Suzy O wrote:
As far as watering every day, it's better to drench the soil super deep
once
or twice a week, depending on the temps.
Maybe. Maybe not.
If they're in containers, the soil should never dry out. A crust on the top
is fine, but if you don't hit some moisture by the time your first knuckle
is below the crust, it hasn't been watered enough. Put a small enough
plastic pot in the sun all day, and you may need to water that tomato plant
twice a day.
If they're in the ground, the surface can dry-out, but you'd better find
something moist by the time your finger is up to the second knuckle.
Planting the start deeper will help. Tomatoes are one of the few things that
you can burry the crown. Take a typical 4" start that's about 9" tall at
planting time, and you trim off the lower leaves, and stick 3 or 4 inches in
the ground. If you don't, the roots will be too close to the surface, and
you'll have to keep moisture available higher than if you plant it deeper.
If the roots are deep enough, and there is some nice mulch, and enough
foliage to shade the ground, one deep watering a week may be enough,
especially in soil that's more clay than sand.
Maybe the plants will wait for that one deep watering a week, but if spacing
the watering that far apart means they do have to wait when they want to
drink, that's a better set-up for BER than never letting the surface crust
at all. The calcium needs to ride in on the water, so no water available is
as bad or worse than washing away the calcium with too much water.
Also, never water tomato plants from above. Splashing is bad. Wet foliage is
bad. Have drip irrigation or soaker hose (the round stuff ones that water
soaks through, not the flat ones that spray) is the way to go. I have a
spiral of soaker hose under the red sheets of tomato mulch. I generally run
the soaker hose for a little while every two days, checking moisture levels
about 3" down to decide how long.
--
Warren H.
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