Watering Question

[PinkPetalPolygon]

Blossom end rot may have not been a direct cause of overwatering from what I understand, (other than the water taking out all the nutrients?) - because it is caused by a calcium deficiency OR the roots not being able to absorb the water...

Ohhh
Or

Do you think the BER could have been caused by too much water ON the roots directly literally?

When I blamed the BER on the overwatering, I was moreover blaming the BER on my boyfriend universally. Like he was "in charge" and here we are. (I would tell him NOT to water because they were wet and he still would water them anyway when I wasn't looking.)

It was like he would look at me, and think to himself - "she doesn't know what she's talking about, I know what I'm doing"

All the while I'm thinking -

"This is NOT what I would do given the choice"

And here we are with rotting tomatoes.

Lol I didn't mean to exactly continue my pity party in a whole nother post!!!!!

I actually meant to

Well

I realized I was so crestfallen I didn't day "Thank you!!!!!!!!!" For all this great information

And I was really really really really thankful for all the info

And it was very eye-opening

I knew that there was "no one size fits all", but it was really refreshing to read about the different methods in different climates.

The world IS wonderful!

[PinkPetalPolygon]

Blossom end rot may have not been a direct cause of overwatering from what I understand, (other than the water taking out all the nutrients?) - because it is caused by a calcium deficiency OR the roots not being able to absorb the water...

Of course I meant nutrients not water,

[PinkPetalPolygon]

P.P.P.S.:

The tomato question I posed in the original Post was for veggies in the ground
And the plant I have that has BER now is in a pot/7 gallon pot

I know that potted plants need a lot more water than in the ground though.

[rainbowgardener]

BER is due to calcium deficiency. But that deficiency is rarely in the soil; it is the plant having difficulty taking up the calcium:

The occurrence of the disease is dependent upon a number of environmental conditions, especially those that affect the supply of water and calcium in the developing fruits. Factors that influence the uptake of water and calcium by the plant have an effect on the incidence and severity of blossom end rot. The disease is especially prevalent when rapidly growing, succulent plants are exposed suddenly to a period of drought. When the roots fail to obtain sufficient water and calcium to be transported up to the rapidly developing fruits, the latter become rotted on their basal ends. Another common predisposing factor is cultivation too close to the plant; this practice destroys valuable roots, which take up water and minerals. Tomatoes planted in cold, heavy soils often have poorly developed root systems. Since they are unable to supply adequate amounts of water and nutrients to plants during times of stress, blossom end rot may result. Soils that contain excessive amounts of soluble salts may predispose tomatoes to the disease, for the availability of calcium to the plants decreases rapidly as total salts in the soil increase.

https://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell. ... lossRt.htm

So it is not as much about over-watering (though over-watering is harmful and can cause root rot and other problems) as inconsistent watering, going through severe wet/dry cycles.

[rainbowgardener]

But as above, BER really isn't much about fertilizer (although if you have stuff in containers and you water a lot, there are plenty of other reasons to fertilize). BER is about inconsistent watering.

[jal_ut]

Give the guy a big hug and present him with a "Soil Water Monitor, Hydrometer for Gardening", Oh, and tell him you love him!
Plants come and go, but hopefully you can keep a good man around?

[imafan26]

I think you should assign him to pay the water bill.

Even though you disagree at least it is an activity you are sharing.

[PinkPetalPolygon]

Oooooookay! I got it now!

The BER incident happened on our first hot day, like in a flash. I figured out what happened, I think I tuned out.

Just my boyfriend watering = terrible results because he works all day. What caused the BER was actually ME not tending to the tomatoes during the day, I'm ready to admit.

I suddenly remembered that my boyfriend's watering IS a spring problem. Then when it hits 90+ degrees (we are forecasted 98 degrees today), any water anyone wants to dump anywhere becomes a blessing???

I think I was more upset about having/not having CONTROL over my garden than anything else? Like whatever problems I had I was doomed to have because I couldn't control how much "precipitation" another person other than the clouds/powers that be was making fall?

