Choosing seeds is always a lottery with the hope of winning big in the form of a sweet, aromatic harvest. But sometimes even advertised new products or varieties proven over the years present unpleasant surprises. At the end of last season, the list of disappointments included varieties that were unable to reveal their declared potential in the conditions of ordinary summer cottages.
One of these controversial hybrids was “Emperor F1”. Marketed as high-yielding and disease-resistant, it did often exhibit robust growth and abundant fruit production. However, its main drawback appeared at the ripening stage: the fruits, reaching technical ripeness, could hang on the bush for weeks, without gaining the proper sweetness and remaining dense, almost “rubbery”. Their flavor was described as “grassy” or “hollow,” making the crop more ornamental than edible. This was especially true in cool summers.
Variety “Golden Canary” with bright yellow fruits of an ideal pear shape, it promised to decorate the bed and table. Outwardly it often lived up to expectations, but the inner content let us down. The pulp of many fruits turned out to be excessively dry and mealy, with a subtle, almost imperceptible aroma. The vaunted sweetness characteristic of yellow tomatoes appeared only in a few specimens with an ideal balance of sun and watering. For many, this variety has become an example of a beautiful, but “inedible” picture.
Another favorite of the catalogs, but an outsider of the beds, turned out to be an early ripening variety “Flash”. Its main trump card – early fruiting – also became its main disadvantage. The pressure to produce a harvest in record time took its toll on size and taste. The fruits rarely grew larger than plums, and their taste left much to be desired, often with pronounced sourness and without richness. The variety served as the “first tomato”, but was quickly forced out of the garden by its more tasty and larger neighbors.
The key lesson from last season: don't chase big names and impressive descriptions. Productivity, stability and even the beauty of the fruit are worth absolutely nothing if the tomato itself does not give pleasure with its taste. Sometimes one proven, not the most advertised variety, ideal for the microclimate of a particular area, will give more joy than a whole collection of new products that sound beautiful, but disappoint in practice.
