Gardening: Tomatoes grown at home taste better, but learn which seeds to buy

Many people grow only one food crop: tomatoes. Some act as if growing food is shameful, but it’s quite the opposite. Growing food is the noblest and oldest profession, from farmers to gardeners. But why are tomatoes so favored by home growers at the exclusion of any other food?

Tomatoes are easily picked and prepared for the table, and the homegrown flavor is far superior to those fruits from our supermarkets. Why? For one thing, supermarket tomatoes must withstand shipping, so they are bred tough, picked green and even sometimes refrigerated. Breeders working for shipability and appearance of fruit also eliminated a condition called “green shoulders,” unaware that those genes were closely allied to flavor. Thus they unintentionally bred good flavor out of the commercial varieties.

Commercially grown tomatoes are picked when they are green and are usually not allowed by produce suppliers to ripen in their own time. They’re “ripened” by being subjected to ethylene gas that hastens the appearance of ripening, if not ripe flavor.

Tomato flavor really depends on variety, the soil, fertilizer and the climate where the plant grew. Other important factors are the way the plant was treated in terms of watering, sun exposure, weed competition and temperatures. The drought in California forced some growers to use less water on their fields, and consumers found those tomatoes more flavorful than they’d been used to. That reduced water effort requires close vigilance, for if a plant gets too little water, the plant can’t take in the necessary amount of calcium from the soil, so fruit develops blossom end rot.

When selecting a variety of tomato to grow, a gardener should pay heed to the history of that fruit. For instance, a fruit bred for southern Florida might grow poorly or taste “off” when grown in our area. Much of the United States does not experience cool summer nights like we do, and that makes a significant difference to plants.

The variety called Ace was bred for the San Joaquin Valley of California and might not produce as expected in other parts of the U.S. People in Georgia rave over the variety called Black from Tula, but it grew poorly in my garden, although Black Krim did well and was exceptionally delicious. “Black” tomatoes are those whose green color doesn’t vanish when the red ripeness arrives. They’re very flavorful, but they are poor choices for canning since they look rotten in a glass jar.

Professionals and amateurs alike continue to experiment with tomato breeding, seeking better disease resistance, flavor, size, shape or color. Those tomatoes whose labels claim disease resistance are hybrids, tested by universities at a cost passed on to the consumer, who must buy new seeds every year instead of saving from year to year. Most modern open-pollinated tomatoes have hidden styles (the connector between the stigma that receives pollen and the ovary that produces fruit after pollination), so they aren’t very susceptible to cross-pollination. Exceptions are currant tomatoes, potato-leafed varieties and fruit formed from double blossoms of beefsteak tomatoes.

Carolyn Male, author of “100 Heirloom Tomatoes,” always said she had her helper plant tomatoes 5 feet from one another, and she’d see less than 5 percent cross-pollination. In my garden I’ve seen very determined and persistent bumblebees get into tomato blossoms of many different varieties. I don’t grow hybrid tomatoes, and haven’t noticed a difference in any of my open-pollinated tomatoes. If pollen from cherry tomatoes transferred to slicers, I’d see that difference in self-saved seed the next year.

There are many varieties available to gardeners, through commercial vendors and seed savers. I’m a member of Seed Savers Exchange, based in Decorah, Iowa, and recently received their “yearbook” of seeds offered by members. There are about 34 different varieties offered on each of 175 pages — about 5,900 varieties of tomato. Some might be unintended duplicates, but even so, that’s quite a collection from which to draw.

If you’re looking to buy a specific variety, use a Google search <variety name, seeds>. Remember, paste tomatoes have less gel and fewer seeds, so more “meat.”