Improve the flavor of tomatoes and other vegetables by simply adjusting the way you water your garden. Here’s how.
How to Water for Better-Tasting Crops
Tweaking your watering can have a dramatic impact on the flavor of your crops. Soils rich in added organic matter are naturally more moisture-retentive. This minimizes the amount of added water the crops need, and keeps those all-important sugars from being diluted too much.
Watering Fruiting Crops
Peaches, cherries and other tree fruits, plus fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers have better flavor when not over-watered. Reducing irrigation just one week before fruits are picked can help enhance the flavor of these crops.
Container-grown fruits such as blueberries or strawberries can also benefit from this approach to watering.
Improving the Flavor of Tomatoes
Keep tomato plants well watered while they establish. Water heavily two to three times a week, depending on your weather, climate and soil conditions. Then, once you start to see fruits developing, reduce the volume of water you give your plants at each watering to a minimum. Don’t go so far as to allow plants to wilt though! Yields may be a little smaller, but the flavor is more intense.
Watering Root Crops
Carrots, beets and other root crops have improved taste levels in drier soils. As their roots reach deep into the soil looking for moisture, they will also source minerals that contribute to a better flavor. Water root crops regularly for the first three to four weeks after sowing or planting, then taper irrigation to a minimum.
Leafy Salads and Greens
Treating leafy crops benefit to plenty of water helps to dilute very spicy or bitter tastes. You can tame the spicy flavor of leaves such as arugula by keeping them well-watered.
Keep other leafy salads and greens moist to encourage lots of succulent, leafy growth.
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Hi,
We think you need to look at your article on veg storage as the time that you can keep veg in a refrigerator is outside the normal safe keeping periods 3months for a cauliflower nonsense!! Please have some one proof reading your articles as they could mislead a novice and lead to a case of food poisoning!!!
Vegetables will not poison you. Throw out if they go bad but don't place a time limit on them.
I have had multiple fruits on one vine w/o any problem and will still have a single fruit come up looking like it has blossom end rot disease?
Thank you for this tip. I am someone who just waters way to much, and I live in a State where we get plenty of rain. So, I kind of kill my plants by watering. I really want to be a successful gardener, but I water to much. I guess I need to plan on watering less. So thank you very much.
My arugula has small pin holes in leaf yet do not see and bugs or insects? Any idea of cause?
The holes are probably made by flea beetles. The only way to prevent them is to use row cover on spring plantings. The holes are somewhat unsightly but not harmful; the leaves are still edible. Just rinse/wash before eating. Note that flea beetles are less active in fall, if you would like consider growing it then (too).
I have cucumbers growing and they are huge but they are not getting dark green in color and I don't know why this is happening could it be I'm watering to much or not enough? last year I grew cucumbers and they were a nice dark green and normal size so I'm confused by the size and light green color this year, I just picked one and it was 16 inches long it's crazy!! can you tell me why this is happening?
Nice work . good job . THANKS.
I did notice that my 2016 black krim tomatoes had great flavor with less watering but they would often split open on the vine and I lost several due to this. Could that be due to less watering?
When tomatoes have experienced a dry spell and then suddenly receive a lot of water, this can cause the fruits to swell too quickly for the skins and they split. Watering more regularly should prevent this.
