Shortage of Spanish tomatoes

I heard on the radio (yesterday I think) that there's a 'shortage' of Spanish toms because they've been having too much rain.

Now, this is the first year I've successfully grown tomatoes from seed and, since I expected the usual failure rate (of around 99%!), I planted far more than I (or indeed friends, neighbours, colleagues, local charities etc.) need or want, and they pretty much all grew - to the extent that I'm actually thinking of offering to supply Spain with plants!

 

I was googling this earlier today;

Rain in Spain falls and UK tomato prices soar

 

Tomatoes dont like rain then?

 

Aww, c'mon, you don't begrudge me a quick buck do ya? :D

 

That's 'cos they are picked green before the sugars get a chance to form.
I half caught something on the raido this morning about a new 'sweet' variety of tomato being marketed... can anyone elucidate on that.

 

I hadn't heard about it before yesterday though apparently it isn't so much 'new' news, more a case of an old story being picked up again.
It seems Tesco have a variety called Sugardrop which was developed to encourage children to eat tomatoes. It's supposed to be the sweetest tomato on the market.
Anyone here tried growing them?

 

I've just checked a drop of juice from a tomato bought from Aldi with a refactometer and it was 6.2 Brix, so if that 13 Brix for Sugardrops is correct (and I tried one at a 'taste test' in store and it was very sweet) they contain twice as much sugar as standard tomatoes.

Haven't seen the seeds advertised. Must try saving some (despite being F1) and check the sugar content against Sungolds.

 

The sweetest and tastiest tomatoes are those that grow out doors, and you harvest in August/ September, on fairly dry soil.

I've never been convinced variety makes much difference, its the growing conditions that count.
And in the UK they are "in season", late Summer/Autumn.

 

Over the years there has been many new varieties of Toms that was always better than all the rest.
Bearing this in mind we should be eating something that is as sweet as honey by now.
But we aint, toms are not sweet fruits, they are actually very acidic.

As you said Armanii most Spanish toms are grown undercover in controlled conditions, thats why they dont taste that good, even the vine ripened are pretty tasteless, but they look good.

A tom plant needs to struggle a bit in order to concentrate the juice and bring out the flavour.
Overfed, with chemicals, overwatered and grown in near sterile conditions produces tasteless, but very good looking fruit.
Great for supermarket shelves.

And most gardeners hate supermarket produce, so why do they try to emulate it in their own gardens.