How Much Water Does a Tomato Plant Want a Day?

The secret to maintaining tomato plants hydrated and healthy is to keep an even and consistent soil moisture level. This means your plants should never dry out or live in sopping wet, swampy conditions. Evenly moist dirt is your goal. The daily quantity of water it takes to maintain the dirt around your tomato plants evenly moist depends on a variety of factors, like the temperature and where you plant the tomatoes. Should you keep your soil moist most of the time, then you’ll be supplying the correct quantity of hydration.

Seedlings

Tomato seeds and seedlings have to be kept moist, but never wet, at all times. Since they’re typically placed in small seed-starting containers or seedling trays, you’ll need to look at their moisture levels more than once daily to guarantee they have not dried out. Small seedlings can be misted several times every day with a spray bottle. The total quantity of water will vary based on heat, container size, air flow and humidity. Keep the dirt levels as well as consistent as possible. If you notice the soil is too moist, enhance air flow in the region, and hold off on watering again until the soil is on the drier side of moist, but not completely dried out.

Container Plants

Container plants have different watering needs than garden tomatoes. The containers have a tendency to heat up faster. This increased soil temperatures causes water to evaporate at a fast speed. The containers also can’t hold as much water as the soil surrounding tomatoes planted in the ground. You’ll probably have to water these plants more than once per day. Begin with a daytime watering, then check in your own containers throughout the day to see whether you have to add day and day waterings.

Garden Plants

Tomatoes in gardens possess an advantage over container plants — they could spread their roots out far and deep in search of water. Nevertheless, the exact same rule of thumb about even soil moisture applies. Tomato plants require about 1 to 1 1/2 inches of water daily to fruit, according to Ohio State University. There’s no need to measure, provided that you keep an even dirt. At the start of the growing season, this might mean watering in the morning until the soil is completely damp and remains moist constantly. As temperatures climb, you will probably have to water your crops in the morning, then again in the evening to keep continuously moist soil.

Tips

To help retain soil moisture, then add a couple of inches of organic mulch to the top of your dirt. The mulch will help slow water down evaporation. Watering in the morning and evening also can help prevent evaporation. Eliminate weeds as they crop up so they don’t steal water from the tomatoes. In case you have access to your drip irrigation system, then you will have an easier time maintaining your soil constantly moist, but installing one is not a necessity.

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