Tomato Flavor Boosters

[bower]

IDK how after so many years on forums I've never seen the suggestion of epsom salts at ripening time for plant health and flavor. I was really thinking about it this season, as the hotter summers are giving me new issues both plant health and fruit quality (which definitely go together).
Magnesium was on my mind as well, because I've not been able to get dolomite lime for some years now, and had to use regular lime which is just calcium and no magnesium.
Can epsom salts be sprinkled on or should it always be dissolved first?

[Vanman]

I just dump a tablespoon on the ground next to the stem. I try to do it just before a rain. If no rain in the forecast just before I irrigate.

[Labradors]

I would be nervous about adding too much magnesium to the soil:

https://www.turfdietitian.com/magnesium

[Uncle_Feist]

It boosts flavor to grow a variety that makes fewer tomatoes. The sugar production potential of the leaf surface area is spread across all the fruit being produced.

That makes perfect sense and I would have had to agree if I hadn't seen otherwise. We've always been told that better flavored fruit comes from indeterminate plants because of the leaf to fruit ratio, but that's just not so.

This was a f5 determinate variety photo taken on September 25 of 2019 that I'm dehybridizing and the same determinate F10 in my picture above on the left. In 2019 I had them grafted onto Estimino rootstock and grown in my tunnel. I had already harvested the tremendous main crop throughout August turned the irrigation off and basically abandoned the crop. Shortly thereafter I noticed blooms forming on new growth in the spent vines so I turned the water back on and by late September I had another bumper crop. I truly wasn't expecting much in the way of flavor because of the worn out vines but especially because of how late in the season the crop ripened. Boy was I totally wrong! They ended up making some of the sweetest juice I had ever made in my life! Where did the sugar come from? I don't know but it was definitely not from leaf to fruit ratio!

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

A feeding of Epsom salt at fruit set then a booster a couple of weeks later will boost the fruit sugars. My sulfur spring irrigation water works the same as the epsom salt.

Most important thing for the best flavored fruit is healthy foliage, a well fed plant and of course fully vine ripened.

Thanks for the Epsom Salts tip; I mix it and coffee grounds to both my Pepper and Tomato plant holes, but never thought to add it in later on.

The Gotch

[Cole_Robbie]

It boosts flavor to grow a variety that makes fewer tomatoes. The sugar production potential of the leaf surface area is spread across all the fruit being produced.

That makes perfect sense and I would have had to agree if I hadn't seen otherwise. We've always been told that better flavored fruit comes from indeterminate plants because of the leaf to fruit ratio, but that's just not so.

This was a f5 determinate variety photo taken on September 25 of 2019 that I'm dehybridizing and the same determinate F10 in my picture above on the left. In 2019 I had them grafted onto Estimino rootstock and grown in my tunnel. I had already harvested the tremendous main crop throughout August turned the irrigation off and basically abandoned the crop. Shortly thereafter I noticed blooms forming on new growth in the spent vines so I turned the water back on and by late September I had another bumper crop. I truly wasn't expecting much in the way of flavor because of the worn out vines but especially because of how late in the season the crop ripened. Boy was I totally wrong! They ended up making some of the sweetest juice I had ever made in my life! Where did the sugar come from? I don't know but it was definitely not from leaf to fruit ratio!

It's because it's a red variety. I've had the same thing happen with plants I abandoned in a high tunnel. Water restrictions are great for reds, especially in a clay soil.

[AKgardener]

Every year I grow in pots in a pop up greenhouse only twice did I grow in ground but they had covers over it as well my husband wanted to make it easy on me to move things around since I can’t sit still.,but next we are putting all the maters in the big garden because I have more raised beds now ..I was gonna use to garden fabric to keep the weeds down..a lot of people do that is it worth it??

[Vanman]

The fabric is very much worth it. I pull weeds around the plants two or three times a year. I melt a four inch hole for each plant and use drip tape to irrigate.

[FatBeeFarm]

@AKgardener

Maybe, just maybe, I might use the black plastic film instead of garden fabric (unless you have a lot of garden fabric laying around). Garden fabric is good but after two or three year weeds will find a way. I know this the hard way. I've never used the black plastic film but Shule just recommended it and I don't see weeds getting through it down the road. Plus it should warm the soil up faster (a positive in my area and I'm guessing in your area too). I think I'll try it in 2025 based on what Shule said. So, in other words, I may not know what I'm talking about because I haven't used it yet, lol, but I'm trying it next year. The difference is that it isn't water permeable (which I read to mean it isn't weed permeable either). So you'll have to line up your drip tape over the holes you make in the plastic over the raised bed. Again, take all this with a grain of salt, I may not know what I'm talking about.

[MissS]

@AKgardener

Maybe, just maybe, I might use the black plastic film instead of garden fabric (unless you have a lot of garden fabric laying around). Garden fabric is good but after two or three year weeds will find a way. I know this the hard way. I've never used the black plastic film but Shule just recommended it and I don't see weeds getting through it down the road. Plus it should warm the soil up faster (a positive in my area and I'm guessing in your area too). I think I'll try it in 2025 based on what Shule said. So, in other words, I may not know what I'm talking about because I haven't used it yet, lol, but I'm trying it next year. The difference is that it isn't water permeable (which I read to mean it isn't weed permeable either). So you'll have to line up your drip tape over the holes you make in the plastic over the raised bed. Again, take all this with a grain of salt, I may not know what I'm talking about.

