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OROZCONLECHE
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Dry Growing Roots

So I was reading an article but the last thing I remember was that They Let the Soil dry as much as possible without killing the plant so the roots will search for water and grow better, and after that feed them real good and make the veggies taste better. Is this true in some way?

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rainbowgardener
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The part about water deeply but not often is (in general) good advice, helps plants develop big deep root systems.

I'm not sure about the feeding part .. depends on what veggies and what you are feeding with. For a lot of fruiting things like peppers and tomatoes, you don't want to feed them with anything high nitrogen, which tends to produce big leafy plants at the expense of fruiting. Herbs that are over-fed have less flavor. Hot peppers that are given lots of water and fertilizer have less heat & flavor. In general, I think, for more flavor you want to keep it lean. Plants grown with synthetic/chemical fertilizers tend to have less flavor than those grown with compost/organic fertilizers.

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OROZCONLECHE
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Sounds good, but from what I heard there's tomato farms that do this

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digitS'
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I haven't read the book but the argument that food writer Barry Estabrook makes in Tomatoland, as I understand it, is that the tomato is completely unsuited for growing in the common tomato-growing areas of Florida. The humidity and frequent rain results in disease. Since the tomato ancestors are found in some very dry country in South America, the domestic plants should be healthier in a similar climate.

I don't know how true this is but I was just trying to get some idea about the climate of Peru after I read about a trip that some UCDavis horticulturalists (& tomato specialists) took to Canta, Peru a few years ago. Climate data isn't easy to find for Canta but, Wow, this is a very dry country!

It depends on how high in the Andes those tomato ancestors are but it seems the researchers were quite close to Lima. That city is incredibly dry even with humidity and fog coming in from the Pacific Ocean. Up around Lake Titicaca, there is about 24 inches of annual precip. Rain falls mostly during the warmest months of the year. Still that natural source of water is only coming down at about 1" each week.

I live where 1" each month during the growing season is about the best one could hope for. I irrigate the tomatoes along with everything else in the garden. Still, I know one gardener who follows the same practice that her father had - cover the ground with heavy mulch after the snow melts in late winter, set the plants out in the spring and never apply additional water.

If they have a chance to grow accustom to it, and send down a substantial root system, it looks to me that tomatoes certainly do not need more than 1" each week and would probably be fine with less than that.

Steve

estorms
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You could always try it with a few tomatoes. Do your others as you have always done and compare at the end of summer.

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!potatoes!
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digitS' wrote:Since the tomato ancestors are found in some very dry country in South America, the domestic plants should be healthier in a similar climate.Steve
this may be the case with the high-yield hybrids they tend to use now, but tomatoes could be bred to be more disease resistant in whatever their new climate...but it's likely at the cost of productivity at the least, so I doubt any big tomato farms will be very fond of the idea.



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