You’ll be happy if you can grow tomato plants with less watering. I’ve thought about that and done quick research. This article will help you to grow tomato plants with less watering.
Here are some smart tips to water grow tomato plants with less water.
- Use more rainwater
- Install shading nets for tomato plants
- Use mulches
- Plant tomatoes in self-watering containers
- Bury water-filled clay pot near the tomato plant
- Use the best container material
- Use wet or liquid fertilizers
- Clear the weed plants near your tomato plants
Believe it or not, cherry tomatoes which are one of the tastiest tomatoes are a main plantation crop in Israel.
Growing with less water is a really possible thing to do with tomato plants in your garden. Keep reading to get the rare and valuable tips about how to do that well.
Table of Contents
1. Get the best advantages from rainwater
If you don’t have enough water to use with your tomato plants, you need to take the every drop of the rainfall to the growth of the tomato plant as you can.
Directly using rain water is the main resource of watering in dry farming.
So you can also use this dry farming concept for grow your tomato plants with less water.
And as to that consept needs to use rain water for your tomato plants until their flowers are well-bloomed.
When you are passing a season there is no rainfall, you have to use some water to keep the plant alive.
To get the most out of the rain you are having, install some of rain water collectors in your garden.
Also if you are planting tomatoes in containers, make sure you expose them to the rain.
Read how to collect rainwater for plants for further information.
2. Drip irrigation water systems
Many gardeners around the world are using drip irrigation water systems to water the plants.
And it doesn’t matter how big is your garden. That’s why it has become one of a solution for watering small space gardens.
Also using drip irrigation can save a ton of water drops for your tomato garden.
This is the process.
You can install a drip irrigation horse from customizing how long it should be. And you can point it to right point of the plant.
And the most important part is you can set up the timer and let the irrigation horse to water the tomato plants as you prefer.
Drip irrigation horses gently dripping the water into the bottom of the soil. And when you keep that on the ground, it won’t have any chances to overflow or waste the water.
Luckily these watering horses are not costs too much.
So you have to try a drip irrigation water system if you want to grow tomato plants with less water conditions.
3. Use shading nets for your tomato plants in the afternoon
Tomato plants loving the sunlight. But you don’t have enough water to treat the plant properly.
So using a shading net to reduce the sunlight is a very good option to cut down the extra evaporation to the plant.
When we reduce the evaporation from the plant, we can hold the water on the plant for a long time.
Less the evaporation, less the plant needs water.
Therefore shading nets can help to grow tomato plants with less water.
But we have to be more careful when choosing a shading net to cover the tomato plants, because they are likely to grow under the sun.
The experts’ recommendation is to use a shade cloth which can cut down the sunlight by 30%. So it will protect your plant only from burning the plant and still the sunlight can help with the growth of the tomato plant.
But before installing the shade cloth in to your garden, you’ve to consider the position you cover from that.
It will be very effective and if you don’t do it right, you are just waste your time and the chances of your tomato plant get dried will blow up.
Most of the time you need to install it on the west part of the plants, which can help to block the sun during the hottest time in the afternoon.
Use any of the anchor points near your tomato plants to install the shade cloth. Such as trees, posts and roofs.
If you couldn’t find anything it doesn’t matter if you install the using some wooden sticks.
This short video will help you with installing the shading cloth.
4. Use mulch to help grow tomato plants with less water
Using mulch under the plant is a common way to fertilize tomato plants.
But do you know that you can grow tomato plants with less water by using mulch?
Here’s the thing.
Gardeners using the mulch to keep the moisture of the soil in a good position.
Because mulch can absorb water into them and gently flowing the water into the soil.
That is a really helpful process when we considering keep the soil in good moisture.
Actually, you can imagine how powerful is to use a mulch with your plants, from the diseases that mulches bringing in sometimes.
For example, if you don’t remove the mulches after a heavy rain, your plants will be going to face the bad experience of root rot and waterlogged.
That’s because mulches absorbing enough water and leaking them throughout to the bottom of the roots.
Actually, you don’t have to worry about what you need to use as a mulch to grow tomato plants with less water.
You can find them from your garden with the cost of nothing!
Generally, you can use compost, pine leaves, straw, grass clippings as mulches for your tomato plants.
And also, personally I’d like t use wooden chips as a mulch for my tomato plants to keep the moisture of the soil for much longer.
So tomato plants will also prefer to grow up for more if they’re getting enough water.
Thus, you can use an organic mulch to help grow tomato plants with less watering.
Read when and how to mulch tomatoes for best performance.
5. Plant the tomatoes in a self-watering container
This is one of my favorite way to save water when growing any kind of plants on my garden.
And as it sounds you all have to do is, just putting some water into the plant.
Your plant will do the rest on its own.
Using a self-watering container to grow tomatoes will bring you many advantages.
Such as,
- The plant is getting the amount of water that it really needs.
- Saves water.
- Saves your time.
Here’s how they actually work.
There is a tank that you have to fill in water to the plant in that container.
Then you’ve to fit the tomato plant with the soil to that tank.
