Along with Early Girl, Big Beef, Garden Gem, and German Queen(I wont grow that one again), I’m growing a yellow cherry tomato(I’ve forgotten variety name) I picked up at the local Mennonite nursery.
Flavor on the cherry tomato is great, but my wife - who thinks Heinz ketchup is SPICY! - complains that the acid is tearing up her stomach.
Looking for recommendations for low-acid tomatoes with good flavor that i could trial for her next year. Both cherry and slicing-type recommendations appreciated.
TIA
1 Like
I grow lots of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes because they’ve got great flavor and are very low acid. I’m allergic to tomatoes (my gums always itch and if I’m not careful my throat closes up) but the low acid ones seem to be less of an issue. Sun Gold can be used for sauces (try this one!) just as well as they can be eaten straight off the vine.
Urban Farmer Seeds has this great section specifically for low acid varieties. Might start there and just try out a couple plants of each variety you like the look of.
1 Like
San Marzano, large and small, has next to no acid (if I grow that one, then only for my partner to cook with - too little acid for me 
) and I imagine a lot of paste tomatoes are the same.
2 Likes
Don’t have experience with the original F1 SG, but my Sun Gold Select 2 are nicely acidic when dark yellow until they turn orange (fully ripe) at which point they loose their appeal to me and are destined for sauce.
1 Like
@Lucky_P try the Everglades cherry tomato, I grew it when I lived in S. Florida, I honestly don’t remember how it was for acid. What Im reading is saying its low to moderate for acid.
What I DO remember is the tiny little fruit are a blast of flavor, and the plant is bulletproof. If you can grow a tomatoe in the ground in S. Florida its gotta be tough.
1 Like
I grew Amish Paste years ago, very sweet and low acid.
Prairie Pride is low acid.
I grew 8 different tomato varieties this year and found that Black Krim aka Black Russian is the largest best tasting low acid tomato. A keeper for sure.
Tony
@tonyOmahaz5 how was the production of the Black Krim? I grew it a couple years ago in a 5 gallon bucket, it was not very happy, it only gave me 2 tomatoes. The paste tomatoes that I had also growing in 5 gallon buckets were very productive .
I grew 5 in the ground and they are so productive that I don’t what to do with them except giving them to my relative and neighbors. I think the Urea Nitrogen 46-0-0 got them grow fast and so productive. I used Urea Nitrogen 46-0-0 on all my veggies, watermelons, and fruit trees. It is the atomic bomb of fertilizer.
Tony
Ouch, ouch, and triple ouch. “Low acid” tomatoes are not what everyone is posting. Low acid is probably not what you are actually looking for Lucky. Each and every one of the tomatoes listed above is actually normal to high acid with the exception of Sungold which is relatively low but still problematic.
All tomatoes are naturally acidic but with some variation in actual acid levels. Jet Star is a commercial hybrid documented to have low levels of natural acidity. It is low enough that lemon juice has to be added to safely can the fruit.
What do most people react to when they complain of tomatoes being too acid? Most of the time, it is the lycopene (makes them red) in tomatoes which causes problems including upset stomach and lesions in the mouth. If this sounds like what your wife is having problems with, grow some tomatoes with the tangerine gene. Kelloggs Breakfast and Kelloggs Breakfast Potato leaf (KBX) are among the best of the tangerine gene tomatoes. I highly recommend KBX for your area.
All orange tomatoes are not the same. A gene denoted as b^og converts lycopene into beta carotene. Varieties homozygous for b^og appear to be very orange in color, especially when compared with varieties containing the tangerine gene. Examples are Sungold and Jaune Flamee.
Yellow tomatoes also may cause fewer problems but again there are variations and differences. One gene produces pale yellow fruit with Manyel as an example. You might grow Manyel and see if helps. Another gene results in very yellow tomatoes such as Yoder’s German Yellow. It is a very good tomato and usually is less of a problem for people with sensitive stomachs. Gold tomatoes are another yellow variant with yellow skin over yellow flesh that makes the fruit appear gold. Elbe and Carolina Gold are examples.
