Q: I have read that sprinkling baking soda around a tomato plant will make the fruit sweeter. How much baking soda should I use and how often.

A: I don’t know where your tip came from but I strongly disagree. Tomato taste is more determined by genetics and available sunshine rather than by the pH of the soil.

“Low-acid” tomatoes just have more sugar, which masks the acidity. Almost all tomatoes have a fruit acidity pH of approximately 4.6 .

Tomatoes grow fine as long as the soil pH is within normal plant-growing parameters. Tomatoes like a soil pH between 6.0 and 6.5.

Baking soda would raise the soil pH but it wouldn’t affect the tomato taste.