""Black bottom"", mildew and other tomato diseases can result from poor watering. Here is some advice for lovely tomatoes by J.-M. Laporterie.
Watering tomatoes by J.-M. Laporterie.
Roots Before bringing water to your tomato plants, remember to encourage deep roots. In soil that has been broken up, the root system will grow downwards to find coolness at 30 or 40 cm in depth. The plant regulates itself and takes the water it needs. But if you water too little and too often, the roots will only develop on the surface. The plant will be much more vulnerable because the earth dries rapidly and if you do not add water regularly, your plants are a risk of suffering from hydric stress and may develop the ""black bottom"" disease.
No spray! At the adult stage, a handsome tomato plant will absorb around 1 litre of water per day. There is no need to drown it, but you should be careful to refresh the soil surrounding the roots by water at the foot. Spread the water as rainfall with a watering can head or better still with a watering stick that does not disturb the soil. Allow the water to penetrate and from time to time use a hoe around the foot of the plants to break up the soil.
Keep dry leaves Mildew is a fungus that needs moisture in order to establish itself. The wind carries the spores that land on the leaves. If conditions are damp, they develop and do great damage. There is currently no cure for this: never water the leaves. This rule is a general one, all the more so because almost all of the water added this way will evaporate.
Mulch In order for the irrigation water to infiltrate almost completely, mulching is an excellent solution. The wind will not dry the earth any more.
You will water less, saving water and time. Furthermore, mulching avoids the spread of weeds.
Water sparingly Have you ever seen tomato plants die of thirst? Under normal conditions, in outdoor soil, it is very rare. Tomato plants are hardier than you might think. Don´t water too much!
Leaves that droop during the hottest hours of the day are not necessarily a bad sign. They are a strategy for limiting water evaporation on the part of the plant. Also remember, that to give good fruit, tomatoes that have taste, they need to ""suffer"" a little.
To illustrate this notion of suffering, allow me to denounce a practice that I hope is no longer in use.
In order to ripen all their tomatoes at a specific date, some unscrupulous industrial growers ""harvest with weed killers"". A tractor goes into the hothouse and sprays its poison at the feet of the plants.
The plant gives everything to its fruit that will turn red without being ripe and the tomatoes are gathered from dead plants…
Long live the tomatoes from our gardens! Tomatoes are very gratifying. They are simple to grow and you, your family and friends will feast on them.
Jean-Marie Laporterie, doctor in soil science, engineer and pedologist has devoted his life to studying soils. Now that he has retired, he continues to fight to improve food producing methods, in particular in Ethiopia, where, at his initiative, thousands of olive trees have been planted.
