Sweeter tomatoes

[bobbin]

Interesting article in the Sunday times today. James Wong recommends spraying tomatoes with half an aspirin dissolved in a litre of water for an increase of up to 150% sweetness. He doesn't elaborate on freqequency etc but that may be in his book.
I thought misting toms could cause disease problems. I must read up on this as sounds exciting. Watched KEW ON A PLATE last night. What a lovely programme. A repeat I think but interesting article on tomatoes there as well, really worth an Iplayer visit.

[Alison]

I find many tomatoes horribly sweet, I wonder what I can spray them with to have the opposite effect . Seriously though, I think some people trialled the aspirin thing last year, dunno what the results were though as I prefer a more acidic taste anyway.

[Bill HH]

i used asprin last year, more to ward off disease than to promote sweetness. I had no disease issues but who knows if i would have done without asprin. I didnt detect much increase in sweetness, the sungold were very sweet but they always are.

I applied mine in the water can to the roots so no misting involved.

[Nicos]

I found some 'science stuff' about this....

http://ijagcs.com/wp-content/uploads.../1184-1187.pdf

And it does indeed say the sweetness is increased ( the Brix index) along with increase in yield ( no of fruit and diameter) and vit C

...I only had a quick scan through it cos it's a bit over facing on an Easter Sunday afternoon

[Nicos]

We had a previous discussion on here last year...

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1221906

[skeggijon]

Does anyone know when you should start spraying? I started reading the previous articles, but gave up the will

[Snadger]

Just stick a willow branch in your waterng can for the same effect, but organic

[the plumber]

there is a train of thought that it stops blight. unproven yet but worth testing

[Sarico]

Why you doing all this effort against nature to get something different? Ther are over 1000 variety of tomatoes ang I've tried about 75 and I found 3 for my taste being sweet. I doubt if you spray with aspirin garden delight you would get a very sweet tomato.

[Sarico]

I've just read my post and sound like I'm yelling but is just my opinion. I don't want you think I sound rude.

[Scarlet]

It didn't sound rude .

I'm of the same opinion - if you want a sweeter tomato - try another variety

[maverick451]

Its not just the sweetness though, it also increases the yield and resistance to blight.

I wonder if it works on Potatoes?

[skeggijon]

Like maverick says, its more about increasing yield and disease protection. As for going against nature, how do you think all those different varieties of tomato magically appeared?

Seriously though, I think any aids we can find to increase yield or resistance are worth exploring and salycilic acid is at least a pretty natural product to spray on your plants.

[DannyK]

If it were that effective wouldn't the commercial growers be using it?

It's probably illegal as not licensed under all those inane regulations!