I planted my 30 cm high, healthy, happy tomato plants into the polytunnel, but a couple of days later they all (bar 1) had gone rotten at the base of the stem. No brown marks, the leaves seem quite normal. I can't find anything that seems similar except dampening off, I didn't know it could affect plants as large as these.

They were transplanted from 7cm pots to 30cm pots with a very rich mix of organic compost and soil. These were then sunk into the border of the polytunnel. The tomatoes themselves were planted very deeply so they could root all the way up the stem. Could the mix I planted them into have been too rich?

The polytunnel was particularly hot and moist, even with the door and the back window open there was no wind.

Any ideas please, I'm about to plant up some of the remaining plants. What precautions should I take?

On 6/9/2016 5:02 PM, Helen Pearson wrote:
I need to be able to water my strawberries from outside the cage. The
cage is quite large, containing 12, 2.5mx1.5m beds.

I thought I could rig up a system for each bed using a loop of soaker
hose attached to a 5 litre container which can be filled from the
outside path. Will there be enough pressure to 'soak'?




If you hold the container up high enough you should get a bit of water
out at about 1psig. Would probably be easier to just use a sprinkler can
or a makeshift one. Good luck. How's the weather in the UK?

We're getting temps in the low nineties F recently here in SE Texas.
We're also getting enough rain not to have to run the soaker hoses.

George

On Fri, 10 Jun 2016 00:02:04 +0200, Helen Pearson wrote:

I found it did not work for me. You may want to look up Ollas on the web.
They are basically a gallon container with holes in the bottom. You set
then on the surface, or more commonly bury them a few inches deep in the
bed.

It would be an easy matter to run some tuning from outside into the
Ollas.
Simple and cheap. gl

On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 9:25:03 PM UTC-5, Helen Pearson wrote:
I need to be able to water my strawberries from outside the cage. The
cage is quite large, containing 12, 2.5mx1.5m beds.

I thought I could rig up a system for each bed using a loop of soaker
hose attached to a 5 litre container which can be filled from the
outside path. Will there be enough pressure to 'soak'?

So you want to evenly apply 5 liters of water to each 2.5m x 1.5m bed.

I would think that a drip system would be your only hope. A soaker
hose is designed for normal household water pressure, so you would not
have enough pressure from a bucket to operate a ordinary soaker hose.

The problem with a drip system is that it is inefficient because a
large portion of the water will simply evaporate before reaching the
plant roots. A system that might work would be a hollow watering stake
buried next to each plant with each stake fed from a hose from the
bucket. This would allow gravity-fed water to more directly reach the
plant roots. This could be expanded to a perforated water pipe pattern
buried at slightly below root depth with filler pipes to the surface.

On 6/22/2016 12:56 PM, Davej wrote:
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 9:25:03 PM UTC-5, Helen Pearson wrote:
I need to be able to water my strawberries from outside the cage. The
cage is quite large, containing 12, 2.5mx1.5m beds.

I thought I could rig up a system for each bed using a loop of soaker
hose attached to a 5 litre container which can be filled from the
outside path. Will there be enough pressure to 'soak'?

So you want to evenly apply 5 liters of water to each 2.5m x 1.5m bed.

I would think that a drip system would be your only hope. A soaker
hose is designed for normal household water pressure, so you would not
have enough pressure from a bucket to operate a ordinary soaker hose.

The problem with a drip system is that it is inefficient because a
large portion of the water will simply evaporate before reaching the
plant roots. A system that might work would be a hollow watering stake
buried next to each plant with each stake fed from a hose from the
bucket. This would allow gravity-fed water to more directly reach the
plant roots. This could be expanded to a perforated water pipe pattern
buried at slightly below root depth with filler pipes to the surface.

My Dad used to drill holes in one inch galvanized piping and put one
alongside a watermelon plant. He filled the pipe twice a day and grew
humongous melons. He tried it with a banana squash and the thing looked
like a log and was still meaty with a few seeds. He was retired then so
he had plenty of time to play.

On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 10:56:36 -0700, Davej wrote:

On Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 9:25:03 PM UTC-5, Helen Pearson wrote:
I need to be able to water my strawberries from outside the cage. The
cage is quite large, containing 12, 2.5mx1.5m beds.

I thought I could rig up a system for each bed using a loop of soaker
hose attached to a 5 litre container which can be filled from the
outside path. Will there be enough pressure to 'soak'?

So you want to evenly apply 5 liters of water to each 2.5m x 1.5m bed.

I would think that a drip system would be your only hope. A soaker
hose is designed for normal household water pressure, so you would not
have enough pressure from a bucket to operate a ordinary soaker hose.

Yes and no.
Soaker hoses are designed for far lower pressure than most systems.
My recollection is that they're typically used at less than 10psi,
which is (if my conversion arithmetic is correct) would require the
bucket to be about 276" above the emitting surfaces. Entirely
impractical, so the result is the same.

The problem with a drip system is that it is inefficient because a
large portion of the water will simply evaporate before reaching the
plant roots. A system that might work would be a hollow watering stake
buried next to each plant with each stake fed from a hose from the
bucket. This would allow gravity-fed water to more directly reach the
plant roots. This could be expanded to a perforated water pipe pattern
buried at slightly below root depth with filler pipes to the surface.

Water delivery efficiency is an entirely different question.
I'm sure you could come up with an even more efficient system with
hypodermic needles positioned adjacent to the roots, and then declare
your hollow watering stake inefficient. (Just saying all these
efficiencies are relative)

Soaker hoses and drip lines
are much more efficient (particularly for smaller crop plants
spread over large areas) compared to water sprayer systems, especially
if operated on a timer to operate in the early morning hours. They're
widely used in arid zones where water supplies are limited. With
fewer plants with small root systems your watering stake approach may
be superior though a bigger PITA if the garden gets bigger.