Hello Oklahoma,

I can't say anything about your tomatoes, but I can recommend one red variety for next year. Rutgers. It has more of an acid taste and is very juicy. It's worth growing once and you'll love the flavor.

Xtal
Central Texas

I am having the same experience. I also noticed that the tomatoes I grew on the greenhouse last winter weren't as tasty as those the same plant produced after they were moved outside

Helen, Tomatoes need lots of intense sunlight and heat in order for the flavor compounds to fully develop. So, yes, I think the weather is impacting the flavor (and likely the texture) of your tomatoes. The very best tomatoes I've ever had are the ones grown in terribly hot and dry summers, and the absolute best ones are grown dryland with no irrigation at all.

Thus, even though drought drives me crazy, I still prefer the hotter and drier weather it brings us to the overall cooler, wetter weather that can make tomatoes taste bland and have a mealy texture.

The off-color of some black varieties does seem related to the same temperature and light issues. I find that tomatoes in the black, purple and pink categories often do not color up the same in the fall or in periods of more rain and less heat as they do in hotter, drier weather. However, some of the tomatoes in those color groups do not color up as deeply black (or burgundy or mahogany) in color as others do even in the best conditions possible.

Dorothy, I am sure there must be a set number of heat units that tomatoes need in order to develop fuller flavor, but I don't know how to compare the heat units from hot summer weather to what the plants get in cooler weather. It isn't just that they get fewer hours of light per day in a winter greenhouse, but also that thewinter sunlight is so much less intense than summer sunlight, for example.

The decrease in flavor (and poorer texture) is one reason I don't use the greenhouse as much for winter tomatoes as I thought I would. I mostly use it to get earlier or later harvests more so than a year-round harvest. The last tomatoes that I harvested in January or February were barely worth eating,but we did eat them.

Dawn

I'm surprised to hear your flavor is lacking. I have had one of the best flavor years that I have had overall. The flavor of those I picked even Thursday was good. The KB have usually lost flavor by now but held it up until I removed all of those close to maturity and removed the plant. I will post a tomato review when I get time while it is still fresh on my memory. My best tasting tomato this year was a selection of a Texas Star cross I've been trying to stabilize. The best bicolor I have ever tasted except Lucky Cross. I did move two containers into th lean to and will try to keep them going to at least Thanksgiving. After that the flavor and texture will drop to the point I won't care for them anyway. Jay

We grew some in the greenhouses last year. And no they are not as good as garden tomatoes but I still think they are better than bought. I call those plastic. Sheila