got flowering properly it was fine. I am definitely going to do this next year.

I started them off early inside, so when they were planted out with the toms and chillis they were just about starting to flower.

Hope this helps you.

[Cutecumber]

I am pretty sure that over-watering can reduce the flavour of tomatoes.

[Phreddy]

Hi BigDog,
What was the tomato like to look at? The reason that I ask, I have just bought some strange long tomatos that are almost seedless and lack flavour. Wondered if they might be the same ones.

[Phreddy]

I planted lots of french marigolds in there and apart from one or two whitefly at the start of the year, I have seen none.

I tried companion planting this year as well. My wife grew marigolds and tagetas(sp). We transplanted them to line the tomatos and later in the year when we had cosmos one side and sunflowers looking after our tomatos we realised our mistake.

Sorry I cannot add to the whitefly data but I did hear about garlic and water spray.

[womble]

You could use the sunflowers as tomato stakes

[Phreddy]

Good idea Womble, I might try to get some of the 'commercial' SF seeds and try it. Bit like the three sisters!!

[Demeter]

Wouldn't the sunflowers fall over??