WOW! What a tomato!

[friedgreen51]

Ted,
This often happens when there has been a lot of rain. It doesn't happen very often to roma type tomatoes. If you you don't mind cooking the tomatoes down to get rid of some of the excess water, this will really help. I will definitely do it this year with all of the rain we have had.

[z_willus_d]

I'll add my experience. I've got 50+ grafted tomato vines growing this year. Of all the plants, Dester is the only one yet not to ripen a fruit. It has 2 or 3 green Brandywine like tomatoes on a large plant. It may taste like heaven, but if I only get 2 or 3 tomatoes off a large plant that takes up tons of space in the garden, I'm not sure I want them. We'll see. BTW, my seed source was Bakerscreek.
-naysen

[Sun City Linda]

I have two tomatoes on my Dester. I picked them both today since they had colored up somewhat and it is so hot here now. I will have to wait a bit to taste.

[sprtsguy76]

I was doing my picking run this evening and noticed two surpising things on my Dester plant. 1 is I noticed a blushing fruit. And 2 I found a fruit that looks like it might be 2 pounds.

Damon

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I sampled an Italian Heirloom tomato this afternoon and I wasn't impressed. It certainly didn't taste as good as Dester and I don't understand how it beat Dester last year in the SSE taste test.

All of the tomatoes on the Italian Heirloom plant also have concentric cracks around them. Some also have cracks from the stem end almost to the blossom end. They are not deep enough to harm the tomato, but they could open up more if we get a heavy rain.

Ted

[linzelu100]

Originally Posted by tedln

I sampled an Italian Heirloom tomato this afternoon and I wasn't impressed. It certainly didn't taste as good as Dester and I don't understand how it beat Dester last year in the SSE taste test.

All of the tomatoes on the Italian Heirloom plant also have concentric cracks around them. Some also have cracks from the stem end almost to the blossom end. They are not deep enough to harm the tomato, but they could open up more if we get a heavy rain.

Ted

I told you I love it, but thought you'd be disappointed for it fresh. I don't know how it could win a fresh taste either, but just give it a chance and cook it down. Very sweet. Another tip I got from another grower, which sounds strange, but works. Is to pick them a bit unrip and let them sit on the counter top to ripen more, then make sauce with them. Extra sweet, but we like sweet sauce.

[linzelu100]

As for the cracking, I haven't ever had any crack, nor blossom end rot or anything like that at all. And I am not a green thumb grower. Must be all this crazy rain.

Originally Posted by linzelu100

As for the cracking, I haven't ever had any crack, nor blossom end rot or anything like that at all. And I am not a green thumb grower. Must be all this crazy rain.

The Italian Heirloom plant is about two spaces away from the Dester plant in the same bed. The Italian Heirloom tomatoes are cracked and the Dester tomatoes are not. It's just interesting how varieties perform differently in the same conditions.

Ted

[sprtsguy76]

Here are a few of my Dester starting to color up.

Damon

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[linzelu100]

Originally Posted by tedln

The Italian Heirloom plant is about two spaces away from the Dester plant in the same bed. The Italian Heirloom tomatoes are cracked and the Dester tomatoes are not. It's just interesting how varieties perform differently in the same conditions.

Ted

It sounds like Dester is a real keeper in your conditions. Taste and otherwise. Save seed and hold onto that one

[Father'sDaughter]

Finally got my chance to do my own side-by-side tonight with Desters and Italian Heirloom. While I have picked four perfectly shaped Italian Heirlooms so far, I only have one mis-sharpen example of Desters -- I initially thought it was two until I picked it and found it was one fused tomato with one half already very ripe and the other still very green. Here they are together:



The Italian Heirloom was up first because I was having a black bean burger for dinner and wanted a slice of tomato to put on it. It's very meaty, fairly juicy, and while a touch on the mealy side, not too bad. The skin wasn't very thick or tough either, which made me happy. As for taste, it was pretty good - old fashioned flavor, rich with a bit of "bite," but nothing outstanding on it's own. It needed a touch of salt to bring out more flavor. It was very good on the burger with cheddar cheese and mayo.



The ripe half of the Dester was also very meaty, but not as juicy, the skin is thin and tender, and the texture is perfect - soft but not mealy or mushy. It is very stingy on the seed/gel contents, which I actually prefer from an eating stand point, but is not good for seed saving! As for taste, I'm with Ted on this one -- the flavor just explodes! It really screams old fashioned tomato taste with a richness and brightness that lingers long after you've eaten it. It's been about 15 minutes and I can still almost taste it. I can see why those who prefer sweet tomatoes would label this one acidic, but to me it just tastes like I think a tomato should taste. Dester is definitely a tomato that needs nothing more than a plate, a knife and a fork--no salt required!



The Dester plant has set one more fruit up near the top, and now that the heat wave is over, I'm hoping it puts on a few more. So far it's not showing any real signs of disease, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more--I'm afraid no other tomato in this year's garden is going to live up to Desters.

My Dester was both meaty and juicy. I did leave it on the vine until it was totally ripe. I got a lot more seed from one than I expected considering the small locules. My plant was also more productive than expected. All of the tomatoes on the vine set in the spring without additional fruit set later. I will trim the vine back a little and see if it will produce in the fall. Some of the varieties which were heavy producers last year only set one or two tomatoes this year. We have experienced such a crazy growing season this year, I won't be able to determine which traits are normal for any variety. I do know next year, I will be growing four Dester plants instead of one.

Ted

[Father'sDaughter]

My husband has now done the taste test except he tried Dester first and then found Italian Heirloom totally lacking in flavor.

His comment on Dester was, "I almost taste bacon. It's like someone put bacon grease on it."

Ted, I know what you mean about this not being a typical growing season and we can't know if the results will be the same next year.. But like you, there will be room for more than one Dester plant next year. If the health and yield of Italian Heirloom continues, next year I may move it over to the Cooking Tomatoes section of my garden as despite it's juiciness, it would go a long way towards filling up the sauce pot, and I suspect the flavor would be much improved with cooking.