Salty soil the secret to sweet tomatoes?
 

Below is a posting I just cut & pasted here, in reply to Fred Hempel's post about sea beans. I wanted some opinions on what I wrote:

I watched a program in Japanese last week about tomatoes. What intrigued me was the story behind one farm that was flooded by seawater several years ago during a natural disaster (I believe it was a devastating typhoon). The farmer thought all was lost, but decided he might as well go ahead and plant his tomato crop as planned, after the water level went down. The tomatoes were smaller than usual at harvest, so he did not have high hopes as they were planted in ruined soil anyways. The tomatoes turned out to be so sweet, he later marketed them as Fruit Tomatoes. Ever since, he has grown them in soil that has high salt content. He showed the soil on camera, and there was clearly white powdering on the surface. How he "salts" his soil was not discussed, but he did say the salt AND scant watering both contributed to his extra sweet fruits. These Fruit Tomatoes are popular among children in Japan especially.
I know that decreasing the watering towards the end of harvest is a common method here, it aids in intensifying the flavor. But high salt (like the kind in cow manure, for example) is a no-no. Now I'm wondering if perhaps we are wrong about this, or perhaps sea water is beneficial cuz it contains other nutrients which the manure does not have?
Have anyone near the shore ever heard of watering tomato plants with sea water? Not that I think it would be the same as having salted soil. Just wondering.

The agricultural folks at Rutgers University in NJ have tested this, using sea water on tomato plants, but only on a small scale: [url]http://njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/documents/CanSoilFertilityImproveTomatoFlavor.pdf[/url]

(I wondered about this two years ago, when it dawned on me as a first-time gardener that my plants would be watered with softened water from my well. It's not exactly sea water, but it's definitely salted. Tomatoes do just fine here, and they taste great.)

"salt" does not always mean sodium chloride, what we all commonly call salt.
Other minerals form crystals also considered "salts"
Magnesium sulphide for example, commonly called Epsom salts.
I would not presume that the "salt" referred to is sodium chloride.
Karen O

Probably the tsunami disaster flooded the fields.

They make magnesium and chlorine from sea water.
I have seen the whole process from beginning to the end product of magnesium ingots and chlorine.

If he is using sea water sooner or lather the fields will be barren and worthless.
Worth

I believe that is a post here somewhere about how they grow greenhouse winter tomatoes and salt is involved there too. but eventually the soil will be dead using too much salt.

Carol

Putting this in the, "Do Not Attempt at Home", category, I struggle growing them in regular ways.

You can actually buy sea salt as a fertilizer: [url]https://seaagri.com/[/url]

I think there is also another factor involved in the Japanese tomatoes. The salt is placing a stress on the plants, but the end result is positive. It's similar to the way drought tomatoes taste sweeter from water stress and hot peppers get hotter. Hydroponic tomato growers have drastically increased the PPM of their nutrient solution a few days before harvest, to re-create a similar environment. It's using plant stress in a beneficial way.

Yeah just be careful of your application with those Sea90. I over did it, and it did more harm than good.

I used Sea90 last year with good results and using again this year. Also, my Okinawa purple sweet potatoes were wonderful last year and I think it's was the Sea90 and lava sand combo. It's not just sea salt, but mineral content. Use sparingly. I did it foliar and the tomatoes leaves didn't take to it so well. Later I tossed a couple tablespoons on top of the soil in the 30 gal fabric pots and watered in with seaweed and I know it's anecdotal but that plants liked it. It could be just the seaweed, but the plants get seaweed all the time. They are better. Though I haven't measured it, the Sea90 was beneficial.

Not just the salt, but the minerals. I read a study somewhere about a place where a tsunami happened the vegetables that grew back a few years later were extremely productive and the best tasting.

I won't be trying it!

I had a disasterous seed-growing season this year and I strongly suspect that it was due to my use of softened water. In previous years, I've always saved my leftover tea and dog water for watering my plants. Reverse Osmosis water is used for those.

This spring, I decided to water my seedlings with WARM water (from the hot tap because my basement was barely 60 degrees). My seedlings were stunted, yellow, and dropped their lower leaves. Compared to plants grown by my friend, which were germinated at the same time as mine, hers were 2' tall when mine were still 3-4" tall and it eventually dawned on me that perhaps the medium wasn't to blame but my salty water!!!!

BTW the medium was "Pro Plan for Vegetables and Herbs". There is nothing wrong with it, but I had used something different previously so it was my primary suspect.

Linda

Hmm...I will have to invent a garden tsunami machine to sell to adventurous gardeners.

Go figure,your best kelp fertilizers are derived from cold water kelps.All from the sea.

[QUOTE=kurt;641730]Go figure,your best kelp fertilizers are derived from cold water kelps.All from the sea.[/QUOTE]

When I gathered sea weed for compost pile most of the sites I checked stated it wasn't really necessary to wash the salt off. Now that makes more sense to me than it did then.

Tomatoes grown in Israel are grown with salty water,which is abundant there, and they are exported to many countries including the US and are praised for their sweet taste

[url]https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=tomatoes+grown+in+Israel+on+salty+water[/url]

There's also another place in the US SW that does the same, I just can't remember the name right now.

Carolyn, also noting that a former friend of mine was financially supporting the Israeli tomato growing industry. Said person had several boxes shipped to the US for both of us and had someone drive them up to me,so yes, I can vouch for the sweetness myself. It wasn't just one variety, they grew beefsteaks,cherries and on the vine ones as wsell.