My recommendations for your wife to try would be KBX, Galina’s Yellow Cherry, and Manyel. Jet Star may be worth a try since it is actually low acid.
3 Likes
I’m going to post some more information about tomato colors since many appear to be interested. A long chain of chemical operations are performed in a tomato to produce the carotenoids which give color to the fruit. I won’t go into all the details, but have posted in the past about phytoene, pro-lycopene, lycopene, and beta carotene. A search should turn up some documents detailing the exact conversions. Interrupting the chain results in the varying fruit colors. In rough order, here are the interrupt points.
Green - full stop, don’t produce carotenoids, green fruit result, Aunt Ruby’s German Green
White - conversion to first stage carotene is interrupted, white fruit, White Oxheart
Yellow - second stage carotenoid biopath, yellow fruit with or without yellow skin, Galina’s
Tangerine - third step of carotenoid synthesis, pale orange fruit, KBX
Pink/red - completed lycopene synthesis, clear skin is pink, yellow skin is red, you pick one
Orange - b^og gene converts lycopene into beta carotene, Sungold or Jaune Flamee
Black - is a red tomato with the gene for chlorophyll retention producing dark fruit
2 Likes
Not sure the reactions with stomach, I don’t like acidity tasting tomatoes in general. But I do like Sungold, Esterina, Bumblebees. These yellow/golden cherry tomatoes seem have less acid in taste.
I also have found that pink Brandywine, Kelloggs Breakfast tasted less acidic.
Fusion knows a lot more about tomatoes than I do. But we grow Pink Girl. It is very sweet and doesn’t seem to tear up my mouth as much as red tomatoes (actually it doesn’t tear up my mouth at all).
It’s one of my favorites, and a favorite of our customers. We started out with just a few plants of it. Customers like it so we eventually planted about 25% Pink Girl. Then we moved up to 1/3 of our planting is Pink Girl. Now we are up to about 50% of our planting is Pink Girl. Many customers seek out the pink tomatoes (the rest we grow are red varieties). Some customers only buy the pink ones.
I don’t want to oversell it because I haven’t grown all kinds of exotic tomatoes. I’ve grown yellow, orange, black and purple. I’d say it’s as good or better than those colors I’ve grown.
Pink Girls are about as good as some Brandywine tomatoes I’ve grown. Production and size are excellent on Pink Girl. They are very delicate though. They bruise very easily, and the skin is very thin and tender. They would not stack well in a box at all, so I don’t think they would work in most commercial setting where tomatoes are stacked in boxes.
We have to handle them as carefully as dead ripe peaches, and never stack them.
Pink tomatoes are generally sweeter than most red tomatoes for two reasons. First, most pink tomatoes do not contain the uniform ripening gene. Uniform ripening reduces chlorophyll in the fruit which drastically reduces sugar content in the ripe tomato. Second, pink tomatoes have a gene which changes skin color from pale yellow to clear. The gene which does this is in the flavonoid biopath. Flavoinoids did I say? Yes, flavor compounds - of which over 400 are documented in tomatoes - are whacked by a gene that changes skin color. But in this case, the reduction in flavor is preferred by many people who find red tomatoes too intense. Combining pink fruit color with attenuated flavor with increased sweetness results in a very marketable tomato.
It won’t help for people who react to lycopene but is less likely to cause stomach problems. I recommend - and prefer - pink tomatoes for most of my customers. Crnkovic Yugoslavian is an example of a large pink slicer which I count as my all time best flavored tomato. Many are very very close so don’t let that sound like more than it is.
1 Like
This is bit of a sidetrack, but… Since you know your tomatoes…
Back, when I was diagnosed with ulcers, 27-years ago, my doctor advised me against eating any cooked/baked tomatoes (not just ketchup, paste or soup). He said something along the lines that the chemical change makes them act like pepsine and provoke excessive stomach acid production. And I can and do eat raw tomatoes, but brave even a regular pizza with sauce maybe twice a year… (and I make my ketchup/pasta sauce from myrobalans)
Internet pushes only popular-med info about elevated concentrations of sugars and acids after cooking (not my issue) and I’d try ruling out concentrated lycopene by cooking up my Emerald Evergreens, but I’m not enough of a masochist. Besides, I don’t have issues with autumn olive jam which should have high lycopene concentrations, too.
