On 2007-05-26, Philip Semanchuk wrote:
In article ,
(don) wrote:
In article k.net,
wrote:
At the risk of stating the obvious, water your tomato plants if the soil
gets dry.
I've heard it's better to just water the ground around the plant, and not
soak
the leaves as well. Is that true?
Tomato plants tend to be vulnerable to fungus and mildew attacking the
leaves, especially in this humid climate. I have always operated under
the assumption that getting the leaves wet would only encourage
problems. I also made a habit of mulching the soil around my plants so
that rainwater couldn't splash dirt onto the leaves, which I've heard
aids soil-borne diseases in attacking the plants.
I have not seen TomatoLord post, but he would disagree. He shreds
leaves and puts them out 6 inches deep. He then parts the leaves and
places the plants directly on the ground not in it.
From what I have read it seems tomatoes are contaminated by soil
splashing up on the leaves. So any mulch will prevent that from
happening. I am trying a modified version. I plant in the ground, but
I mulch with several sections of the N&O held down with some bark
mulch.It is far enough out from the plant that no splashing can happen
and I will increase the circle by putting leaves to cover all the ground
between tomatoes.
As for watering, I feel deep watering once per week is preferable once
per week to more frequent watering. Somewhere between 1 and 1.5 inches
per week. How much is that well a 4x4 foot area is 1.33 cubic feet and
there are 8 gal. per cuft. so that is about 11 gallons per plant
perweek for one inch of water. Now if you get a half inch of rain then
that should be counted and only water 5 gallons more that week.
How to measure how much water, time how long it takes you to fill a 5
gallon bucket with water. Everybody's water pressure differs so this is
one fairly accurate method. If someone else in the house is running
water, that will affect the flow, so try to water when no one is
showering or washing clothes or dishes.
I feel everyone should examine what the maximum flow rate is from an
outside faucet and say 50 feet of hose. And if you are really curious,
have someone run another faucet or flush a toilet while timing it so
you can get an idea of that rate for the max time to fill a 5 gallon
bucket. Using a watering wand on the hose will also reduce the rate
from just the hose it self.
Hope this helps.
--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.
is a garbage address.