How to Grow SWEETER Tomatoes. Separating Myth from Fact

There are so many tried and true methods to get sweeter tomatoes. I see them passed around on Facebook groups all the time. But how many of them actually work? Today I'm going to be going through six of those methods, some of which I've tried and some of which I've used for years faithfully, and let you know which ones work and which ones don't. Plus at the end I'm going to give you a bonus tip that is a way to absolutely 100% guarantee that you grow the sweetest tomatoes ever. Coming up. Welcome to Tomato Thursday. All right, it doesn't have the same ring to it. I am a couple days late. I'm Brian with California Garden TV, and if you're looking to join an online garden community that offers tips, tricks, and support, you're in the right place. Start now by clicking subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss anything. Now let's get growing. Today we are taking the grow sweeter tomato method true or false quiz. Now when I was in school a long time ago, I loved true or false because if you didn't know the answer, there was at least a 50% chance that you would get it right. So let me know after this quiz how well you did down in the comments. Let me know your score. Now some of these methods you may never even heard of, and some of them you've probably seen passed around the internet like law. But right up front, I want us to all be able to agree on one thing, and that is that the worst homegrown tomatoes taste better than the best store-bought tomatoes. Can we agree on that? Thank you. And I wanted to get that right up front so we can all at least agree on one thing because some of the things I'm going to be covering here are probably really controversial in the garden world. And I don't want to step on any toes, so I'm going to tread lightly, but I do believe this is valuable information. However, if I am contradicting something you've been doing for years and you want to keep doing it, you have every right to do that. It's your garden. Do what you want to do. So on to the quiz. The answer to that one is false. Tomato plants, or any plant for that matter, just don't work that way scientifically. The roots are not straws that suck up whatever you put into the soil and put it into the fruit, which is a good thing because if it did, most of our fruit would end up tasting like dirt or manure. Now with any ingredient that you add to the soil, there are a lot of steps that it has to go through to be absorbed, first of all, to be put into the plant and then into the fruit. Now sugar can possibly help you get a better tomato plant because the sugar will feed the soil. The microbes in the soil actually feed on sugars, so it will increase the microbial density and activity going on in your soil, which in turn helps the plant uptake other fertilizers better and actually might end up having to use less fertilizer. But in making the actual fruit sweeter, it's just not possible. Okay, the second method is increasing the heat will give you sweeter tomatoes. True or false? This one is true. Although it's not the easiest to control the weather, but in the summer when the weather starts heating up, that triggers the plant to start ripening its fruit. Now this is one of the reasons I get asked a lot of times by you guys, my tomatoes have been on there green forever, they're not ripening, what's the problem? Typically it's because it's not hot enough. The heat hasn't, the weather hasn't warmed up enough and that happens a lot of times. If you start the plants early indoors and give them a head start, you'll have plants that are putting on fruit before the weather is warm enough to ripen that fruit. So not only does heat actually work to ripen the fruit, it actually puts more of the plant's energy into transporting the sugar into the fruit. Now you got to be careful to balance this because if you've watched other videos of mine about tomatoes, you know that if the temperatures are too hot, if they're in the 90s for an extended period of time, more than a few days, then the plant is going to start dropping blossoms and putting a halt on actually producing more fruit, simply because it's trying to ripen the fruit that it already has. So mid to upper 80s is a great temperature to not only keep the plant producing, but to really start focusing those sugars on ripening the ones that are on there. So a way to increase your heat if you live in a cooler summer climate is by growing tomatoes in a greenhouse or a hoop house. Just don't let the temperatures get above 90 for any length of time. Okay, the next question or the next method is growing tomatoes next to basil gives you a more flavorful, sweeter fruit. True or false? This one is false. Now, basil is a great companion plant for tomatoes. In fact, in my tomato companion plant video, I included it and I grow basil next to my tomatoes every single year. But not to make the fruit taste better. In fact, there's no way for that possibly to happen. Same with the sugar. The roots don't mingle and, you know, share flavor. It just doesn't happen. However, they are a good companion plant because the smell of the basil will actually deter tomato hornworm and other pests. And they have a lot of flowers that pollinators love. So it brings the pollinators in. So still plant them next to your tomato, but don't expect it to improve the taste at all. Okay, the next one is adding epsom salts to the planting hole or sprinkling around the soil is going