On 2007-05-31, Peter F wrote:
On May 30, 3:29 pm, "Daniel B. Martin"
wrote:
Peter F wrote:
You water the tomato plant by filling the bottle with a hose. Easy peasy.

Nice idea. Details, please.

How many buried bottles per tomato plant? One? More than
one?

How frequently do you fill those bottles with water? Daily?

Daniel B. Martin

We are working our way towards one bottle for every plant, of which we
have 8 in the ground. 2 liter bottles are not easy to come by when you
aren't big soda drinkers, so its slow going. We've been filling them
about 1.5 to 2 times per watering session anywhere from 1 to 3 times a
week so far this year. Depends on how hot it is and rain. It is
seeming to us that if you let the soil dry out a little by waiting an
extra day to water, the plants really get some growth on them. Will
that translate into more fruit? No idea. We're also trying this out
with cucumber plants with overturned 1-gallon plastic milk jugs. I'll
let you know if that works.


Plants take up water better as vapor and not as liquid from what I have
read. Which is why most plants will drown if left in standing water.
The argument for once per week watering is the water goes deeper because
you are putting more in the ground at one time,
encouraging deeper roots and therefore more drought resistant plants.
Perhaps the everyother day watering is cutting down on the growth? The
ground is getting saturated more often, but I don't know how long that
inhibits the roots from taking up water. Anyway once per week watering
gives less saturation time and more growth time perhaps?

IN the past I have used well washed 2.5 gallon herbicide jugs and small
tubing to get near the plant. The sun makes them brittle and I don't
have a ready supply since my brother gave up farming. I think I may
have to find some this year or opt for 5 gallon buckets and get two
plants with one. Debris can clog the tubing so the jugs were easier to
cover with the smaller caps. Or put in some movable drip irrigation as
I have done with landscape plants. Oh, you have to weight the jugs or
buckets with rocks or tie them down. The wind knocks them over when
empty.
--
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is a garbage address.