My grandfather used black plastic between his rows. He had a huge garden and grew 300 tomato plants each year along with all of the other garden veggies. He used his grandchildren as cheap labor. Sigh. It really helped to cut down on the weeding.

[AKgardener]

I will definitely be trying it next year since we are doing things different..not tomatoes in pots next gonna make this bed my permanent tomato bed next year

[Cole_Robbie]

Fwiw the problem I had with plastic is that it is meant to be stretched over a raised ridge of soil, which makes the water run off. I had water pooling and sitting on my plastic and it bred mosquitoes.

[Tormahto]

Even if I can get past the yuck factor on the splitting, tomatoes swelled up by water coming in enough to split them aren’t very good anyway. Who wants a watery split tomato?

A few tomatoes, all small fruited types, I’ve grown, thankfully not very many, have been very touchy about how much water they receive and will split with very little margin of error with the hose or the least little rainfall. Sweet millions, Sungold, and Creamsicle grape are the worst three in that order with sweet millions being the worst.

Perhaps lightly fertilizing or adding salts to the soil right before a major rainstorm might mitigate that, assuming this is an issue is osmosis causing this splitting issue.

The genetics of tomato skin rigidity and elasticity are beyond what I know of. I don't see many studies on those properties. However, judging by the splitting patterns of certain beefsteaks and cherry varieties, it seems that there is quite a bit of variation. It's possible that all three of those cherry type tomatoes have very inelastic skin, causing them to burst at the first signs of increased moisture.

Some day, I hope to hear a report on the skin genetics of Soldacki. It is the only tomato that I know of that consistently has radial and concentric cracking at the same time, making the tomatoes look like little pink disco mirror balls..

[Shule]

IDK how after so many years on forums I've never seen the suggestion of epsom salts at ripening time for plant health and flavor. I was really thinking about it this season, as the hotter summers are giving me new issues both plant health and fruit quality (which definitely go together).
Magnesium was on my mind as well, because I've not been able to get dolomite lime for some years now, and had to use regular lime which is just calcium and no magnesium.
Can epsom salts be sprinkled on or should it always be dissolved first?

You can put it on the ground and water it in. That's what I do, anyway. It's probably more effective if you can till it in, since it would distribute more evenly (but you probably wouldn't want to do that with the plants already there).

[Shule]

IDK how after so many years on forums I've never seen the suggestion of epsom salts at ripening time for plant health and flavor. I was really thinking about it this season, as the hotter summers are giving me new issues both plant health and fruit quality (which definitely go together).
Magnesium was on my mind as well, because I've not been able to get dolomite lime for some years now, and had to use regular lime which is just calcium and no magnesium.
Can epsom salts be sprinkled on or should it always be dissolved first?

You can put it on the ground and water it in. That's what I do, anyway. It's probably more effective if you can till it in, since it would distribute more evenly (but you probably wouldn't want to do that with the plants already there).

Supposedly, you can do a foliar spray, too. Never tried it. I've seen rates of 1-2 tablespoons of Epsom salt per gallon of water recommended from random websites that may or may not be correct.

[Shule]

@AKgardener

Maybe, just maybe, I might use the black plastic film instead of garden fabric (unless you have a lot of garden fabric laying around). Garden fabric is good but after two or three year weeds will find a way. I know this the hard way. I've never used the black plastic film but Shule just recommended it and I don't see weeds getting through it down the road. Plus it should warm the soil up faster (a positive in my area and I'm guessing in your area too). I think I'll try it in 2025 based on what Shule said. So, in other words, I may not know what I'm talking about because I haven't used it yet, lol, but I'm trying it next year. The difference is that it isn't water permeable (which I read to mean it isn't weed permeable either). So you'll have to line up your drip tape over the holes you make in the plastic over the raised bed. Again, take all this with a grain of salt, I may not know what I'm talking about.

Just know that you have to take care of it properly. If it gets holes (and it probably will eventually), weeds will grow through the holes (and water will seep through them, too). If you have twigs or such sticking up under it, they can puncture the plastic. You may want to get some things to anchor it down, too. You can get different thicknesses. We're just using the thin kind, now, but it's lasted probably longer than thick kind we had before, miraculously.

I've never heard of needing to stretch it over a mound before. We just put it on flat ground. It does get puddles when it rains or when I water, but the puddles usually disappear pretty fast in my climate (or possibly because of little holes that I don't know are there). The neighborhood cats like to drink from the puddles in the spring/winter. Some people take down their black plastic when the growing season isn't in season, but we just leave it out all the time (I tend to think there's less opportunity for it to be punctured it you don't handle it more than necessary).

Oh, speaking of cats, another advantage of black plastic is they poop less in that area. Sometimes they do in the growing holes, but usually only if the soil is dry and loose.

Watering tends to be the major challenge when using black plastic, for us. It's possible that landscaping fabric might have a similar effect on flavor, but I haven't tried it. Also, another challenge is it makes it harder to do large-scale amending of the soil, such as adding organic matter.

Another trick with big weeds to make things easier is to get some handheld pruning sheers, and just coppice them instead of pulling them up or digging them up. If you do it low enough, many weeds actually don't grow back (some kinds will, though). Anyway, it's pretty easy. Even if they do grow back, you can just do it again. It seems to work with prickly lettuce and lambsquarter, anyway.