Watering Tomatoes - Tips to Make Watering Tomatoes Simple
 (Read 500+ times)
By Jay Rupple
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Watering tomatoes can be time consuming and a little confusing. Not only do you need to water properly to keep the plants alive and productive, but uneven watering can bring on some types of tomato diseases, in particular the dreaded blossom end rot.
It doesn't pay to water too much, and watering during the day can be stressful on the tomatoes especially if the water splashes up on the leaves. Some types of soil borne diseases will be carried to the leaves by splashing, so it's best to avoid that if you can. The best time to water is probably early morning.
It really depends on the weather, but about one or 1.5 inches of water a week should be good. If the soil gets soggy, cut back as roots need to breath in order to function. Watering once or twice a week, using more water for a deep soaking is preferred to watering daily, as watering too often will cause the roots to stay at the surface and they won't do as well in hot weather. Water more often in sandy soils, less so in clay.
One great product to try is a self watering planter. The Earth box is one of the most popular, and you can find instructions on building your own self watering planters as well. Basically these work by using a water reservoir on the bottom of the box, and you simply add water until it hits the full mark and drains out. These work great because by watering from beneath you avoid the splashing problem. And the self watering means you don't have to add water as often.
Probably the cheapest and easiest way to water tomatoes is with a soaker hose. You can lay these on the ground near the rows of the plants, and mulch over them to help retain the moisture. Avoid long runs of hose to make sure that the watering from the soakers is fairly even. You'll save money on water and the plants like the deep root watering you'll get.
Finally you can find tools like the Tomato Automator that will act as small water reservoirs that try to feed the water deeper to the roots. These plastic forms sit around the base of the plant and double as a mulching surface as well. There are a number of variations of this basic design available. You simply add water in the basin and it soaks in.
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Author Bio Box: Jay Rupple
Jay writes about gardening at HowToGardenGuide.com where you can find information on watering your garden, self watering planters and more on some techniques like using soaker hoses along with practical information on garden hose storage.
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