By chance, any idea what that doctor may have alluded to?
Infection with Helicobacter pylori bacteria is responsible for 80% of gastric ulcers and 90% of duodenal ulcers in humans. This infection is easily and effectively treated with multi-antibiotic and gastric protectant therapy. This association between H.pylori and gastric ulcers was first proposed in 1983, and Drs. Marshall and Warren were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2005 for their work.
Other common, noninfectious causes are: long-term NSAID use, excessive alcohol consumption, chewing tobacco.
Evidence that tomatoes or citrus fruits are an issue for folks with gastric ulcer disease is sketchy, at best, and a point of disagreement between nutritionists, physicians, etc.
@Tana, if your physician diagnosed you with H.pylori infection (urea breath test, PCR for H.pylori on stool sample, gastric mucosal biopsy) and treated accordingly, I would have anticipated full healing in short order and ability to consume anything you want to eat.
Disclaimer: I’m a veterinarian, and not a human physician, but as I understand the literature, tomatoes (fresh or cooked) can contribute to gastroesophageal reflux disease by several avenues (additive effect of acids, stimulation of increased gastric secretions, etc.), but I’m unaware of any documentation that they cause or exacerbate gastric ulcer disease. It seems that recommendations to avoid tomatoes was/is mostly empirical, without a lot of support.
We do see gastric/duodenal ulcer disease and gastric carcinoma in dogs/cats infected with Helicobacter species, and I presume management of the disease in humans is not significantly different from that employed for dogs/cats.
1 Like
I am one of those who have the chronic disease and it is passed down with family silver. Although I have had the HP infection exactly once (because you tend to be more susceptible to the infection when you have more acidic environment) and got appropriate treatment. I wish the magic wand of PPIs worked 100%, but I’m on a lifelong diet, regardless. (Humans are likely a little more messed up and un-naturally selected than dogs. )
I was fortunate to have a doctor who pointed out stress links, coping mechanisms, and told me what the general rules were for the diet, but also that there are individual deviations and interviewed me about my diet problems going back to childhood. However, the cooked tomatoes were on the severe restriction list, right next to greasy and deep-fried stuff and too many Eastern European sweet raised dough dumpling dishes. I do indulge in most of the black-list occasionally (with a bit of kitchen chemistry). The three things that are a strict no are NSAIDs, alcohol and cooked tomatoes.
It’s the
that I’m interested in - in terms of chemistry. Not the effect, which I’ve been painfully familiar with these 30 years, but I’d like to understand the cause.
If she’s thinking it’s spicy, it might be an allergic reaction. Some apples do this to me/ burn my mouth as well but i know for me, I’m allergic to the pesticides they spray on it. I don’t get the spicy/ burning allergic reaction to apples that have been home grown without sprays.
Try Sunrise Sauce.
I bought it one year from lowes and have absolutely loved it. The seeds come true to fruit, i wanna say at least 90% of the time 
from my seed saving throughout the years
Tana, I can add only a little to what Lucky said. He covered most of the known research about ulcer causes and treatments. Higher chain carotenoids are more likely to cause gastric issues than lower chain caroteinoids. Unfortunately, your green when ripe fruit contains one compound strongly linked with gastric problems - chlorophyll. If you want to try a cooked tomato, see what effect either very pale yellow or tangerine fruit have on your system. Manyel and/or KBX have the highest potential to be edible. The reason is that chlorophyll is absorbed during ripening, and the full caroteinoid pathway is blocked before formation of the most active compounds. Unfortunately the only way to find out if it is effective is to try it which in your case could be painful if it does not work.
One last thought, don’t even think about trying black tomatoes. Combining red fruit with retained chlorophyll is the worst possible combination for genetic stomach issues.
1 Like