Flavor as being caused more by genetics than soil

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Where does flavor come from? And how can I make the most delicious and flavorful crops possible?

A widespread belief says that good soil means good flavor in vegetables. Perhaps the place where this idea is the most strongly held is the wine world. (A place where many strong beliefs are held). The question of flavor as being caused mostly by genetics or soil conditions is strongly linked to a parallel question if nutrient content is influenced by variety (genetics) or soil conditions (location). Flavor after all is a matter of the vegetable or fruit containing flavorful nutrients. Some nutrients do not have any flavor though (e.g. anthocyanins which color carrots purple).

I want to use this thread to collect evidence for any kind of answer to these questions. Continuing from this thread that was slightly more specific: Do soil microbial interactions create aromatic complexity?

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I found an article by Magnus Westling and colleagues at Örebro University. In their study they compared flavor profiles of field peas and correlated to variety (genetics) and location (soil conditions). What they found is that flavor in the landrace pea accessions they studied was primarily attributed to the chosen accession, i.e. genetic variation.

Sensory variation of landrace peas (Pisum sativum L.): Impacts of variety, location, and harvest year

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It will be both genetic and environmental. Which has the stronger influence will probably vary depending on species.

David The Good did trials of different nutrients/fertilizers growing radishes and the results were very different flavors in each different group.

He described the bed fertilized with commercial 10-10-10 fertilizer as being much more harsh and spicy, and if I remember correctly the “best tasting” came from a bed he amended with alfalfa which produced a slightly sweeter flavor.

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Here’s the harvest video:

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I’ve seen the video now, but there doesn’t seem to be anything about flavor in it. Is there are written source to this experiment where he described the setup a bit more? For example, I notice that the test didn’t control for different varieties (genetics). I’m a bit a skeptical to these single tests with no controls and the person seems highly invested in a certain result and is also the same person evaluating the flavor. These things can bias how we score flavor. If I wanted to prove a point or find out what influences flavor in a crop, I would want to get someone that is not invested in a certain result to taste the samples

(I also wonder if this is before David the Good stumbled upon Joseph’s book)

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Sorry, guess he did the tasting in a separate video:

I think any bias was probably towards the “Solomons mix” at the time.

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In the video, the sample size couldn’t be smaller - it’s just one plant. Since there’s no control for variety, how can we know that difference in flavor is not caused by other things? The plants were also different in the same beds and he took time to select candidates out of those differences. The tasters also know which sample they are tasting (i.e. not blind). My concern is that there’s a deeper bias here the difference in flavor should be primarily about soil in the first place. Being invested in making interesting video content makes it unlikely to produce less interesting results like say - “the differences are small and we’re not sure if they are about soil conditions”. I can’t see how this test can provide reliable answers to the question of the thread.

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We will have to do some larger scale experiments using stricter methods across a wide range of different varieties and species.

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I am wondering about this the last week or so. There are several currant bushes in my backyard. Only two of them taste great: the one by the neighbor’s chickens and the one by the rain gutter. My family assumes it has to be the soil and water. The genetics do seem different, though. Idk! Interesting how they grew where they wanted to grow. All the newer ones are volunteers.

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It makes sense that you don’t know without doing a controlled experiment. How could you know? Several variables are at play. This is why I’m looking for scientific articles on the topic or at least people doing controlled experiments.

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Hi Malte i found these studies while researching similar informations on the genesis of Flavour and developing a framework for breeding nutrient-dense, low input crops. Most of them are openly accessible.

Bassett, M.J., Wright, E.M., Beaver, J.S., Lee, R., Osorno, J.M. and Porch, T.G. (2021) ‘Sensory evaluation of a diversity panel of Andean beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) across multiple environments’, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 134, pp. 3321–3340.

Belfiore, N., Zoccatelli, G., Lorenzi, S., Viviani, S. and Tomasi, D. (2024) ‘Environmental impact on metabolomics and sensory traits of the Glera grapevine clone: implications for terroir expression’, Metabolites, 14, Article 259.

Cebolla-Cornejo, J., Roselló, S. and Nuez, F. (2011) ‘Phenotypic and chemical variation among fresh market tomatoes grown in different environments’, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 59, pp. 299–307.

Chea, L., Sagasser, M., Guenther, M., et al. (2022) ‘Genotype, harvest time and year influence volatile organic compounds in organically grown tomatoes’, Frontiers in Nutrition, 9, Article 874882.

Frankin, P., Johansson, E. and colleagues (2023) ‘Flavor compound diversity in bread made from wheat landraces and modern cultivars’, Frontiers in Plant Science, 14, Article 332339.

Olalekan, A.J., Liu, K., Yu, X. and Zhao, J. (2025) ‘Sensory characterization of wheat germplasm reveals genetic diversity for flavor-related traits’, Foods, 14, Article 90.

Pisani, C., Ruggieri, V., Mazzucato, A., et al. (2021) ‘Influence of genotype and growing system on sensory and physicochemical traits of tomato’, Foods, 10, Article 754.

Tang, Y., Wang, J., Liu, Z., et al. (2025) ‘Genotype-by-environment interactions affecting sensory quality and biochemical traits in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)’, Frontiers in Plant Science, 16, Article 295304.

Yu, H., Zhang, Q., Cheng, L., et al. (2023) ‘Genotype-by-environment effects on cooking quality, sensory properties and volatile compounds in rice’, Foods, 12, Article 318327.

Zheng, H., Li, Y., Chen, X., et al. (2025) ‘Genotype–environment interaction effects on nutritional and quality traits of potato across multiple locations’, BMC Plant Biology, 25, Article 184.

At the moment it seems to me that genetics set the overall theme and what´s possible. Environmental factors such as temperature, light, and nutrients alter gene expression and modulate metabolite concentrations and thereby intensity of flavour. The microbiome influences flavor through nutrient cycling, phytohormones, and stress signaling. It modulates intensity without defining the fundamental aroma signature. Time of harvest and/or ripeness, as well as controlled/light stress (water/pathogens) leads to intensified aroma too.
A technique that i think at the moment is most prominently used with the “Winter-Tomato” by Natoora. Where they highly stress certain Tomato cultivars during the winter months in southern Italy to produce this speciality.

For further techniques on “Flavour-engineering” like that i can partly recommend James Wongs Book “Grow for Flavour”

Some techniques are of course not adequate for every culture. While tomatoes get better with a controlled water deficit during ripening, i like carrots better that received constant watering :slight_smile:

I was also reminded of this video of Harold McGee at a Mad Conference. Where he among other things, talks about essential oils as being part of defense mechanisms in mediterranean Plants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQvfKNMybWY&t=896s

I hope this is helpfull for you.

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Very helpful Max, that’s a big log to put on the fire and will keep me occupied reading up on this topic whenever it comes up for a while. I’m relieved to see there is in fact quite a lot of science on this topic - it almost seems like there is enough for someone to do a proper review.

And thank you for reminding me of McGee - which reminds me of his great book Nosedive. I suspect he was probably working on it at the time of that presentation.

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