Small San Marzanos

[Norm]

Hi All,

I recently planted a San Marzano plant. It has a lot of tomatoes but they are quite small, about 2.5 inches fully ripened. Why are they so small. Its planted in the ground so roots can't be constrainted. The plant is healthy, green, no signs of water stress.
Its being fertilized two times a month.

Thanks,
Norm

 

[MoonShadows]

Any chance they are "Seeds of Change" brand? My San Marzanos seem rather small, too. I started them in my greenhouse from Seeds of Change Seeds. I was reading on the internet the other day where a few folks had written the same thing, but never found a reason for it.

 

[Norm]

I don't know. I bought the seedlings at a local nursery.

 

[Norm]

Any chance they are "Seeds of Change" brand? My San Marzanos seem rather small, too. I started them in my greenhouse from Seeds of Change Seeds. I was reading on the internet the other day where a few folks had written the same thing, but never found a reason for it.

BTW, how do your San Marzano's taste ? Mine are a little more flavorful than store bought Romas but nothing like what I had expected. I have recently turned down the watering a bit so I'm going to check out and see if there is a difference in the flavor.

 

[MoonShadows]

Same here. We use them to make sauce, but the sauce is never as good as the sauce we make from canned San Marzano tomatoes from Italy. Of course, their weather and soil conditions are what have made them famous. Here in the Pocono Mountains the cool nights stay around too long in June and start up again in August which doesn't help. We were lucky if we had 4 weeks of night temperatures over 60 F this year.

 

[Purrfluff]

Have you had any issues with blossom end rot? We planted a San Marzano plant and most of the fruit it is producing has this condition. Garden lime and crushed egg shells were added at the time of planting to give enough calcium.

But we've grown other paste tomatoes and they haven't had blossom end rot.

 

[Norm]

No I don't have blossom end rot.

 

[Norm]

Ok, officially giving up on my San Marzano. It produces a lot of tomatoes but they have little flavor. They just screw up all our cooking.We're better off with store bought Camparis. It could be the soil. I'd think the weather in our area shouldn't be a problem.

My quest for flavorful homegrown tomatoes remains unfulfilled.

 

[Purrfluff]

Most, but not all of the San Marzanos I harvested have blossom end rot.

But some did not. And those without rot have little flavor, just like yours. Perhaps it is our soil. We used a raised bed on ours to get around the nasty clay soil but still, the flavor is almost not there.

Next year I will lobby my mother to plant roma tomatoes.

 

[zigs]

I''m growing San Marzano 2

I'll let you know how they taste soon