Watering Tomatoes: When, How Often & How Much – 5 Pro Tips

If you love gardening, you’ve probably already asked an expert or yourself this question: “How often should I water my tomato plants?” Don’t worry, you’re not alone in this quest. This guide has hundreds of people reading and sharing it each day.

Plenty of people all across the globe take to tomato cultivation, not only because tomatoes are relatively easy to grow and sustain; but the fact that they are used in plenty of different cuisines, in a variety of ways – more ways than you can imagine.

4 Facts About Tomato Growth You Need to Know:

1. They don’t grow anywhere and anytime – Tomatoes cannot be grown everywhere and not all through the year. There are plenty of tomato varieties to pick from. Speak to your local gardening club or neighbor to find out what grows best in the region.
2. Sunlight is important – Tomato plants need sunlight in order to grow well. So, make sure that you place your plants in a sunny spot of your garden, not too hot though. Read on to know more about these settings.
3. Nutrition – No matter how well you water, if the plants are not receiving the right nutrition, there isn’t really much you can do – apart from getting this problem fixed. Check your tomato plants for yellow leaves, as this is a sign of bad nutrition.
4. Watering tomatoes – This is definitely a skill. But, it’s not rocket science and can easily be mastered. You could even teach your kids and maybe have them grow their own crop this season – it’s an amazing learning experience and a chance to bond.

An overview of what we will be covering:

• 5 Pro Tips on watering tomatoes
• Rain water for your plants.
• Caring for tomato plants when away.
• Using enlivened water.
• Watering tomato seedlings.
• How often to water tomatoes?

The art of watering tomatoes is easy to master. Trial and error is one way to build up your skills. But with the right watering techniques, you can become a pro this very growing season. On following these guidelines you can also develop your very own watering techniques.

• Water Slowly around the tomato plants allowing sufficient time for the water to enter the soil, run away water is just a waste and it steals nutrients from the soil. Let the water soak in at least 5 – 6 inches of soil.
• Water tomatoes only when they really need it. Maybe you need to water twice a day, to begin with, just moisten the soil (don’t flood the plant). The roots need air too, so don’t drown your plants.
• Water at the stem rather than the leaves. Try not to water directly on the stem of the tomato plant but around it, this encourages roots to spread.
• Water early in the day if you use a hose, bucket or any other manual form of watering.
• Do not water in the night as moist conditions and low temperatures increase the likelihood of tomato plant diseases.
• Mulch acts as a moisture regulator and also a source of nutrition. Definitely give this a thought, if you don’t already implement it.

Pro Tip 1: Water Slowly

The main purpose of watering your tomato plants is to ensure that they have sufficient water to sustain themselves and perform their necessary physiological activities.

Therefore, when watering, you don’t want to flood the plant, only to have most of the water run off (with nutrients and top soil). Instead, you are going to need to water slowly, giving the water time to actually seep through the soil.

CLICK HERE to find out how to build your proven-to-work portable device which provides clean fresh water 24/7.

It is recommended that 6-8 inches below the soil is moistened when you water tomato plants as this stimulates root growth in this region, which is directly related to the amount of nutrients the plant can reach.

One thing that you could do is come up with your very own drip irrigation system. It’s not at all difficult and can be done at a very cheap price – under $2, in fact! Check out the video below for a sample irrigation system. When you use a drip irrigation system you ensure that the soil is moist all the time, but not flooded – this gives the roots room to breathe.

With reference to the video below: if you don’t want the bottle to hang up as shown (which can be unsightly for some) you could also place it below the soil, only keeping the opening above ground so that you could refill the bottle when needed.

Pro Tip 4: the Best Time to Water Tomatoes Is at Dawn

As stated earlier, watering on the leaves and fruit can increase the likelihood of some tomato plant diseases. But you may ask the dreadful question: Why!?

It’s quite straightforward really, most of the tomato plant diseases are a threat under moist conditions. But this isn’t the only necessary condition for the disease to foster and thrive. They also need relatively low temperatures.

So putting two and two together, it is obvious that you shouldn’t water your tomato plants in the night, even if they seem droopy. When you choose to water at dawn, the plant has sufficient time to absorb water and begin the process of photosynthesis while at the same time, if by chance water fell onto the leaves, stem or fruit it would dry up before the midday sun begins to burn the plant up through these droplets.

Pro Tip 5: Mulching

In case you do not know what mulch is, it is an organic layer of leaves, hay, coconut husk, wood pieces or pine cone pieces. There are plenty of other forms too, if interested Google it. Since it’s organic, it would decay over time and also be a source of nourishment for the plants.

Mulching has quite a few benefits, the main ones being:

1. Water retention
2. Increased room for aeration when lightly mixed with the top soil
3. Source of nourishment

If you mulch your plants well, you’re not going to need to water them as often, since the rate of evaporation from the soil is drastically reduced. So, when you mulch you may end up watering just once a day if you were previously doing it twice or more times a day.

If you don’t already have mulch, you may want to check this coconut husk mulch out. It lasts for really long and is my best choice. I do not buy my mulch as coconut husk is easily available, my home being in a tropical location.

Rainwater Is the Best for Plants

Rainwater is the best for plants as it’s natural and has no added chemicals during the processing stages. Moreover, if you’ve got hard water in your region, the salts are not the best for your tomato plants or any other plants for that matter.

If you do happen to have a rrainwaterharvesting system at home and an underground storage, one of the best ways to make use of this water is in your garden. Give it a shot and you would see improvements, if you’ve already been gardening for a while.

How do I water my plans if I’m out of town? This a common question you’ll come across, as we all need to go on vacation some time or another and we can’t just leave our gardens to dry up. Most of us have neighbors who would be willing to help, but not all of us are that lucky.

So the best options would include:

• Programmed Drip Irrigation Systems: These aren’t expensive to install and are also very easy to operate and maintain. Therefore, if you go on vacation often or don’t have the time to water your garden yourself, you could program it to water your plants everyday at a particular time. Check the video above for a simple super low budget drip irrigation system.
• Placing plants in a basin of water: If your plants are in pots, you can always place the pots in a basin of water. Make sure that the plant is above the level of the water as you don’t want to flood it. Water will enter through the exit hole, via capillary action. Make sure there is sufficient leverage between the pot and water as you do not want to flood the roots either.
• Mulch: If you’re taking a short trip (3-4 days), you could solely depend on your mulch to keep the plants alive and healthy until you return. Again this depends on the local conditions, but this is a ball park figure that works well in most cases.

Watering Tomato Plants Using Enlivened Water

Enlivened water is an ancient method wherein the water is stirred clockwise, about 40-50 times and then the plants are watered.

While it is an ancient method, modern science has backed this method, as spiraling water gains energy, since it’s in motion. Watering tomatoes with this water does make them grow healthier according to some studies.

I’m not an advocate of this method and I’ve not tried it out as I find it “crazy“, but that’s just me. Maybe you’ve tried it out in your garden or heard about it somewhere? If yes and you have something to say about it, please do leave a comment below.

Watering tomato seeds and seedlings is a whole different story. Germinating tomato plants from seeds is a very simple process, but you only see the best results when done right. Since this is the first step of the tomato plants growth, you are going to want to make sure your plants get the right start.

I’ve already written another article on how to plant tomato plants from seeds, you may want to check it out.

When it comes to watering tomato seedlings, there is no better tutorial than this video I’ve just found on YouTube: