Tomato Hydroponics

[Digeroo]

Saw a piece yesterday on the One Show about the largest glasshouse in the UK.  Thanet Earth has space for producing millions of tomatoes.

They grow the tomatoes without soil using water and a cocktail of chemical fertilizers.  No wonder toms do not taste of anything, seems they have forgotten to add whatever it takes to produce taste in the tomatoes. 

Presume they don't know what it is or they would add it as well.

What's it they say the answer lies in the soil?

[Digeroo]

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

and I bet they're grafted onto some monster rootstock

[Digeroo]

How do they graft them? Bought some reasonably tasty toms from supermarket called Brioso and gave them a quick google and came across the concept of rootstock and grafting. 

Mind you seeing the height of glasshouses  tomatoes in Turkey realized that mine are rather small in comparison. 

The ceiling of the Thanet Earth glasshouses 26t, expect the tomato plants are expected to fill the entire space.

[daileg]

just googled this if it helps this topic http://ag.arizona.edu/hydroponictomatoes/

[OllieC]

We use to graft spud tops to tomato bottoms as children... ultimate useless plant!

[Robert_Brenchley]

It would be useful if you wanted to produce lots of true potato seed for a breeding programme. Since it's not producing tubers, it has more energy for seed production.

[labrat]

I don't think the lack of taste has anything to do with the hydroponics but with the varieties they grow. They simply don't grow the flavoursome varieties the small amateur gardener does. I've tried small scale hydroponics with standard varieties like gardener's delight, sungold and moneymaker and they taste as good as the soil based ones.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

How do they graft them?

one of the seed catalogues had *miracle* grafted toms for some exorbitant price. Looks dead easy to do but you need seeds of the monster rootstock and they cost a fortune. Don't even know if we can get them, not that i'd bother

[Kepouros]

Tomato grafting was enormously popular in the 1960s, and I did it myself for several years. One nurseryman friend of mine claimed to sell 3 grafted plants for every one on its own roots.

The main reason was that most of the tomato varieties then available were intended for warm house growing, and although they were grown in cold houses they did not grow as vigorously.  There were very few varieties of outdoor tomatoes, and most of those did very poorly in colder areas.  Then someone got the idea of grafting the warm house tomatoes on to a vigorous continental root stock, and for a few years magnificent varieties such as Stonor`s Exhibition, Perfection and Golden Queen could be grown in cold houses.  The rootstock seed was readily available, and the grafts were simple side grafts.

However, with the upsurge in sales of small greenhouses in the 1960s the seedsmen began to develop cold house varieties - I seem to remember Alicante as being one of the earliest ones - followed by genuine outdoor varieties, and the practice in this country of using grafted plants gradually died out.

Unfortunately, in doing this they seem to have lost most of the flavour which the old warm house varieties had

[Digeroo]

So if the taste is good with hydroponics why do they not grow nice tasting varieties.   

Thanks Kepouros I alwasy find your info interesting.

[Kepouros]

I grew hydroponically for several years during the 70s, and I can assure you that it isn`t the hydroponic growing that spoils the flavour.  Unfortunately the hydroponic grower has to make a profit, and this results in  two things:-

1. He grows the variety with the greatest yield - which invariably means at the expense of taste

2. Unless he is supplying purely local outlets, he picks his produce half ripe to allow for it ripening further in transit and handling - again at the expense of loss of flavour.

You, on the other hand, can grow the variety you like best, regardless of size of crop, and pick it when it is properly ripe, so you win hands down against bought fruit.

But I doubt if even yours taste like tomatoes used to taste 60 years ago.

[Digeroo]

Actually they seemed to taste better thirty years ago.  Even the varieties I grew then seem to have lost something now.  I remember being really impressed by Gardeners Delight and Mr Stripey (tigrella). 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Problem is that veg are sold by weight not taste, so they often go on sale when they're too big., Then they're selected for things like long storage and ability to survive transportation. Nobody selects for taste, though obviously it would be possible to breed taste into commercial varieties.