On 06/14/2014 09:14 AM, Brooklyn1 wrote:
You're over watering, and probably incorrectly. Watering every day is
not good for tomatoes. You'd do best to water deeply to encourage
roots to grow deep, but not more than twice a week. Water early in
the day and do NOT wet the leaves

Hi Broklyn1,

I live in the high sierra desert. Our air is very dry
from the rain shadow effect (adiabatic compression).

I also have a black thumb, so I am learning as much
as I can from those with green thumbs.

In the local pick your own organic farm, in their
green house (it has computer controlled side panels
that open a close to what stimulus, I do not know),
they have zillons of tomatoes in pots. The pots look
to be 30" round and 30" high with wire cages.

When I walk into the green house, I almost pass out
from all the free oxygen and the zillions of different
vine ripe tomatoes. It is everything I can do
to yell "I WANT THEM ALL!" Anyway he is very
successful at growing tomatoes.

Now, he waters differently from your recommendations.
He walks around with a hose and a shower head and
he soaks the ever living daylights out of them.
Every day. But, they do drain out the bottom of
his pots. The floor of the green house is very
wet. And he doesn't seem to care what time of day
he waters. He was the one who told me tomatoes
where an Amazon jungle plant. Get soaked every day
like clock work.

I have a similar pot with four plants in it and
the rest are planted in the ground. The farmer
who put the pot together for me told me to
take a five gallon bucket and water them with
five gallon a day in the morning.

Anyway, I don't have his fancy contraptions (green
houses, etc.) or his extensive knowledge. I tried
one year cutting back on the water. Got vines but
no fruit.

Since then, I have gone back to soaking the daylights
out of them with a hose. I stuck a big rock in the
pot and hit the rock with the stream to break it up.
There is some splashing down low.

Got tons of Cherries last year. Oh man they were good!
But the one large tomato plant only only gave three
tomatoes all season. (This year it is one large one,
10 cherries, and two tomtillos.)

What am I missing?

Many thanks,
-T