Salty soil the secret to sweet tomatoes?

peebee · May 23, 2017

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.

May 23, 2017	#1
peebee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern CA Posts: 1,714	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.