Taste of Tomatoes Grown Hydroponically

[Stitchingmom]

I am on the cusp of jumping in to hydroponics, but I have read several articles that say the produces just doesn't taste good. I don't want to find that out after I get started. I can see it two ways: either the tomatoes taste watery and bland like over-watered tomatoes grown in soil taste, or the very controlled nutritional conditions produce great tomatoes.

Opinions?

Editing to say: I just realized the difference between aeroponics and hydroponics. Now I really want to know which way has the best tasting tomatoes....and cucumbers.

[JayneR13]

I've grown dwarf tomatoes this way and I found the taste appealing. I grew a Minibel in my table top unit. The problems I had were two: the tomato shaded everything else out so I had a large unit with one thing growing in it and 2) the determinant variety kept growing until I pulled it, rather than flower-fruit-die as they normally do. Eventually the fruits got really bitter and took forever to mature so I pulled it. I wouldn't grow tomatoes in Kratky jars though. Too much quirky trouble and no yield to justify the work.

[Paulf]

I have a friend who owns a large nursery and devoted a greenhouse structure to hydroponics several years ago. His set-up included a water and fertilizer system that was top of the art. There were fifty or sixty plants growing on trellises and he painstakingly pampered the system. The plan was to become a commercial grower. I do not know the variety but the tomatoes were large, round and red. This was a year round endeavor. As a friend he asked me to assess both the system and the flavor. I could tell they were tomatoes and they would fit in with other commercially grown tomatoes.

Others must have graded the flavor as pretty average as well. Sales did not do well enough for him to continue. May have been the variety may have been the medium or the fertilizer in the liquid system. The fruit looked great and the consistency was nice to the palate but just not enough to get sales sufficient to continue.