Tips how to make tomatoes sweeter

Now is the time when tomatoes are ripening and with this hot weather anyone should have an excellent harvest. All gardeners want their tomatoes to be as sweet as possible but not all of them can achieve that. The level of sweetness of tomatoes mainly depends on the balance between sugars and acids found in the juice and in the flesh. A sweet tomato should mainly contain enough fructose and glucose. The flesh should contain above 50% of sugars. So, how the sugar accumulates in tomatoes and what it depends on and how can you help your tomatoes to become sweeter?

There are several factors affecting the sweetness

Yes, the main factors are:

• enough sunlight,
• variety,
• watering frequency,
• temperature during the time of growth,
• soil acidity

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Organic method to increase sweetness

Using a wood ash is an excellent organic method to increase the sweetness because ash contains plenty of potassium, magnesium and calcium. Put about 1 kg of ash in a bucket and pour water in. Let it sit for a day. Green fertilizer is also excellent. You can use a well-known fertilizer made from nettles, but many other green plants will do too. Crush the green plants and mix it with water in 1:2ratio. Let the container sit in a sunny place for several days. To use it, mix a litre of the fertilizer with 5 litters of water.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Folk’s advice and other tips to increase the sweetness of your tomatoes

A solution containing milk, water and iodine is also used. Some people say that adding bitter salt to tomatoes also increases the sweetness. You may even know people who put fish bones around the plants. A solution of potassium permanganate is also used. A good idea is to provide the plants with phosphorus and potassium and many gardeners put baking soda around tomatoes, or coffee beans, which also provide additional nutrients to tomatoes. In short, there are many alternatives and approaches. If you have your own special method, we’d love to hear from you. Use the comments below to share your method.

Photo: Radek Štěpán

Preview photo: Radek Štěpán