After you’ve done that, soil and the roots of the plant will absorb the water whenever it needs.
So you don’t need to water your tomato plants again and again after you planted them in a self-watering container.
But after your tomato plant has finished absorbing all the water you filled in, you have to refill that.
Therefore, you need to use a self-watering container in your garden if you want to grow tomato plants with less water.
6. Bury water-filled clay pot near the tomato plant
This is a 100% working method that only smart gardeners know.
You could try this method even your eyes shut. It’s really easy.
You all have to do is burying a water-filled, and sealed clay pot right near your tomato plant.
Then keep the plant to grow and don’t worry too much about watering it unless it getting dry or soil getting dry.
You can grow tomato plants with less watering with using this technique.
Here’s the way it works
You’ve buried the sealed and water-filled clay pot near the plant.
Pots that are made with clay or terracotta will getting a little bit cold when it is filled with water.
Because the pot is buried in the soil, it will spread that moisture around the soil.
But don’t be misled by burying a plastic pot or a polythene bag near your tomato plant.
They won’t help to grow tomato plants with less water when they are buried near the plant.
Because plastic or polythene couldn’t absorb water to itself and keep the surrounding cooler.
If you don’t sure you can check the moisture and the temperature of the soil with both conditions.
However burying a water-filled clay pot is really helpful to tomato watering system and it tends to grow tomato plants with less watering.
7. Type of the container
Would you believe, your succeeding with growing tomatoes can also depend on the type of container you are using.
It is a scientifically proven factor.
How much water you should be watered on to your tomato plant can be calculated from the size and material of your container.
Material of the container
This has the same reason that had in burying a clay pot.
Let’s get into the topic.
Commonly, many gardeners likely to grow plants on clay or terracotta pots and on plastic containers.
Generally, the recommendation is to grow tomatoes in terracotta pots, but not this time.
Because once you planted on terracotta pots, it’s going to drain water much more quickly.
Here’s the deal
Because of terracotta is also made with clay, it absorbs some part of the water that you’ve treated to the plant.
When the evaporation begins, it drains water from the soil and leaves as well as from the terracotta pot.
So some part of water will be wasted without treating your tomato plant. This might be a little distractive if you are willing to grow tomato plants with less water.
From my part of view, you’ve to move on to the plastic containers, for growing tomatoes in pots with limited water resources.
When you use a plastic pot to grow tomatoes, the evaporation will only happen with the plant and the soil.
If your tomato plants suffering from less watering, using a plastic container will be helpful t grow the properly.
Also, if you use a black color container, you are going to be more successful.
That’s how the material of the container effects on growing tomato plants with less water.
Size of the container
Let’s take a look at how the size of the container effects on growing tomatoes with less water.
Again, evaporation is the reason for this matter.
This is the theory.
When there is more of soil, it’s harder that evaporation can be effect on your plant.
It’s simply, because there is more surface of the soil evaporation can’t attack critically on everywhere in the container.
So growing and watering tomatoes in larger pots can help to grow tomato plants with less water.
You can choose the best container for your tomato plants by reading this guide.
8. Use wet or liquid fertilizers
This is also another smart technique that you can use to get the most out of from tomato plant with less watering.
Actually, tomato plants never expect clean and clear water from you. They need water to control the moisture of the soil and for some of the nutritions.
So if you can do both watering and fertilizing at once, probably you can win the game with limited water resources.
But how could you do that ?
It’s simple.
- Use liquid fertilizers that are mixed with water.
- Fertilize home-made compost.
- Use new cow dung as fertilizers for tomato plants.
Using the above techniques can’t totally complete the needs of watering your tomato plants. But somehow it can cut down the water needing for a period of time.
So using wet or liquid fertilizers is another way to grow tomato plants with less water.
9. Get rid of weeds
Weeds are one of a main problem that may gardeners facing.
And it doesn’t matter if the plant is growing in a container or the garden.
But when you are watering plants it’s really matters you. Especially if you are not having a lot of water to treat your garden.
Because weeds will absorbs the essence of water used for your cultivation.
So as a tomato planter, you can’t let this happen.
Because it’s completely distracting to your main goal, which is to grow tomato plants with less water.
You have to be more careful about this matter. Don’t let the weeds to grow around your tomato plants.
Try to tear them up from your hand without leaving any roots under the soil.
Or you can use a weed killer to reduce them. But I recommend spraying weed killers carefully without sprinkling them on to the tomato plants.
How often should tomato plants be watered?
Tomato plants required 1-2 inches of water a week. It can depend on the moisture of the soil and the weather conditions. The recommendation is to water tomatoes twice a day.
Around 6 AM to 10 PM is the best time of the day to water tomato plants.
What happens to tomatoes when less watering?
If you don’t have enough water to provide you’re still going to have the real taste.
Try to keep the moisture of the soil until the flowers had bloomed. And it’s time when to stop watering tomatoes.
When you water less for tomato plants, it will have a good opportunity to absorb the essence of sugar into the fruit for more.
So it can make the tomato fruits much tastier instead of watery taste. But fruits are a little bit smaller than usual.