Can alkaline soil make your tomatoes taste BLAND?
jayco
12 years ago
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remy_gw
12 years agojayco
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Growing vegetables in somewhat rocky/sandy/alkaline soil
Comments (7)>> at the moment is hard summer so it's very hot most of the time and the area is very sunny. Hard time to start anything without copious amounts of water. Heck, itâÂÂs a hard time. Period. I would strongly suggest an airy mulch such as straw instead of a flat mulch such as bark or wood chips. Both can work well, but in your high temperatures you need insulation on the soil. >> should i use those small water sprinklers or drippers at the beginning? If you can, itâÂÂs easier to control the watering with slow drip emitters and you control the amount with time. Most plants do not need to have their leaves watered, so the less water that gets sprayed, the better. Sprays can be helpful when seeding, but I use lines of drip tubing (with the holes all along its length) covered with lots of airy-type mulch to keep the surface, and thus the small seeds, from drying out. It seems to work well. I do hit it with a hose occasionally. However, end emitter drip in the desert carries the possibility of a hidden problem. With very stingy drip and good drainage, such as with "sandy compost" ground, you can have underwatering in a way. You can drip water for an entire day and although the water has gone down quite a bit there might be no trace of moisture in the soil just one foot away. Be sure to check often for what is NOT getting watered. >> how long to water each session depending on what method will be used to watering. Your times depend on your results. HowâÂÂs THAT for a wimpy answer! We have had less than an inch/25mm of rain in the entire year so far, so the drip system is everything. At times I watered cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers every single day. Now itâÂÂs every three days at 100+F/39C+. The tomato roots are huge and the plants wilt at about four days in the full sun. Most everything else gets watered along with them since the drip system has only two circuits....See MoreDoes soil affect tomatoe taste?
Comments (5)My husband and I were just talking about this the other day. He was asking what was wrong with a greenhouse tomato, they look so good! lol It's only my opinion, but greenhouse tomatoes I've eaten are in the supermarket in the winter and have no taste, regardless of how good they might look. My husband wanted to know why and I had to think about that. Part of my answer, was the soil. I assume that in a greenhouse, you might be growing in containers and in potting soil mixes, rather than in actual garden soil and I thought that makes all the difference in the world. You don't have everything in potting soil that you have in the ground, and growers always try to make up for that with synthetic fertilizers, which is why they look so good, but something is still missing that accounts for the lack of taste, I would think. And I for one am happy that scientists have not been able to figure it out and we all still need to garden in the backyard to get a tasty tomato. [g] All my own theory of course. Thanks for that link, Oldngrowing, interesting subject....See Moregarden all planted and now soil is severely alkaline. Help?
Comments (9)The test kit soil check says 8.0 and was very dark green. We did make the soil last year; half organic compost, one-fourth vermiculite, one-fourth peat. Last year nothing grew, all plants (especially peppers never grew an inch from the day I put them in the ground) completely stunted. The tomato plants grew somewhat but all summer had maybe 3 tomatoes on them. I was working and just walked away from the whole thing. I live in Southwestern Idaho and it's cold in the winter and hot in the summer. This year a garden guy suggested we get real dirt from somewhere on the property and add to the beds. We selected a spot that had nice rich dirt with lots of earthworms in it and added two full wheelbarrows to each bed (beds are about 2 ft deep x 5 ft long x 4 ft wide). We hoped adding the regular dirt would fix the beds, but the tomatoes I planted a month ago are looking "pinched" with the leaves drawn up and not happy or normal. Thank you for answering my post; any advice is so appreciated. Gardening in Tucson is a challenge no doubt. My sister lived there for many years, so I'm familiar with Tucson....See Morealkaline soil and tomatoes - what gives?
Comments (32)"You keep arguing as though I'm saying the rain makes your soil non-alkaline, and that's not at all what I'm saying." I'm not speaking for daninthedirt, just myself. I'm arguing that the rain acidity and its effect on soil alkalinity is unimportant in a lot of areas with very high soil alkalinity, as it just doesn't rain (or doesn't rain any appreciable amount) when we're growing in the spring/summer/fall. Last year I think my specific micro climate/area went about 8 months without any measurable rainfall. From July 1st 2017 to today, we've had 6.5" of precipitation total. Rain just doesn't figure into my gardening or soil equation. It's interesting information, but not useful for me (and a lot of southwestern gardeners) in any practical sense....See Moremrs.b_in_wy
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12 years agoOhiofem 6a/5b Southwest Ohio
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