If you weren’t able to add any water to your garden for a week and no rain was forecast, sun, heat and humidity almost certainly to be intense, plants having been on a deep watering cycle every 3-4 days kind of schedule, how would you plan for the no water available for a week?

Would you basically flood the garden just prior to the period or simply water as normal and just skip the in between watering or some other measure? This scenario is with mostly grown and longstanding indeterminate tomato plants with some unripe fruit still on the vine and very little flowering going on.

I would water well and mulch like crazy!

Linda

mulch like there was no tomorrow.
We are headed for drought now and I have about 1 day of stored rainwater left.

I would NOT be watering every 3 days! That's plain nutz!

How do you expect the plants to be able to fend for themselves?

I want my plants to be tough... This means... I don't water until I'm seeing plants wilted in the morning... and usually even then, I wait for rain If I can.

I'm in the sandhills... 100 ft of sand... the rain water just drains through... So... it's partly searching for plants that can take the conditions, and partly compost and mulch.

Your tomatoes... It doesn't sound like you expect much more from them anyway...

mostly grown and longstanding indeterminate tomato plants with some unripe fruit still on the vine and very little flowering going on.

So... I'd just not worry too much in the scenario that you describe.

I don't water my plants. I suppose if I saw them wilt, I might, while they're getting established. I have clay soil and no more than 7 hours of sun in my garden. I use grass clippings, leaves, pine needles and other mulch stuff from my & my neighbor's yards. One year I saw the ground crack from dryness but everyone was growing fine.

Last year I went with the heatmaster and phoenix for hot weather tomatoes.
Phoenix this year from saved seed,heatmaster won't be ready to plant for another few weeks.

[mention]stone[/mention] Are we trying to breach a well defended castle wall or grow tomatoes? 4th and goal, 15 below zero, with 2 seconds left, let’s go tomatoes, toughen up and win the game!

Naw, I’m definitely on the downside of this spring tomato growing season here in 9b, hot and humid coastal Texas, but I don’t want to have a bunch of wilted and dead plants with shriveled up tomatoes at the end of the seven days. Some of the fruit just now set, dime sized and there are a few good strong looking blooms still on the plants. Plants heretofore have been exceptionally healthy, productive and disease free, so I’m going to defend how I’ve taken care of them thus far.

But, I appreciate the various perspectives. No one I know that grows tomatoes here doesn’t not water pretty frequently if the rain decides to hold off. I’m definitely not out of line deep watering(roughly 1-.25-1.5” rain equivalent) every 3-4 days in summer conditions. We do get more wind than the generally Southeast and Eastern USA so that might account for the faster drying out of the soil. The soil still generally dries out in that 3-4 day time period for the first 2-3 inches hence the perceived need to water on that schedule. Tomatoes can wilt in afternoon sun, but rebound later. I don’t ever let them be wilted in the morning. If the soil felt anything but dry, I’d hold off. I just may not be able to check the soil at least daily like I normally do and then may not be able to add water if it indeed was too dry.

I did just now beef up, with the advice from [mention]Labradors[/mention] and [mention]slugworth[/mention] my mulch layer, did that same thing a week ago or so, but filled in any thin spots I could see. Still have some time to get the water levels in order. Thanks for the sharing y’alls personal experiences and ideas on watering and mulching.

2015 was a drought year for me,ironically it was the heirloom varieties that did better than hybrid.
Like german johnson.2 weeks without watering.
All the other plants shriveled up like the wicked witches' tootsies after the ruby slippers were removed.

Yea, we’ve had maybe 6” of rain total since February 1st. Been pretty dry with the trend continuing. I doubt any tomatoes can survive on 5” of rain in 3.5 months, the prime spring growing season here.

I think that I have heard that they want 1" per week but of course how hot it is makes a huge difference I would think.

I agree with[mention]brownrexx[/mention], that 1'' is recommended per week. BUT...depending on how big the plant is, variety, day and night temps, humidity levels, soil type and whether plants are mulched, all figure into whether that amount of moisture is adequate. I just got back from spending 5 days of seeing my 2 year old grandson and the garden was barely hanging in after days of very hot temps in my area. The night before I left, I mulched tomatoes, peppers and pumpkins fairly well and watered each plant pretty heavily with the amount of water given to each plant approaching about 2''. But when I got back, most of the tomatoes looked stressed, peppers were hanging in and the pumpkins were really looking like they wanted more water immediately. But watering that evening, things perked up pretty well. And recent plantings of corn and beans were not coming up as I expected. So without supplemental watering, depending on the factors listed above, some plants may do well while others wither and die.

