The Sweetest Tomatoes Win Top Prizes

The NatureSweet Homegrown Tomato Challenge is back on the calendar this year. Home gardeners in three cities line up to test their tomato-growing skills against others.

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A baggie of ‘ Sungold ’ tomatoes won the small tomato plant competition at theNatureSweetHomegrown Challenge in Denver on Saturday . It just was n’t my bag of ‘ Sungolds ’ .

‘ Sungold ’ is a intercrossed orange cherry tomato that ’s known for its exceptionally seraphic Lycopersicon esculentum taste . I was well aware that ‘ Sungold ’ ordinarily takes home the prizes at county fairs and tomato - tasting events , so I feel like my entry had a expert opportunity in the competition .

While I did n’t walk away with any prize , I did gain worthful data that could give me a boost for Lycopersicon esculentum competitions in the future .

The NatureSweet Homegrown Challenge uses a two - footprint process for pass judgment the winners in both big and modest tomato category .

In the first footmark , all tomatoes are have a test for fragrance . The psychometric test uses a refractometer to measure the approximate amount of total sugars in one tomato from each launching . The measurement is calculated in “ Brix ” units , named for the chemist who was the first to measure the density of plant juice .

A large tomato may have a Brix reading from 2.3 to 8.2 ; a pocket-size tomato plant from 4.5 to 11.7 . I watched as one of my ‘ Sungold ’ tomatoes test at 10.5 . Certainly sweet , but not sweet enough .

The 2d measure in the homegrown challenge is a taste test . The tomatoes with the top three Brix scores in the small and large sizing categories are sampled by a panel of judges and rated for gustatory modality .

The win ‘ Sungold ’ gardener took home the $ 2500 prize for acquire the sweetest small love apple . The runners up , a ‘ Supersweet 100 ’ and a ‘ Golden Sweet ’ , each won a $ 250 grocery store gift card .

The $ 2500 winner in the large tomato category was a ‘ Big Boy ’ tomato , followed by ‘ Pink Lady ’ and ‘ Rowdy Red ’ .

Many factors influence a tomato craw and the craw ’s Brix level . kind selection and crop adulthood are two key factors . Environmental factors , such as moisture , fertility , sunshine , and temperature also have an influence on Brix levels .

Because potpourri selection is one of the surest methods of shape Brix , gardeners who plant tomato plant bred for their sweetness have a brain head start . When shopping for likely prize achiever , take up on tomatotypes and then search for those that either have “ mellifluous ” in their name or are described as “ honeyed as candy . ”

More than 300 area gardeners lined up to see if they could take home one of the top prize . The phonograph recording numeral of entries cause the emcee to comment , “ Folks in Colorado must really like to grow tomato . ”

That ’s sure as shooting straight ; however , one gardener I met at the contest tell apart me she drove more than 90 miles from Cheyenne , Wyo . , to enter her ‘ Paul Robeson ’ heirloom tomatoes in the orotund tomato category .

In addition to the Denver NatureSweet challenge , there was a contest obtain last month in St. Louis , Mo. , and another is schedule for September 14 in John ’s Creek , Ga.

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More than 300 gardeners entered the 2013 NatureSweet Homegrown Tomato Challenge in Denver on Saturday.Photo/Illustration: Jodi Torpey

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