How do I keep the skin on my home-grown tomatoes from getting tough and difficult to chew?

Question

How do I keep the skin on my home-grown tomatoes from getting tough and difficult to chew?

Answer 1

Sounds like they need water more we had to water ours more.Now we have great fresh tomatoes every meal.

Answer 2

Early tomatoes (for growing in cooler weather) and varieties grown for shipping are bred with thicker skin.  Prolonged hot weather will also cause a toughening of the skin. If the skin is really a problem you can dip the tomato in boiling water for a half a minute or so and the skin will slip right off.

Answer 3

Actually, seed breeders have hybridized tomatoes to have thick skins, in recent years.  That is to ensure that they stay in good shape during shipping and on the store shelf.

Sooo, just about any hybrid tomato plant will have the thick skins.  Seems to me that they forgot to keep the old fashioned tomato flavor in, however!

I have found that growing old fashioned "heirloom" tomatoes in my garden is the best way to go.  Sure, some of them have a lopsided shape and don't have that perfect look that we see in produce sections of supermarkets, but so what?  The flavor is delightful and the skins are thin.  I have been most happy with "Brandywine".

Answer 4

It's the wind and hot sun that causes this.  We have the same problem.  I did not grow any this year.  You might want to buy a small green house and grow your tomatoes indoors.