What can make perfect looking tomatoes give the smell of artificial s hit?

Question

they are greenhouse tomatoes most likely and smell something like manure and burned plastic at the same time.

Answer 1

Tomatoes, be they field or hothouse, medium rooted or hydroponic, all get splashed, and dirtied. Even though they are washed, they are not clean. You may be smelling air contaminates from a poorly maintained heater or CO2 generator. It could be from the shipping containers, or truck exhaust on the road or loading dock.

Many people I'm sure doubt me when I say it, but listen to this.

I have been in agriculture my whole life having been brought up in a family that does plants. I now have a BS in Agriculture. When I was in Germany from about 1978 to 1884 I was exposed to a whole lot of their culture and agriculture. I had a place to live off the main post in a tiny farm community (what a truly fabulous experience!). Many a time, especially in the spring, I would get stuck behind a "gravy wagon", a horse drawn steel tank on two wheels filled with human and some cattle excrement. That smell the first time you got wind of it would make your lunch crawl up your throat to escape. And you just wanted to get away from the wagon because if for no other reason, you don't want the gravy dripping to spatter on your car. No getting away from the smell, because it all goes on the fields and gets rained in, and when the breeze goes in your direction, well you will get use to it, much like people who live near the ocean do, and it becomes a pleasant thing.

Long story short, when you smell that smell, you know it and you don't forget it. Now I drink a lot of that wonderful German white wine, and spent a huge number of hours wandering the stepped vinyards on the banks of the Necker River. That smell, it is in the grape and it is part of the flavor, and you can't know that without being there. It isn't dookie on the grapes, you are what you eat and so it is with plants too.

You may be smelling the fertilizer products that the plant grew in. There is something to be said for a nice quality of flavor as grown and harvested in your garden, with quality organics, love and attention, and eaten fresh (as soon as it is picked, it absorbs and uses up it's own natural flavor and sugars by a huge percent daily, corn as much as 50%).

Smell and taste is all in it's nurturing, and then in packing.

Answer 2

Use animal manure as a fertilizer, spray them with skunk cabbage extract.

Answer 3

I found that when i first turn on the hose to water my garden, the water coming out has a very strong plastic smell. I now make it a point to water outside my food garden when I start.

You did not mention if these are your own grown tomatoes or store bought.

If they are home grown, there may be something in the soil that is causing this.

Like many foods, tomatoes might also absorb environmental odors during packaging, shipping and storage.

If your soil is contaminated, grow a heavy crop of onions and then discard them. Although this type of remediation is usually used only for lead and other heavy metals, it would hopefully also help for other contaminants.

Answer 4

Tomatoes, be they field or hothouse, medium rooted or hydroponic, all get splashed, and dirtied. Even though they are washed, they are not clean. You may be smelling air contaminates from a poorly maintained heater or CO2 generator. It could be from the shipping containers, or truck exhaust on the road or loading dock.

Many people I'm sure doubt me when I say it, but listen to this.

I have been in agriculture my whole life having been brought up in a family that does plants. I now have a BS in Agriculture. When I was in Germany from about 1978 to 1884 I was exposed to a whole lot of their culture and agriculture. I had a place to live off the main post in a tiny farm community (what a truly fabulous experience!). Many a time, especially in the spring, I would get stuck behind a "gravy wagon", a horse drawn steel tank on two wheels filled with human and some cattle excrement. That smell the first time you got wind of it would make your lunch crawl up your throat to escape. And you just wanted to get away from the wagon because if for no other reason, you don't want the gravy dripping to spatter on your car. No getting away from the smell, because it all goes on the fields and gets rained in, and when the breeze goes in your direction, well you will get use to it, much like people who live near the ocean do, and it becomes a pleasant thing.

Long story short, when you smell that smell, you know it and you don't forget it. Now I drink a lot of that wonderful German white wine, and spent a huge number of hours wandering the stepped vinyards on the banks of the Necker River. That smell, it is in the grape and it is part of the flavor, and you can't know that without being there. It isn't dookie on the grapes, you are what you eat and so it is with plants too.

You may be smelling the fertilizer products that the plant grew in. There is something to be said for a nice quality of flavor as grown and harvested in your garden, with quality organics, love and attention, and eaten fresh (as soon as it is picked, it absorbs and uses up it's own natural flavor and sugars by a huge percent daily, corn as much as 50%).

Smell and taste is all in it's nurturing, and then in packing.

Answer 5

sounds like gene splicing or hormones. they sound too organic to be organic, if you catch my drift. ha, ha.