Why does one tomato taste better than another? Well, the store bought, shipped in refrigerated, gassed version of course tastes terrible in everyones idea of a good tasting tomato. Im not referring to those, What i'm laboriously leading to is our own homegrown tomatoes. It's Rhode Island tomatoes, just kidding! They do taste the best though.

Studies show, genetics plays an important role in flavor. The sungolds we grew over here last year were just fantastic! And most of our heirlooms were great too. But it's more than just genetics, it's so much more.

The brix scale... (named after some dude in the 1800's) who developed a means of measuring the sugar and carbohydrate content of the plant juices, both the stem and fruit. It has to do w/ the specific gravity and a lot of other things i've yet to research. As a side note, a fruit higher in brix also has a longer shelf life too.

A healthier plant in turn produces fruit higher in brix, and an unhealthy plant produces fruit with lower brix. Just how much brix makes a tomato pop in your mouth where you just say WOW?

And then the relationship (Sweet/Sour) Sugars and acids, if you increase the sugar, we have to increase the acid. If we then drop too low in sugar and the acid stays high, yuck, sour tomatoes! Chill injury (fruit dropping below 40F) seems to decrease the sugars and not sure if it increases acid levels.

So, if we select good varieties, Keep the plant healthy using soil and plant tissue analysis. Watered, but not overwatered, crop rotation, encorage Mycorrhizae colonization etc. We should have great tasting tomatoes.

Please excuse my writing style, I'm a novice.