Bland flavours

My greenhouse plants are all healthy and producing well, but the flavours of Sweet Million and Honeycomb are bland. Only Apero has any flavour. Anyone know why, and is there anything I can do about it? Greenhouse is well ventilated during the day and all plants fed on Chempak Tomato Feed.

 

Hi,

So many thing can affect the flavour, the weather/ lack of sunshine, the compost, the feed and watering and the actual tomato variety.
Probably little you can do this year, though some sunnier weather may help.

What seemed good last year can be poor this year and vice versa.

There is specific thread for Tomatoes each year, you will find all sorts of helpful info there.
https://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/threads/tomato-growing-thread-2021.127340/page-22#post-13179

 

We have had loads of sunshine here this year so I doubt if that’s the reason. As you point out, it could possibly be watering. I’m going to remove the saucers and just let the water/feed run through, and test with my moisture testing thingy before watering. Thanks for your helpful reply.

 

I usually use Tomorite but Which claimed Chempak was the best. I’ll probably give them a few feeds of 6X soup and then go back to Tomorite for the rest of this season. Did you find that molasses made a difference taste-wise?

 

I do not rate either Chempak or Tomorite for tomato taste, i have experimented with various tomato feeds over the years, I only use organic fertilisers now and for tomato taste you need to cover all the bases.
I use FBB. Calcified sea weed and seaweed meal, Mycorrhizal fungi, worm compost, aspirin and sulphur mixed in the compost at the begining of the season at the final pot up.
I use liquid feed once toms have formed
Maxicrop organic tomato food (brown bottle)
Alga mic (cold pressed seaweed)
Black treacle
Green future organic tomato fertiliser
along with growing varieties known for good flavour and i can not grow enough for family and friends.
You can feed what you like and if you grow the likes of money maker you will never get good taste
regds sandy

 

Phew! That’s quite a shopping list, Sandy. I’m growing Sweet Million, Apero and Honeycomb. All are reputed to be sweet. I’m going to give JWK’s tip about molasses a go. I am also going to source the stuff you have mentioned, with the Maxicrop organic for this season. I already use Doff Seaweed concentrate with every water/feed. I’m getting lots of useful hints on here. Thank you.

 

See my ingredients molasses is black treacle
Reds sandy