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Watering tomatoes
Nick Winn
Posts: 9
in Fruit & veg
How much water should I be giving my tomatoes in the greenhouse? They're still only about 2 feet high. Should it be a good amount every day now, and then less when they start producing fruit?
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keep them moist, especailly when the fruit is coming as if you let them dry & then soak them it causes the fruit to split, also I've always found if you take some of the leaves off you get more fruit (aparently you only need 3 leaves per plant but I've never been that brave!)
http://www.tomatogrowing.co.uk/html/watering___feeding_tomatoes.html has some useful info. Lots of other helpful advice too on that website which I found through a link posted on the forum.
That's great steep useful info
Thanks very much for your advice both of you, that website is great steephill!
The best advice in that link is to allow the mix to dry. Tom roots should never be permanently damp. There are very few plants that like their roots permanently damp and toms certainly aren't one of them. Tomatoes respond best to controlled neglect in terms of both watering and fertilising. Less is better.
Hi Italophile and Verdun,
Are you saying they should be given a really good soak not very often? How will I know when the roots have dried out?
thank you for your advice
Water with a seaweed based solution, regularly, (on foliage too, when plants are of a good size). How damp you keep your compost (well rotted manure is best) is down to personal taste required.
Experiment with watering, for your sites conditions, to develop a method best for YOU xx
Nick, are you growing in containers or in the ground? In the ground, a good deep soaking infrequently is better than frequent light waterings. The deep soakings encourage the roots deeper into the soil. Mine are outdoors and I only water more than once a week - very deeply - when the temps get into the high-30sC consistently.
In containers, you're more at the mercy of the size of the container and what the container's made of. Smaller ones will dry out quicker than bigger ones in warm weather and terra cotta dries out quicker than plastic because terra cotta "breathes".
One test for moisture is to stick a finger down into the mix as deeply as you can. With the temps the UK seems to be getting at the moment, I'd bet it would take a while for the roots to dry out completely.
Thanks guys, we're growing them in the ground in the greenhouse, so I will experiment a bit with different watering methods to find out what works best. Thank you for all your advice