I planted Roma tomatoes from seeds for the first time this year. The seed package was labeled ‘Roma Tomato’, but the fruits are quite differents from the Roma tomatoes I usually buy at the market.
Mines are hollow and very dry, soft and grainy. If I try to broil them, they disintegrates in a mush unlike the ones I buy that keeps mostly their shape.
Is there different types of Roma tomatoes? How can I find a cultivar that would be closer to the tomatoes I buy? Or am I doing something wrong with my plants?
by poudingfinal
24 Comments
I bet your tomatoes taste way better than the store bought ones.
Less water is good for Roma tomatoes. Make sauce.
You have to realize the industrial strength EVERYTHING (including proprietary seeds) that go into industrial farming.
Instead of trying to compare to a multimillion-dollar grow operation, just looks for ways to *improve* your growth at home.
How was your watering schedule? What kind of plant food did you use? Did you add a calcium supplement? What kind of soil are you using? Do you pH test your soil? What Hardiness zone are you in? What’s the weather been like this year?
Personally, I bet you underwatered. All that “snot” is effectively water weight. If its been hot and sunny, without appropriate protection and hydration measures, you’ll get the dehydrated ones.
The better question is…….What is wrong with the store bought tomato?
Yours looks just fine.
Im going to go against the crowd here and say there is indeed something iffy about your tomatoes. I’ve been growing tomatoes for 4 years now. I’ve done
– Cherries: **Supersweet 100**, SunGold
– Plum/Roma: Plum Regal, San Marzano, **Amish Paste**
– Slicer: Brandywine, **Cherokee Purple**, Early Girl
I put the ones that have done best for me in eastern MA Zone 6b in bold. These are now the only varieties I grow. However, out of every variety I’ve ever grown, they’ve all been better in all categories compared to their supermarket counterparts.. and no, romas shouldn’t be grainy or mealy. In fact, That texture is the hallmark of supermarket tomatoes which are picked long before ripe and then hit with ethylene gas to turn them red despite not being ripe.
It’s hard to say what’s causing your tomatoes to be like that. Are you picking them too soon and ripening them on the counter instead of letting them get close to ripe on the vine? What’s your watering schedule like? And most suspect, what’s your fertilizer regimen? Do you switch to a high P & K fertilizer when the plant starts setting fruit? These nutrients (along with some other micronutrients and minerals) are the ones that are more important during fruiting as they help build the actual structure of the fruit. Perhaps your soil is deficient in these nutrients but has enough for the tomato to form, just not thrive. OR, there most likely thing is some combination of the above.
Actually, also.. where did you buy your seeds? Not all seed producers are alike. The only seeds I buy are from Johnnys Seeds, Rare Seeds (formerly known as Baker Seed Co) and occasionally I’ll grab whatever my local Co-Op has for things like carrots, beets, herbs.. but I NEVER get seeds from big box stores or Amazon.
This happened to some of my Roma’s last year. I found out that it was because of uneven watering and causing the inside be dehydrated. But they were perfect for roasting and making sauces with!
Hey OP, my guess is watering was your issue. WhT was your schedule like? Also how much sunlight did it receive and what soil did you use? How did you feed it?
I bet it didn’t taste as good
Looks like it could have gotten a bit more time, nutrients, water, and sun. The texture you speak of and the airspace sort of indicates to me that the watering and fertilizing was a little inconsistent (maybe a few hot days without enough water or lack of nutrients when sun and water are plentiful.) Another factor is the quality and type of seeds. Also I have had luck with using roma for salsas and such but I will second the others that it is certainly not the ideal choice and is much better for sauces. Romas are not bred to be eaten raw and are typically “mealy” as you describe. Other tomatoes are bred for taste and texture more often. However some breeds of Roma are nice for eating raw because they have such a good flesh to seed ratio with good texture and flavour and make big batches of salsa, but your average Roma won’t perform like that. Kind of a finicky thing to find the perfect breeds that way.
I think your best bet is to make them into sauce regardless and try for different tomatoes next year. If that’s not your thing, personally I have also had some luck turning romas like this into sundried tomatoes:
If you have a dehydrator, slice tomatoes in half, dry until dry-rubbery but not brittle. Same process goes for drying on a sun rack. You can also put your oven on the lowest setting and leave the door cracked open for the whole cook to slowly dry them.
Then take the tomatoes and either store them dry (go a little longer if doing this) or marinate and jar them. Usually I’ve braised in vinegar, then cooked a bit longer in some aromatic olive oil (garlic, rosemary, etc.) and canned. Look up some recipes as they are very good.
Happy gardening
They’re just smaller than what’s in the grocery store.
Remember that what’s on store shelves is selected based on marketable appearance. All the small and funky looking tomatoes grown at the farm likely just go straight to processors.
That’s because super market food is literally created to feed masses, therefore it’s bigger. All my romas are always smaller than store tomato’s.
I’ve never had good luck with Roma, just not a good garden tomato. I highly recommend the heirloom Amish Paste (red), and Kellogg’s Breakfast (orange) if you want a paste variety
Because yours isn’t pumped full of chemicals
My best guess, without seeing the plants or more examples of the fruits, is not enough water and possibly not enough nutrients while the fruit was developing. If you’re watering enough it could still be that you have soil that drains more readily than other soils, taking all that water and fertilizer away from the plants before they can absorb it. My roma tomatoes are just as nice, if not nicer, than store tomatoes. But I’m sure there are also countless varieties of romas. So maybe you got one that produces drier fruit?
Those look pretty typical. Romas and san marzanos are among the worst performing, least impressive tomato varieties I’ve ever grown. Maybe it’s just my climate, but both of these varieties seem susceptible to disease and consistently produce poor quality fruit. The store bought variety is probably some plum tomato hybrid with a lot more vigor and productivity, but picked underripe for shipping.
If you’d like to try an alternative plum-style sauce or canning tomato, I’ve had amazing luck with Burpee’s sweet aroma hybrid. They’re disease resistant, prolific fruiting, and have superior fruit quailty and taste. They’re also quite crisp even when ripe which is a pretty rare trait; it’s a great texture for fresh eating for your pico de gallo and bruschetta.
Bet yours taste better!
Those just call to be sundried (or you know, oven/dryer dried).
Are they actually sold as “Roma”? My local stores do not sell “roma” tomatoes. They sell “plum” tomatoes, and that could be just about any variety of plum tomato from one truck to the next.
My romas grow much closer to yours than the store one you have in the pic.
You (we) may be able to grow romas with thicker walls, but that would take the proper nutrients applied at the right time along with proper irrigation frequency.
So this is weird but you can also try picking them while they’re still mostly green and force ripening them indoors to get a firmer flesh. Most (all?) store bought tomatoes are picked green or picked as “breakers”, just turning red, and then ripen on their way to the store or in storage. When I ripen my green tomatoes indoors at the end of the season the texture is different than the ones that ripen in the sun.
Have seen this same thing attributed to high nitrogen.
The fruit grows at the market is probably a different hybrid variety grown in a tunnel or hot house by a professional.
They kind of just don’t look right. I have six Roma plants just starting to grow tomatoes and the shape of yours looks off! Were the plants diseased at all or were the seeds not of the highest quality? I’ve seen a lot of posts about people growing seeds that were meant to be one thing but ended up being another this year especially.
Next year, try Amish Paste.
Your tomatoes are beautiful just the way they are gurl. I hate how society has gotten us feeling like we have to grow big ass tomatoes like the grocery stores! I am a father and have a full time job and I garden as a hobby. I used to be so self-conscious about my small tomatoes but not anymore. Mine are all natural, baby!!