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Q. Last year, I got just one crop of tomatoes and then the plants died. I planted disease resistant tomatoes and I rotated their location as instructed each year. Once a week, the area is flooded because the soil has poor drainage. Could I be watering too much?
A. Flooding is an acceptable method of watering tomatoes but the frequency is the key. Once a week may or may not be too often. It depends on the temperature and how big the plants are. Poor drainage indicates that the soil holds moisture for longer periods than normal. This would benefit younger plants with their roots near the soil surface. It’s a major problem with older plants, as the roots stay wet most of the time. Tomatoes don’t like soggy feet or be allowed to go bone dry. Keeping tomato plants moist is challenging in soils that drains poorly. Watering tomatoes weekly during the growing season is also problematical as our temperature varies from mild to hot. So, the solution center’s around establishing a watering baseline. This begins the next time you water by marking a calendar and concludes when the plants begins to wilt with a second mark. During this time, you keep track of the average afternoon temperature. I’d repeat this several more times and then average the information. Your conclusion is that when the temperatures is X degrees your plants wilt after Y days. The plants are then watered a couple of days before this point to keep them moist. You then adjust the frequency based on the seven-day forecast available on line, on your smart phone, in the newspaper, or on TV. We know that tomatoes are watered more frequently when it’s hot. Unfortunately, when it’s cool, we don’t reduce the water, leading to many of the summer months growing problems. It should be noted that the above watering schedule applies only to those tomatoes planted in the ground. Those planted in containers have perfect drainage and are watered differently. Once the plants reach a height of two to three feet, they’re watered daily. If they’re planted in a small container, you might have to water them twice a day with temperatures in the mid-nineties and above, June through October. Another reason for a single crop of tomatoes is varietial. Not all tomato varieties produce tomatoes all summer long. Tomatoes are divided into two groups, determinate and indeterminate varieties. The single or eliminate crop varieties are called determinate tomatoes. They grow to a set height, set fruit on the terminal ends, and ripen over a two-week period and then the plants decline. Ace, Celebrity, Roma and other paste varieties are examples of determinate varieties. I discussed this in more detail in my March 20 column.
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