Do tomato plants need daily watering and feeding once a week?

[Snowstorm]

I've got some in the lean-to/conservatory thing attached to our house and I don't want to rot the roots but at the same time I've got it in my head that they needs lots of watering - is that right?

[hana]

they need lots of food once they start producing the fruit - you can overwater as well, just check the soil and see how dry/damp it is

[callmeovercautious]

If it is Sunny water every day if not every other. They are very thirsty. You need to be consistant otherwise the fruits can split (I lost all mine last year when heavily pg as I could not do it every night). Feed once a week with liquid feed in their water.
HTH

[Oblomov]

Mine aren't doing very well this yr. This time last year, I was considdering making chutney for the first time, because I had so many.

[Snowstorm]

Thank you!

It's the first time I've tried to grow them so I'm not sure how mine are doing. Seems to be quite a few flowers towards the top of the plants, but that's it at the moment.

[Oblomov]

Same here. Flowers , a few small fruit. Everyone has said it has been a bad year. No rain, rain, hot cold, wind.
Last year, by now, I practically had a spanish tomato fight, to get to my front door
paknoack.tripod.com/id17.html

[Wisteria]

Mine are looking quite pathetic this year and we have just finished last years chutney - made green tomato chut and spicy runner bean chut mmmmm(licking lips at memory). think I might have to buy it this year .
My tumblers have rotted at the roots (too much rain) but my normal ones look ok just very few flowers or fruit. It's so gutting......

[mazzystar]

imo watering too often leads to the fruits being a bit tasteless and insipid. i'd water when they seem like they need it, regularly, but not every day...

[DumbledoresGirl]

A lot of mine (and I have a ludicrous number of plants!) are positively dying. They have grown okish but then lately they have lost all their leaves and I am just left with the flowers. They are in small pots and hanging baskets, exactly the same as last year when I had absolutely loads of fruits. I can only conclude that the weather is too cold and wet and not sunny enough.

[Wisteria]

same as me DG - they've been waterlogged I assume with all the horrid rain - did the leaves go yellow?

[DumbledoresGirl]

Yes, yellow with brown patches.

Some of my plants still look OK but they have no flowers (yet). It is very disappointing, especially as I have some in hanging baskets with flowers and last year they made a great display but this year they look so awful I am thinking of taking them down. Hanging baskets are supposed to be decorative after all!

(Come to that, the petunias, lobelia and nasturtiums don't look great either....)

[Wisteria]

I brought my tumblers in for a bit and stood them on bricks with towels underneath, let them dry out a bit then started to feed them a little - fingers crossed they seem to be recovering a bit and I've just put them out again.
My hanging baskets are usually really spectacular but now they just look like someone started well then got bored!

[RubeusDuck]

You're supposed to feed them?

I've just been letting the rain water them and ignoring them otherwise.

Like others I've got some flowers and some small green fruit...

[Wisteria]

You get bigger better fruit if you feed but you will still get toms without!

[potionsmakemummyclever]

Wisteria & DG - I've been babysitting my dad's tumblers whilst he's on holiday. They came out of a polytunnel and immediately took a turn for the worse. I don't think dad even had one foot on the plane before they started to look unwell! The leaves went discoloured - brought them in for a few days as thought they maybe waterlogged. The leaves haven't recovered, but the tomatoes themselves are getting along ok. Don't think I'll be asked to plant sit again tho

[Wisteria]

look on the bright side! Much less hassle - if they were in a poly tunnel they may have needed acclimatising first.

[DumbledoresGirl]

The only bright side of this for me is that I am going to be away for 3 of the next 6 weeks so if I had had a decent crop, I would probably lose half of them through not being here to feed, water and pick them (as indeed I did last year).

[Wisteria]

We're away from 27th-15th August and have a very nice friend who comes and waters for me, hopefully I shall come back to bumper crop. Could send you some chutney if you like!

[meandmyflyingmachine]

My tumblers look good - in hanging baskets out of dd's rech. My other ones look ridiculous. Very few flowers and none seem to be set yet. Grrrr.

[DumbledoresGirl]

Thanks Wisteria! Actually I have loads of chutney of my own still in the cupboard. I made absolutely tons of it last year (tomato and also apple) as I had half a plan to sell it at the school Christmas Fayre but chickened out in the end. I am the only one who eats chutney in my house and there is only so many times you can have cheese and chutney sandwiches for lunch!

But thanks for the offer and I hope your tomatoes still do you proud.

[Wisteria]

Ha ha - yes, me too, for all of it. I was going to sell some but then had mares about people complaining/ not having my health & hygiene certs etc. I, too am the only one who eats it so started giving it away to friends, it then got really popular and now I only have 1/2 a pot of runner bean left . Cheddar and chutney [mmmmmmmmm] that's why I've put on a stone!

[DumbledoresGirl]

Runner bean chutney is a new one on me. Does it work well? I can only think about stringy bits! Actually, I haven't had a decent crop of runner beans in about 8 years either (not a great gardener all round) but I am intrigued in case I do ever get a crop. What do you eat runner bean chutney with?

[Wisteria]

Cheese! It's lovely, really is. I made it with french beans though last year as that is what I had a glut of, you remove the stringy bit from the runner bean, I'll try and find recipe for you I got it off t'internet last year!

[Wisteria]

www.recipeslive.com/dish-types/chutnies/runner-bean-chutney-print-recipe.html

not the same site but the same recipe! the one I found was from the Bideford Buzz! Can't get to it now though.

[Tanee58]

Well I'm encouraged to hear everyone else's toms are slow - and some with yellow leaves. I was given four cherry toms and four ordinary toms. Put the ordinary and one of the cherries in troughs - they seem happy - lots of leaves and a few flowers - even some tiny fruits. The remainin cherries went into a growbag and seem to have hated it - straggly growth, hardly any leaves, yellowish , but they have finally produced some flowers and about four little green fruits. When should I start feeding? Tomorite bottle says after the fourth truss - is that flowers or fruits?

Assuming the crap summer continues, anyone got a good recipe for green tomatoes ?

[PrincessGoodLife]

how long do they take to go red then, MN tomato experts? I've got loads of fruit but they seem to have stayed green for ages. They've been fed plenty, and watered of course, and we've also had plenty of sun over here. I'm getting a bit impatient .