Thanks vannrox.
Posted on 05/20/2019 5:02:00 AM PDT by vannrox
An international team of researchers led by Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research and the U.S. Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service has created a pan-genome that captures all of the genetic information of 725 cultivated and wild tomatoes, establishing a resource that promises to help breeders develop more flavorful and sustainable varieties. The team found 4,873 new genes and identified a rare version of a gene that can make tomatoes tastier.
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
Exactly. They further ruined tomatoes in the 90’s. Until then you could still buy beefsteak tomatoes that made the most delicious sandwiches with just bread around them.
That’s why I grow my own.
WE grow Amish paste variety tomatoes.
The plants put on fruit quickly and outrun the highbred types...
For much of the 20th Century, scientists looked for ways to create “A&P chickens”.
A&P was the largest grocery store chains after WWII, and wanted a standard chicken, that would have a lot of meat, grow quickly, eat less food, etc. So they sponsored a nationwide contest to develop it. Out of many, many breeds they found the one that gave them what they wanted, for both eggs and meat, and they had the clout to compel the major chicken growers to raise them, exclusively.
However, A&P chickens are pretty flavorless. So today, if a person wants a tasty chicken, they might have to drive a hundred miles to find a small farm that raises “heritage chickens”, that fortunately still exist.
As far as tomatoes go, there has long been a prize of over a million dollars on offer for anyone who can make a tomato that can be frozen and defrosted without turning to mush.
To a large extent, the flavor of the chicken is more dependent on what they eat. The factory raised chickens don’t get a varied diet, they get a scientific one. My sister raised the same varieties, allowing them to free range, and they had excellent flavor
I’ll try that next time. I’ve planted seeds and seedlings from nurseries in good soil and sometimes I get crappy results. My wife planted some in a planter that had nothing but local decomposed granite sand. The best tomatoes ever. Doesn’t make sense.
“Rock dust”, the fines left over from crushing granite into gravel makes a great soil additive for tomatoes.
Just an FYI for tomato fans:
https://www.dwarftomatoproject.net/about/
The dwarf tomato project has created tomatoes plants which grow only to 5’ (or so) and produce tomatoes continually. I like the BrandyFred.
We use the rock dust (chick grit) when starting seeds.
The dust keeps the soil dry around the shoot, preventing “damping off.”
Quit abusing the news forum with chat material.
Thanks vannrox.
A similar thing happened to apples; shipability; unblemished skin; shine...all for eye appeal and make more attractive to the consumer. Taste, not so much.
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
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