to make your fruit sweeter. True or false? Theoretically, this one could be true, but I'm saying false because it comes with a lot of risk. And I say that because in a roundabout way, the magnesium in epsom salt can create a healthier plant, which in turn creates more leaves, which in turn creates more photosynthesis, which in turn gives you sweeter fruit. And I'm going to get into that on the next one. But as I stated in another video, I don't use epsom salt at all in the ground because it does create a situation that causes it to be more difficult for your tomato plants to absorb calcium and a lack of calcium will lead to blossom and rot. So if you are one of those diehard people out there, and I know there's lots of you that absolutely swear by epsom salts, try switching to a foliar feed rather than adding it to the soil. You can dissolve some in water. I don't know the amount because I don't use it. And then spray it on the leaves. It will absorb through the leaves, but it won't cause some of the issues that it does in the soil. Compromise? So the next one is plant your tomatoes in a sunnier location if you want sweeter fruit. True or false? I gave you a hint on this one on the last one, so this one is actually true. Giving tomatoes more than six to eight hours of sun, and we're talking 10, 11, and more hours of sun, is going to increase the plant's photosynthesis. More photosynthesis creates more sugars in the plant, which creates more leaves for more photosynthesis. But the plant does have a maximum growth rate, and when you exceed the sugars that the plant can actually use for growth, it does funnel that sugar into the fruit. So this one is absolutely true. The sunnier the spot you can give them, the sweeter your fruit is going to be. The next one is withholding water. Watering your tomatoes less while the fruit are ripening will create sweeter fruit. True or false? This one is definitely true. In fact, dry farming is actually a relatively new way of growing tomatoes in places that have cool summers like coastal California. I know a lot of people think of California summers, and they think sunshine and heat. Along the coast, where I am, our average summer temperature is only 80 degrees. We are pretty close to the ocean, and that ocean air dominates a lot of our weather. So we stay warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer. Now don't get jealous, because it does create issues with things like sweeter tomatoes. So we already talked about how increasing heat will make the fruit sweeter. Well, for those of us who live in cooler summer climates, one way for us to do it is by withholding water. Taking the water level down to 50% when the fruit starts to ripen. Now you have to be careful with this one as well, because if you put them into a severe drought situation and then water them, and then severe drought situation and water them, you're going to get a couple of problems. Blossom end rot, for one thing. Blossom end rot's main cause is not necessarily there's not enough calcium in the soil, but the amount of it that's uptaken into the plant. And that's the main reason is by insufficient or uneven watering. So we are taking it down to 50%, but we're still doing it evenly. Another issue if you have uneven watering is fruit splitting. The plant can't take in that much water all at once, once it's dried out, or the fruit, so it will cause the skins to split. Now this is only a method that can be used in a cooler summer climate. You don't want to use this in a hot summer climate, because you'll just kill your plants. Now the reason this works is it causes your plant to go into survival mode. It thinks it's running out of water, it starts to freak out, and it puts its energy into reproduction. And what that means is causing the fruit to be sweeter, so that animals will come and eat it, goes into the animal's gut, and the animal plants it a couple days later. So this method absolutely works if you live in a cool summer climate. Okay, now the bonus. The absolutely number one most reliable way to get sweeter tomatoes is to grow sweeter varieties. I mean that's a no-brainer. There are tomato varieties that, all things being equal, all tomatoes are not created equal when it comes to sweetness. Some varieties are sweet with complete disregard to any of the other things we've talked about in this video. Now remember that video I did on bricks, or brie, as I was corrected. Apparently brie is the correct pronunciation. The brie level of tomatoes is an indicator of the sugar content in the fruit. Now cherry tomatoes are at the top of the brie content. They're going to be the sweetest. Now aperro and sun gold are actually the sweetest cherry tomatoes you can grow. So if you're looking for strictly sweetness, that's what you want to go with. The yellow tomatoes, like the yellow heirloom tomatoes, are going to be sweeter than your red tomatoes. That's why I pretty much strictly grow yellow heirloom tomatoes. My favorites are Kellogg's Breakfast and Golden Jubilee. So hopefully this video helped out and put to rest some of the myths that are widely circulated out there and allow you to focus your time, energy, and money on things that actually work. And if you go back through this list, most of those things are free. So if you learned something, please give the video a thumbs up. I would appreciate it. Comment down below on your score. And if you haven't subscribed already, subscribe. And I'll see you guys tomorrow for FAQ Friday.