Friday, April 6, 2012

Why I'm not planting blue tomatoes

 I noticed that breeders usually improve on one plant trait at a time disregarding the rest. Take Caroline raspberry I planted last year. It's productive, has huge berries, up to an inch long, but the taste is somewhat bland. Giant strawberries are tasteless too. A beautiful Romanesco broccoli has strange texture making it inedible both raw and cooked for me. People keep complaining about the taste and the long season requirements of yellow watermelons. That's why I'm not jumping on a blue tomato bandwagon just yet.

There are several varieties on the market including the famous Indigo Rose tomato from Jim Myers at OSU or the whole "blue tomato" family" from Tom Wagner but they are all quite new. People worked hard to achieve the color goal so I feel a great taste is just too much to ask. I would patiently wait for them to introduce Brandywine or Sungold traits into the fruit even if it takes decades to accomplish.

2 comments:

  1. I thought when I first saw them growing on a farm in Nova Scotia..blue tomato!! How can that be?

    So, ordered the seeds from the farmer and grew OSU blue last year, thinking, likely not too much taste. Really did it for the (presentation) addition to summer salads with it's skin of inky blue. BUT...I was surprised..there was good flavor there, and the plants were sturdy and prolific..really prolific. So, I would grow it again, definitely. Zone 5-6 here

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    1. Thank you, it's nice to know!

      But I'm really short on space this season. Also, it's too late to start tomato plants from seeds.

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