Days Until Maturity?

[Rockoe10]

[mention]TomHillbilly[/mention] , that's what my Wife and I call a party foul.

[farmersteve]

Rockoe10-- You nailed it.
But I wish you hadn't of caused a coffee spew on my keyboard-- hard to clean.

I spent a lot of time in the wine industry where we scrutinize sugar and acid and pH and color and a whole variety of measurements on the wine grapes. Commercial tomato growers do the same thing. They run very similar tests on brix and acid levels before they pick. Most backyard tomato growers don't even come close to caring about that since you can pretty much eat a tomato as soon as it turns color, which is not the case with grapes. But, if you wanted to get into the weeds of days to maturity and growing degree days, it's out there for the picking!

[MrBig46]

It's a very interesting thing with those sugars. I grew two quite well-known varieties, which were described as very sweet, but I had them so sour that my eyes watered (I hate acetic acid, for example). Was there little sugar or too much acid? That's the question I'm interested in. I even bought a cheap refractometer (from China) and try to measure sugars. If I need advice, can I get back to you? I haven't worked with a refractometer since school, it's been over 55 years.
Vladimír

[farmersteve]

It's a very interesting thing with those sugars. I grew two quite well-known varieties, which were described as very sweet, but I had them so sour that my eyes watered (I hate acetic acid, for example). Was there little sugar or too much acid? That's the question I'm interested in. I even bought a cheap refractometer (from China) and try to measure sugars. If I need advice, can I get back to you? I haven't worked with a refractometer since school, it's been over 55 years.
Vladimír

Sure, no problem. Just like a lot of different fruit varieties, acid levels and sugar levels are not the same from variety to variety. Brandywine will be completely different than Sungold. Which is why it usually takes a little experimentation to figure out what works at your microclimate

[Albertan]

I am with farmersteve. Oftentimes, I can count on one hand the nights where the temperature is over 12 to 15 degrees C in a given year, and I notice they tend to grow twice as fast during those times.