One bed is raised about a foot over grade with no barriers between the native hard dense clay soil and the raised bed soil. I roughed up with a garden fork the native soil when I put in the raised bed, there’s likely now a little mixing between the two. Earth worms surely found their way from the native soil into the raised bed. Bed drains very well. Water will not pond in the bed even after a big hard rain. Soil in that bed is some sort of dark silty material, not even fine sand, with a lot of organic matter, compost from forest and landscaping products. That 8’x 10’ Raised bed sort of falls between a giant container and growing in the ground drying out faster than if it was strictly at grade in the ground.

The other garden with tomatoes is more right into the native soil with just a little over grade with all the compost and that same other raised bed amendments added over the seasons. It does tend to stay more moist, so gets less water.

I don’t go by anything like an inch per week guideline. Most of my indeterminate plants are at least 6’, some are 8’ feet tall or more now. They use a lot of water. An inch per week with no rain here would equal dead tomatoes. Those guidelines must be written by garden experts in New England, the Upper midwest or someplace with a completely different climate, soils, heat, sun intensity, wind levels, humidity and growing season. I go by feel of the top two inches of soil more than anything. It just generally works out that at this time of year the garden dries out in 3-4 days without any rain and needs a good dose of water. In the early spring, fall and winter, the water needs are much less.

Heavier Mulching will I believe save my garden undue stress. That was a great recommendation. I guess I’ll see how the plants will come through. Making sure everything is good and moist, then hope for the best. I feel like I’m now on top of things. I wrapped with mesh netting about every tomato cluster except the relatively tiny ones up high on the plants. That should prevent squirrel predation on the fruit if I can’t be around to pick color breakers.

Garden fork for scale. These are tall plants.

Get a nosebleed picking them.
The mesh reminded me of the mesh I had on my tomatoes last year.
The rats still ate thru and ate parts of the tomatoes.

I thought I had rats eating my low tomatoes a couple years ago. I set a rat trap (picture a very big mousetrap with a really strong spring) in the garden. Caught a rabbit around the neck; released it & it hopped off. Never came back for more tomatoes.

I'm not going to tell you what you should do (I've never gardened in Texas, and I imagine there are big differences), but to answer your question about what I would do in my own garden, I would just not water them, if the plants were that large.

In my garden, most tomatoes would be just fine without being watered at that plant size. We get dry, hot weather for most of the growing season (with low humidity), but we have cooler nights than you probably do, and our season probably doesn't last nearly as long; I'm sure you get a higher UV index, too; we don't the same pests or the same soil. We probably get slightly more daylight hours. We give the tomatoes black plastic to reduce watering needs (but that makes it too hot for some kinds of tomatoes, unless they have enough potassium or some such, or unless they've grown enough by that time to shade the plastic well), keep out weeds and warm the soil. Our soil insulates well, and stays cool easily, even when it's hot.

This year we're getting a lot of rain, though, so far. Last June was unusual like that, too. It means bigger plants for us, and it means I'll probably have to prune them when it dries and warms up, or they might crowd each other too much.

If I were worried about the plants getting too hot/dry and dying, I would probably shade the soil, and the lower part of each plant. If I had some days before I was going to leave left, I would give them plenty of potassium, and water them well for a few days. Potassium helps plants absorb water, but it makes them more thirsty for a few days before it confers any drought-tolerance. I might give the plants a little copper, too, to help the fruits absorb more water. I'd probably give them magnesium to help with the heat (potassium should also).

I imagine mulch would help, but I've only rarely mulched tomatoes. It sure helps peppers need less water, though (even if they're in containers)! We use a shredded bark mulch on our peppers. The tomato I mulched last year got a disease from the strawberries it was with; so, that wasn't a fair trial of its mulch.

Also, if I were in extreme circumstances, and wanted the plants to conserve extra water, I would remove some leaves. Yes, leaves help to shade, but they use a lot of water, too, and if there's too much sun, they won't notice the fact as much with fewer leaves. Plus, new leaves that grow will be more likely to be adapted to the new conditions. I'm not suggesting you do this, unless you're experimenting. I'm talking about what I would do (not my personal recommendation for others).

Note that some of these things I mentioned can change the flavor of tomatoes, for better or worse.

