Tomato Watering..

[SmileySue]

Again!

My tumbling toms are drying out all the time. When watering this morning the water was running straight through the pot, so I guess it is not retaining any moisture.

Shall I re-pot it? Or what?

[stanhol]

Can you stand the pot on a tray of water?\

Sandra

[SmileySue]

I can, but I read the roots should not be sat in water....Is this not true??

[Martin G]

My Tumbling Toms (yellow)in pots are the best lookin' tomatoes I've got, so far I've only needed to water them every couple of days or so, they are in 8" pots but they aren't flowering just yet....the flowers are there but not opened yet. Maybe when they get bigger I will have to water more like you Sue, I don't really know how much bigger they may get.

[corrie]

I'm in the same boat as Martin. Mine are flowering and sit in a 15gallon pot. I was worried about the roots sitting in the soil too because some of the leaves started to dry out, but I trimmed some of the extra stems off(leaving three) and it seems to be growing much better!

[malcolmx]

the problem is that if multi composts dry out they are very difficult to wet again you can try the following
immerse pot totally in water and leave for 2-3 hours

add washing up liquid to the water and water with this
remove from pot re-pot in fresh compost that is very wet sloppy wet is good

[Lesley Jay]

Originally Posted by malcolmx

add washing up liquid to the water and water with this

Malcolm is the washing up liquid that you use just 'normal' washing up liquid or can you use the anti bacterial washing up liquid?

[malcolmx]

i just use ordinary it just acts as a wetting agent i don't think the anti bac will be harmful you use a very little anyway

[Peter Pie Eater]

I'd be reluctant to use anti-bacterial washing up liquid. Your soil will cointain many beneficial bactera. Using anti-bacterial agents will kill them.

I've done a bit of indoor gardening in the past where the plants end up under a lot of heat. Under those circumstances, the soil can dry up pretty dramatically. As the soil dries, it shrinks and leaves a space between the soil and the pot and when you water them, the soil runs between the soil and the pot.

I think the best advice is to leave the pot of water for a couple of hours. The plants wont be in standing water for long as the soil will soak it up. If you are worried about leaving the roots in standing water for too long then fill a bucket with water and soak the pot in the water for 15 minutes or so and that should rehydrate the soil.

Another option is to transplant your plants to a bigger pot adding extra compost around them. The newer compost absorbs the water better and should merge into your drier soil creating a better mix. Don't do this if your plants are flowering/fruiting already.

Incidentally, I always found that clay pots were less prone to this kind of shrivelling. Maybe try those for your next grow?