Comment by jyounker

I think you're overstating his point.

While you can grow them in, lets say, Houston, they're not easy to grow. They get infections at the drop of a hat, and if you so much as turn around, some sort of insect will munch through them. They don't yield much fruit, and the fruits they do yield generally leave something to be desired in the flavor department.

This is his point. The plants don't have much energy to fend off infections or predators, and they don't have much less energy to put into their fruit.

If you put a tomato plant in a more suitable climate, the things are nearly weeds. You put them in a bucket, make sure they get enough water, and you a few months later you have sweet, juicy, flavorful fruit with basically zero effort.

While we've bred cultivars that can be grown in places like Houston or Florida, the plants don't particularly like it.