How to water tomato plants

Water tomato plants

Once you've answered the question 'how often do you water your tomato plants', it's time to think about how to water. When watering tomatoes in gardens and containers, water deeply to saturate the soil. Do not spray the plants with water too quickly. Deep watering, especially in garden beds, promotes deep, well-developed root systems and drought-resistant plants. There are many ways to irrigate garden beds and containers. Here are five common ways to water:

1) Irrigation with a sprinkler

Although it may seem like an easy way to water, using a sprinkler to water vegetables is generally not recommended. Why? The biggest cause of splashing water is to wet the leaves of your plants and spread diseases. Also, overhead irrigation, especially on a hot summer day, is not very efficient and can waste a lot of water to evaporation or runoff. It does not send water to the root zone of the plants, but rather to everything within its range.

2) Water the tomatoes with a watering can

A watering can is an inexpensive way to water a small garden. Unless you like a lot of cardio, I don't recommend a large garden watering can because the water requires a lot of running back and forth to fill the can. A rain barrel can also be set up to fill the watering can. Try to avoid wetting the foliage, especially the lower leaves, by watering the soil at the base of the plant.

3) Irrigation with a hose and watering wand

This is my way of watering my tomato plants. I have a faucet in my garden and a faucet in my greenhouse, so I just turn on the faucet, flip the right switch, and get to work. Hand watering allows me to keep an eye on my plants (pests? diseases? other problems?) and the long handled watering wand makes it so much easier to make sure I'm watering the soil, not the plant. Using a tomato cage to keep the tomato plant off the ground reduces water splashing and reduces the risk of soil-borne diseases.

4) Irrigation of tomato plants with a soaker hose

Soaker hoses are a low-labor way to irrigate tomatoes and send water directly to where it's needed. Soaking tubes soak the soil by weeping along their entire length. They look like a regular garden hose, but they are made from fine materials that gently but deeply water plants. Because the water is delivered to the root zone, none is splashed on the leaves or wasted in runoff.

5) Using drip irrigation for tomatoes

Drip irrigation uses hoses, pipes and emitters to water. Like soaker hoses, drip irrigation waters the base of a plant, not the entire garden bed. It reduces water waste and water slowly in the long run. Setting up a drip irrigation system takes a bit of work, but once installed it's an easy and effective way to water plants.

How to reduce water requirements for tomato plants

Like most gardeners, I don't want to water raised beds or containers twice a day. For that reason, I use a number of tricks to help retain soil moisture and reduce water needs.

Pull weeds – Weeds compete with your tomato plants for water, so pull weeds as they appear in raised beds or in-ground gardens.

Mulch - I first started mulching my tomato plants to reduce the spread of soil borne diseases. This is a great reason to mulch

Tomatoes have other benefits, including reducing water requirements. After I plant I use a three-inch layer of straw, shredded leaves, or organic weed-free grass clippings around my tomato seedlings. I also put a layer of mulch on top of my container grown tomatoes.

Deep Planting – Tomato plants have an incredible ability to develop roots throughout their stems. Use this to your advantage by planting seedlings as deep or horizontal as possible below the soil surface to encourage a dense root system. I plant my tomato seedlings so that the bottom half to two-thirds of the stems are buried. Plants with strong root systems are more tolerant of drought conditions.

Use organic amendments - Gardening materials rich in organic matter such as compost or aged compost