Garden Watering Systems UK
22 December 2009 | BrianRS
Tomatoes rely heavily on regular and frequent watering to produce healthy well developed fruit. The recommendation is that you should water 2 or 3 times a day to ensure that you maintain a moist but not saturated soil condition. It really is better to water tomato plants regularly and often rather than trying to provide the whole days watering in one visit or missing the odd day completely.
Many of the problems people encounter with their tomato crops arise from irregular watering and or extremes of temperature. These include blossom end rot, split skins, flower shedding and ripening problems but there are more.
Many people these days can lead very hectic lifestyles and are constantly under time pressure to get everything done, so taking care of the garden can sometimes drop down the list of priorities. For those people I would say that considering an automatic garden watering system of some sort is a good way of making sure that you address at least one of the tomato care factors that is very important for ensuring a full and healthy crop of tomatoes.
There are a number of options available that vary in both price and efficiency to suit your budget and the level of assistance you need. These can range from a simple roll mat that sits under your plant pots to a full blown Micro Water Irrigation System.
Two of my favorites are the ‘Big Drippa Watering System’ and the simple water spike which you just fill and leave, topping up periodically as and when you get the chance, just make sure they don’t run dry. You can purchase the water spikes ready made as below or you can adapt your own version, maybe from an old lemonade bottle which you puncture to allow the water to leak out into the surrounding soil. There are obvious benefits to using something designed for the job, but as long as you take a little care there is no reason why you cannot get your own self fashioned version to work equally as well.
I have included a couple of the better automated systems in the options available, one that runs off a large storage tank for longer periods of watering and the other that runs off your tap for a fully automated system that really does take the pain out of watering if you do have one of those very busy lifestyles.
A word of warning before we finish this post, there are other factors to consider when growing tomatoes, such as pest control, pruning etc. If you do decide on a fully automatic system don’t forget that you will still need to check your plants for other problems so that you can nip them in the bud, so to speak. Sorry about the pun.
