How much water?

[flibbertigibbert]

I'm a real novice at gardening. I have 3 tomato plants and a courgette on my balcony in small individual pots. I also have a large-ish trough with basil, thyme, parsley and chives.

I've been watering them every night but I'm unsure as to how much water I should use. Should it be enough that the water comes out of the bottom of the pots or is that too much? My tomato plants have been flowering but the flowers have been dying before fruiting so I wondered if this was due to lack of water.

Also, the plastic trough of herbs didn't have any holes in the bottom. Is this ok or should I drill some in so that it can drain?

Our tomato plants get about a litre of water each every day at the moment as they're fruiting but they're big plants and in a greenhouse. Tomatoes and courgettes need loads of water once they start to fruit and use some tomato feed too (you'll get this in B&Q or similar). I would water until you see it come out the bottom, or better still put them on a tray and water from the bottom until they stop sucking water up as it will stop you washing soil away from the roots at the top.

The tomato flowers will die before you see evidence of fruit, as long as the rest of the plant looks healthy you should be fine.

Our courgettes are in standard buckets and also get about a litre on hot days - basically until they look like the soil is nice and wet. More if they start to look droopy!

Good luck - our tomatoes don't look that good this year but I'm sick of eating courgette!

Thanks for the advice. It sounds like I haven't been giving them enough water.

The tray idea sounds good - I'll have a look next time I'm in Homebase.

Should I wait until I see fruit before using tomato feed or can I do it now there are flowers?

According to my tomato feed you should only start giving it once per week when the first truss of tomatoes sets then twice per week once the second truss sets.

My tomatoes are also on around a litre per day but get fed using a timer every couple of hours. If you have the time, little and often will avoid fruit splitting.

I am a horrible gardener and grow my tomatoes without a lot of water - they are in the greenhouse and I water them only when they look like they are starting to wilt. I have been reliably told (by my grandfather who was a commercial market gardener) that this is the way to get the best flavour tomatoes. He did this for his own tomatoes but not for the commercial crops where the water adds weight and therefore value. The less water in the fruit, the more concentrated the flavour. Tomatoes can easily stand up to this sort of treatment and don't need mollycoddling!

My cucumbers on the other hand get half a can of water a day each as they get very sad without copious amounts of water. Courgettes are in the same family and don't like to dry out either and this can affect the quality of the fruit.

What does 'when the first truss sets' mean? After hearing that the flowers were supposed to drop off, I had a close look and saw 2 little tomatoes starting to grow . Has anyone got tomatoes which they don't bother using tomato feed on?

Also, any ideas as to whether I should be drilling holes in the side of the herb trough?

The "truss setting" means that little tomatoes are starting to grow.

Do you mean there's no drainage in your trough at all, so the water can't escape? Yes, you absolutely need to drill holes in the side or bottom of the trough - herbs like free draining soil (usually...) and don't want to have wet feet. Plants can't cope with too much water, and that kill them as often as too little water.

GrendelsMum - there are no holes at all in the trough . It's plastic so I can drill some holes into it easily enough.

Great - drill the holes, and the herbs will be much happier. Really, chives and parsley (English herbs) like different conditions to basil and thyme (mediterranean herbs), but if they're happy, they're happy. Just don't be surprised if they don't all last long term, because it's not a great planting combination.

By the way, basil doesn't like to have wet feet at night (fussy plant!) so you should ideally water your herbs in the morning, rather than in the evening.