The Best Ways to Water Your Tomato Plants
Summer weather often brings a lot of heat and not a lot of rainfall, which can be both good and bad for your tomato plants. Tomatoes thrive in warmer weather but also need a lot of water, so when rain is scarce, you will need to take watering into your own hands.
Keep reading to learn more about watering tomatoes, including how much and how often, and the best watering tools and accessories for the job.
How Much Water Do Tomato Plants Need?
In heat stress, tomato plants can lose water from their leaves faster than they can draw up from the roots. When this happens, you may notice the leaves curling under.
To prevent this, in-ground tomato plants will need about 2 gallons of water twice per week. It’s important to water slowly and deeply toward the roots rather than sprinkling the top of the soil, which can lead to shallow roots that are susceptible to drying out.
How Do You Know When They Have Enough Water?
When in doubt, use the finger test. Stick your index finger into the soil to check for moisture. The soil should feel damp as far as two to three knuckles deep.
Tomatoes grown in containers can often dry out faster than in-ground tomatoes, so they may need more frequent checks.
Recommended Watering Solutions for Tomatoes
Watering tomatoes isn’t ”one size fits all.” What works for one gardener might not work for another. Some might prefer the convenience of a hose, while others might opt for a built-in irrigation system.
Here are a few of our favorite watering solutions for keeping your tomatoes well hydrated all season long.
At the end of the day, the key to healthy tomatoes is consistent watering. Too much water and you risk drowning the roots or splashing disease up from the soil onto the leaves. Too little, and the plant cannot move required nutrients from the roots to the fruit.
An irrigation system with drippers is one of the best methods for ensuring your tomatoes get just the right amount of water. Buried just beneath the soil surface, it allows you to target watering at the roots and adjust based on how much water your plants need. We recommend setting the drippers to around 2 gallons per hour and leaving them on for about an hour twice a week.
Lee Valley One-Zone Digital Water Timer
Connected to your hose and faucet, this timer makes it easy to manage and automate your watering schedule, allowing you to select the days of the week, time, watering interval and frequency you want your tomatoes watered.
Heavy-Duty Five-Pattern Nozzle
For hose watering, having a spray nozzle is important to prevent overwatering and damaging delicate tomato plants. This nozzle is a good option, because it has a gentle spray pattern that waters evenly at the base of the plant without damaging stems, washing away soil or spreading soil-borne disease.
Haws 6.8 Litre Plastic Watering Can
A watering can is a great option because it offers a lot of control. This watering can from Haws is ideal for tomatoes, because it holds a large volume of water and has a long spout and spray rose that let you direct a gentle stream of water around the base of the plant.
Keep Tomatoes Thriving with Consistent Watering
Consistent, careful watering is one of the best ways to keep tomato plants healthy, productive and resilient through the hot, dry summer months. Whether you use a drip irrigation kit, a timer, a hose nozzle or a watering can, the goal is the same: deliver water slowly and deeply to the root zone. By checking soil moisture regularly and choosing the watering method that best suits your garden set-up, you can help your tomatoes grow strong roots and produce a solid harvest.