How to Add Sweet Flavor to Tomato Plants
Tomatoes are popular with home gardeners because they are easy to grow, but there are secrets to growing big, sweet and juicy tomatoes that experienced growers know. With the right care, including careful pruning, mulching and fertilizing, tomato vines provide a bountiful harvest. And the tomatoes will be larger, juicer and sweeter than grocery store tomatoes. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Keep your tomato vines healthy. Happy, nourished plants bear the best fruit, so this is the first and most important step. Tomato growing and a good tomato harvest requires full sunshine, good drainage, nutrition from fertilizer and compost, warmth and plenty of water.
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Change your fertilizer at the start of the growing season. Start using a fertilizer that is with more phosphorous, which specifically caters to fruit growing. Phosphorous is labeled by the second number in fertilizer qualifications. A 10-15-10 fertilizer is heavy in phosphorous. Fertilize tomatoes according to the instructions on the package, once a week, to encourage a successful tomato harvest.
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Prune your tomatoes during the growing season. Less foliage will give the plant more energy for fruit production and ripening, which is actually a process of adding and developing sugar within the fruit. Prune off extraneous leaves and shoots, but leave the leaves, stems and flowers around the tomatoes for shade and future fruit.
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Leave tomatoes on the vine for as long as possible to promote ripening and sweetening of the fruit. Tomatoes that ripen on the vine are sweeter and juicier.
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Tips & Warnings
Stake tomatoes to keep them off the ground, and use mulch in the summer to maintain moisture and in the winter to protect the tomatoes from cold.
Over-pruning will restrict future fruit harvests.
