You can try it and see if it works for you.

You might want to Google Desert Sweet tomatoes, the ones grown in Israel and imported in Europe and the US at specialty stores.

The seeds are germinated in normal sweet water and then the plants grown on using the brackish ( salt containing) waters that underlie certain parts of that country.

I was gifted with a large box of the medium sized ones, they come as cherries and larger, but I didn't think they were any sweeter than many varieties that I grow myself that I think are quite sweet. But taste is personal and perceptual.

I think I'd experiment with tomato varieties that several experience as being sweet before I'd start adding salt to the water, the salt concentration used is important,that I was giving to my plants. The potential for sweetness rests primarily with the DNA of any specific variety.

Below I've linked to one of many links you can find via Google about brackish waters and growing crops using salty water. There are scientific articles explaining why the fruits are sweeter which one can find via Google, if interested.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Desert Sweet Israeli Tomatoes

choose sweeter varieties.

one just negatively effects soil structure by adding more sodium

I second mulio.

Coastal Florida soil already has too much salt in it. Tap water sometimes has trace (measured in parts per million) amounts of salt in it, and, in containers, that builds up. If you live right by the beach, salt spray is a problem, too.

Once salt is in the soil, it's really hard to get rid of. So, you're better safe than sorry!

I think I'd experiment with tomato varieties that several experience as being sweet before I'd start adding salt to the water, the salt concentration used is important,that I was giving to my plants. The potential for sweetness rests primarily with the DNA of any specific variety.

******

I was rereading this thread to see what the new posts were and saw an error in what I posted above.

In the above paragraph I suggested considering varieties already known to be sweet, then it looked like I said that **I** was giving salt to ***my** plants.

NO WAY would I use salt on my plants. That mix up occurred b'c I'd written something else then went back to delete part of what I'd written and ended up with a mangled mess.

It happens.

Carolyn, and right now salt/sand is best used on the roads around here b'c we got yet more snow last night and it's still snowing. There's now over 3 ft just on the level and on the roof. I think I'd best put up my snowplow bill for auction. LOL

I remember reading an article about tomatoes grown in New Jersey, and how there used to be more sodium in one of the typical fertilizers. Then everyone started using a different fertilizer, and it changed. So they did some kind of experiment by dousing some plants with seawater. And I think people generally liked the ones with the seawater better. But the plants had an initial problem with the extra salt. But they got over it. At least that's what I remember. I'll see if I can find the article...

Found it, and posted it below. I didn't read it again, so I'm not sure if what I remembered was exactly right.

Here is a link that might be useful: article

When I was in Kuwait many years ago with the US Army, I remember seeing tomato plants growing on a beach off the Persian Gulf near Kuwait City. It blew my mind to see tomatoes not only growing in beach sand, but also close enough to the water where they were had to get flooded by tides. I really wish I could have grabbed some seed from one of these plants, but wasn't into gardening at the time. (It's hard to grow a garden in the barracks.) These plants were either severely neglected or grew there as volunteers as they were not organized in rows and had tomatoes rotting on the vine.