Should You Use Baking Soda to Grow Sweeter Tomatoes? The Truth Behind This Viral Gardening Trend
If you’re growing tomatoes this summer, you need to know the facts behind this crazy-popular baking soda hack – because there’s a far better way to use this pantry staple to get healthy plants and an abundant crop.
You’ve likely seen all the stories about sprinkling baking soda on compost to supposedly sweeten your homegrown tomatoes. But does it actually work? Well, we hate to bust a good myth, but the truth is that it could kill your plants. There is, however, a genius use for baking soda that will help your tomato plants grow strong and healthy. Ready for the facts? Let’s get into it!
Does Baking Soda Sweeten Tomatoes?
The idea behind using baking soda to grow sweeter tomatoes is that this pantry staple is naturally alkaline, so adding it to the compost will reduce the acidity of your crop. In real life, that simply doesn’t happen. Sprinkling bicarbonate of soda onto soil around tomato plants won't affect the taste of the fruit.
It could, however, do a lot of harm. Tomatoes naturally prefer to grow in slightly acidic soil and if conditions become too alkaline, plants are unable to take up some nutrients, and that can cause leaves to yellow. What’s more, baking soda is a salt so using too much of it can stunt plants, cause them to wilt, and even kill them.
So the answer is a resounding no. Don’t use baking soda on tomato plants in an attempt to grow sweeter fruit. It doesn’t affect the taste and you could kill your plants. If you have the slightest concern about the pH of your soil, use a Soil Test Kit such as this from Amazon, and find out exactly what you’re dealing with before you do anything to amend it.
What Does Sweeten Tomatoes?
The sweetness of tomatoes is mostly down to the variety, and how much sun the plants get. Super-sweet cultivars are usually cherry, grape or baby plum tomatoes, as these have a higher concentration of sugars. The amount of sunshine also has a say, as plants photosynthesize sunlight to produce carbohydrates that convert to natural sugars. It’s not so much that more sun grows sweeter tomatoes, but that an absence of sun results in a blander taste. If a tomato is to develop its optimal flavour, the plant needs to be basking in a minimum of six hours of sunshine a day.
Another factor that affects how tasty your tomatoes are is the overall health of your plants. The first step in growing flourishing tomato plants is to pick a variety that's well suited to the conditions you’re growing them. Choose the exact right cultivar for your situation, whether that's a windowsill pot, a patio container or a veggie patch, and you’re already halfway to the tastiest toms in town.
How Can I Use Baking Soda to Help My Tomatoes Thrive?
While baking soda doesn’t help a jot to sweeten tomatoes, it’s incredibly effective at preventing fungal diseases in tomato plants. So effective, in fact, that it’s recommended as a preventative by the US Department of Agriculture.
The magic formula is to mix a heaped tablespoon of baking soda with a level teaspoon of vegetable oil, stir in a squirt of liquid dish soap, then dilute with a gallon of water. Pour into a simple plastic spray bottle such as this from Amazon and spray onto leaves every 7-14 days. The solution works by increasing the pH of the leaf surfaces which makes it more difficult for fungal spores to survive.
Ensuring good airflow around your plants, watering the soil rather than the foliage, and being able to recognise common tomato diseases so you can take swift action before they spread, will also help.
Does Baking Soda Deter Pests as Well as Disease?
Baking soda irritates soft-bodied pests such as slugs, snails and ants so, if you’re growing tomatoes in pots or grow bags, you can sprinkle some on the ground around them to deter these critters.
However, ants are rarely a problem on tomato plants and their presence can actually be helpful, alerting you to an aphid infestation. If you spot ants crawling on the leaves or stems, they’re likely feeding on the sweet liquid that aphids secrete. And aphids do damage tomato plants. Have a close look at the undersides of the leaves and if you find aphids, apply neem oil such as this from Amazon.
Dilute the neem oil according to the instructions and only spray in the evening once plants are out of the sun to avoid scorching.
Ants may also bore into splitting and over-ripe tomatoes, but it’s far easier to simply water more consistently and pick your toms more regularly than it is to control the ants. And if you really don’t want ants on your tomato plants, then a good smear of petroleum jelly – yes, the basic stuff you smear on chapped lips that you can buy for less than $4 on Amazon – around the main stem is a much more effective barrier than baking soda.
While slugs and snails do love to snack on young tomato seedlings and will happily snaffle up fruit that sits on the soil, they don’t often trouble mature plants. If you find they’re a problem then there are better ways to deal with them than using baking soda. Sluggo, available from Amazon, is based on iron phosphate which occurs naturally in soil, and is safe to use around pets and other wildlife. Or simply use a natural treat that these critters adore even more as bait, then rehome the pests far away from your tomato plants. I find that using cucumber slices to deal with a slug problem is the most effective method of all.
What Works Way Better With Tomatoes Than Baking Soda?
If you want to grow tastier, healthier tomatoes and enjoy an abundant harvest, the single best thing you can do – after the basics of sunshine, consistent watering and weekly feeding with a liquid fertilizer such as Espoma Organic Tomato Food, available from Amazon – is to plant basil alongside.
Using basil as a companion plant for tomatoes has a number of proven benefits: it helps tomato plants grow stronger roots and respond faster to stress such as pests and disease; and it attracts pollinators and deters pests. That all combines to increase tomato yield by around 20%. And guess what? Planting basil makes tomatoes taste better, too. Yes, the holy grail of more delicious tomatoes – and that's a fact, backed up by research from the University of Florida.
While we all love a TikTok gardening hack, sometimes it's better to stick to science.
SUMMARY
- Baking soda doesn’t sweeten homegrown tomatoes.
- An excess of baking soda can harm and even kill tomato plants.
- A diluted solution of baking soda, vegetable oil and dish soap is effective at helping to prevent fungal disease on tomato plants.
- Baking soda can act as a deterrent to slugs, snails and ants, but there are more effective ways to deal with these pests.
- Planting basil alongside tomatoes is the best way to increase and improve your crop.
