Have you grown your own tomatoes and are already looking forward to the coming summer harvest? You'll have to wait a bit until then, but in the meantime you can make sure your tomato plants are well cared for and bear plenty of fruit later. We are happy to help you with tips on everything related to tomato growing. But today's topic is about taste. Because it's perhaps the most important reason why you started growing tomatoes in the first place, right? We agree - there is nothing tastier than a tomato that goes straight from the garden to your plate. But there is a trick that hobby gardeners swear by to make home-grown tomatoes taste sweeter. This is about the use of baking soda.
Tomatoes sweeter thanks to baking soda? That's what lies behind it
Some ingredients should not be missing in any kitchen. And not only because they are necessary for many recipes, but also because they are widely used in the home and in the garden. Natron is just one of them, but its capabilities in all of these areas are truly impressive.
But what do tomatoes and baking soda actually have in common? A popular gardening trick is that gardeners should always have some baking soda on hand when planting tomato plants in the spring. The reason? Sprinkling some of it in the soil could prevent the fruit from becoming tasteless. So the baking soda was supposed to make the tomatoes sweeter. Let's take a closer look at what it has to do with it.
The claim: Baking soda in the soil moderates the acidity of tomatoes
Okay, baking soda doesn't taste exactly sweet, so how can it improve the aroma and flavor of tomatoes? The answer lies in chemistry. Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is a strongly alkaline substance, meaning it counteracts the natural acidity of tomatoes. Sprinkling baking soda around the base of your plants during the growing season lowers the acidity of the soil, which affects nutrient absorption. As a result, the tomatoes produced by plants in alkaline soil should taste sweeter.
But: Can baking soda make home-grown tomatoes sweeter?
But whether this is a good solution for sweeter-tasting tomatoes remains controversial. First of all, the acidity of the soil doesn't actually have that much of an impact on the flavor of the tomatoes. Certain environmental factors can play a role, but the most important factor in taste is theselected tomato variety– some varieties taste sweeter than others. If you want particularly sweet tomatoes, then choose cherry tomatoes or plum tomatoes.
Secondly, the amount of baking soda that would have to be added to the soil to change the pH value would actually be toxic to the tomatoes, so adding the home remedy is not worth it at all.
According to gardening experts, the acidic soil can be neutralized more effectively with lime. Another home remedy can also help, namely eggshells. We explain why you should crush them into powder and sprinkle them around the base of the tomato plantsin this article.
Baking soda for tomatoes: What the home remedy can really do
Unfortunately, we can't say for sure whether baking soda will make your tomatoes sweeter. But you can try the trick yourself by sprinkling some of the home remedy around some of your tomato plants. But baking soda is not only associated with taste. Here are a few more uses that have a proven effect.
Repel pests on tomato plants
This is one of the biggest benefits of using baking soda for tomato plants. The home remedy can protect the plants from aphids and slugs. However, you should make sure that the baking soda only gets into the soil and not on the plants themselves to avoid damage. Furthermore, too much of it is toxic to tomatoes, so care should be taken not to accidentally kill the plants.
Use baking soda against mildew
Powdery mildew is one of the most well-known fungal diseases of tomato plants. It can spread to the flowers and prevent the plant from bearing fruit. The white-grey, powdery coating on the leaves blocks sunlight and prevents photosynthesis. This is where baking soda has proven to be very effective as it can effectively combat the fungal disease. In a bucket, mix about 4 liters of water with half a teaspoon of mild dishwashing liquid and a tablespoon of baking soda. When diluted this far, baking soda is not toxic to plants. Put some of the mixture in a spray bottle and mist the leaves and stems on cloudy days.
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