Maybe you can get a large thing of water that steadily just drips like a drop every few seconds. Not sure how long that would last, or if you have such a thing.

[mention]Shule[/mention] Interesting. One thing I had been doing recently was removing a lot of leaves. I had already pruned away lower leaves, but I had been going up the plant more getting rid of older, worn out looking leaves and any that were sort of buried in the canopy and seemed sort of redundant.

I don’t know if that action resulted in a lot of new growth, but the plants that I did some of the most thorough pruning have had a big burst of new growth. We have had an unusual stretch of cooler nights here very recently. People in the nearby heat Islands, mostly associated with greater Houston, but also influenced by the distance from the Major water bodies, now all in the 80s water temperature, have mainly missed out on some of this cooler nights stuff, but I’m far enough out in the country to lose an extra 5-10 degrees of nighttime heat. I’m just removed from the Gulf of Mexico to have a chance of cooling off at night more than my neighbors five miles closer. Right now at 3:30 am, It’s 67 degrees here, Over in the Clear lake area where my tomato growing friend lives near Galveston bay, it’s mostly in the mid 70s at night, even now, same for in the city of Houston, this according to WU personal weather stations. Anyway, I think those slightly cooler nights I get are helpful, giving the tomatoes a chance to rest some and put in a stronger form of growth than otherwise in the hotter nighttime temperature regimes nearby.

On fertility, I generally side dress Medina Organic poultry derived 3-2-3 with added molasses. Did this 2-3 weeks ago. Did a foliar application of Kelp and fish emulsion about a week ago. New growth on the plants looks good. When I mulch, i work off two basically one cubic yard each or so geobins. One bin has a lot of uncomposted browns, the other bin has an active composting heat producing environment. I tend to toss a little of that active compost material in with my mulch that is derived from the mostly browns, oak leaves, pine needles, cypress needles, etc.

I water when I water from the lake 60 feet away all overhead oscillating, mostly in the early am hours. Water is pretty clear, 4 feet of visibility, and tends to be a little basic. I don’t really know what nutrients the water supplies. Compost bin gets vegetable trimmings, egg shells, waste fruit, once in a while a whole catfish or two, the usual garden scraps, spanish moss, daily liquid nitrogen inputs from me, if you catch my drift. I am hoping that the overhead watering combined along with the rich compost and forest browns derived mulch adds in another gentle complete nutrient source for the tomatoes. That’s my basic fertility plan. I did use a foliar tomato booster, Tnt, much earlier in the season during the heaviest of blooming and fruit set time, but that was maybe a month ago.

I don’t have any diseased tomatoes really, which is a miracle for my location and time of year. I have had various worm do leaf damage. My solution for that is a special optical digital mechanical removal system, i.e. I use my eyes to spot them and my digits, fingers to pick them off. No insecticidal spray besides NEEM oil gets used in my garden and the Neem hasn’t really been used on the tomatoes.

karstopography wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 5:13 pm @stone Are we trying to breach a well defended castle wall or grow tomatoes?

No one I know that grows tomatoes here doesn’t not water pretty frequently

I did just now beef up my mulch layer, did that same thing a week ago or so, but filled in any thin spots I could see.

I'm in a bit of a rain shadow here in the sand... and there are plenty of varieties of tomatoes that I can not grow.

When everyone around me waters constantly... I'm still not going to do so.

When I find a drought tolerant variety of anything... I grow that.
Unfortunately, drought tolerant out your way doesn't mean that it will survive the humidity out my way.

Your beds raised above the native soil is something that will definitely make gardening without excessive watering difficult.

When I was first gardening here... I attempted 'lowered' beds... did NOT work.

When I was in the clay, raised beds worked fine. But... I was on a slope, and the raised beds were how I kept every drop of moisture on the garden.

I don't know how you are going to practice water conservation with your current set-up... It doesn't sound like it is the most prudent use of scarce resources.

When I was in the clay, I found it necessary to re-dig the soil every year... to encourage the soil to take up the rain... that clay got dry and stayed dry... Every time I shovel dug the clay, I dug a few inches deeper... I wanted my plants to be able to reach deeply for moisture... But about the only time I watered was when I set out plants or planted seed.

Here in the bottomless sand... I can't quite achieve the never water method... I usually end up watering 3 or 4 times over the summer... I miss clay... Clay holds moisture and nutrients!