I remembered (something I probably blocked out, hah) about the year before
Where I had a big giant pity party thinking to myself that I wished I had had the CHOICE in the amount of water that was falling on my plants? I hated watching the symptoms last year of what I KNEW had been too much water. I was residually traumatized from the year before

In addition to this being my first year with tomatoes in containers

And I just thought that *I* would be manning this project with research instead of arguing with someone else about the details every minute of every day.

To be honest, the whole process has become ugly complicated and I am barely having fun in the way I used to have fun with my plants?

It used to be - my plants need me and I will go to them and choose what I think they need

Now my plants care involves a big argument with someone else about what they need where my opinion gets disrespected and ignored. It's a different feeling entirely.

Hahaha. I did not mean to continue my pity party!

What I came to say was:

When it is 95+ degrees like it is now?

Omg!!! We need 3 times as much water!!!!

I taught my boyfriend that when you over-water container plants you are leeching out the nutrients. So now we are watering just until the water comes out the bottom, but not washing all the good stuff away.

And we are using this awesome organic liquid fertilizer for flowering and blooming (it is all purpose and you can use it at any stage though)

!!! I never thought anything could do what that stuff did?

This really is my first year with tomato plants in containers, and I guess I didn't keep track of the dates I last fertilized.

I'm not sure the tomato plants would have ever did anything without the fertilizer?!

When I fertilized, everything changed 10 shades of green deeper and started spitting out tomatoes.

No longer is there a watering problem in the vein of us having too much water?! It is blazing out there already, I swear they need a dose of water every 3 hours when it's going to be 90+ degrees. It's intense.

I secretly love it. Oooh. I NEVER liked heat until I had tomatoes/tasty plants that like heat like peppers or zucchini.

Now when people complain or talk about the heat of the summer I think ..

Heat = FOOD!!! <3

Anyway, happily ever after with fertilizer, and the sun to soak up all the water

Thank you again for all of your help.

Oooooooh another thing I've vividly discovered is that...

Tomatoes really can take a LOT of water.

My MIL tries to water everything like it is a tomato plant... I keep trying to tell her that some are desert plants. (The potted marjoram and sage are VERY upset! Although not a desert plant, The zucchini didn't look thrilled and the basil was floppy, but the tomatoes just sucked it all up without a bat of an eye. )

Maybe I should just let them drown everything so they can learn a lesson themselves instead of me trying to force them to learn?

The only problem with that was I wanted us to have produce, not a lesson about a dying-to-dead plant.

[PinkPetalPolygon]

Wanted to add:

Although my MIL also likes to overwater things, she is incredibly sweet!!!!

When the stuff she is over watering turns yellow, she asks me why and actually belives me when I tell her why. (I actually only try to say I know things when I know them...)

And secretly the other reason I know what happens when you over water plants is because I did it once really terribly hardcore

I was housesitting and plant sitting
Well I was helping someone who was a self-proclaimed plant killer, who announced if I didn't water the plants he never would at least

So it was my deal to water them in the dead of summer

And I had no idea what I was doing

I watered everything every day and the whole shabang collapsed.

At some point I expressed concern

And even the plant killing guy was like "hey woah you're not supposed to water every day"

And I thereby vividly learned the symptoms of over watering I would say.

We returned to sane watering and everything recovered after totally crashing.

And then I realized I was trying to mimic nature or something like that.

[PinkPetalPolygon]

But tomatoes in containers are a different story obviously. You can't let them dry out.

[ElizabethB]

Pink - you need to chill a little bit.

Watering should not be such an issue with your boyfriend.

A very general watering guide is 1" per week. Granted - some plants need more water and some plants need less water. 1" will cover most needs.

How do you know if you are providing 1" of water"? Use an inexpensive rain gauge

Over time you will learn which plants need more water and which plants need less water.
Take care of your plants and quite arguing with your BF. He is not properly informed. Don't even discuss it with him. 1" per week and you are good to go.

Another option is to have separate garden boxes. See who has the best production.

Best of Luck,
Elizabeth

[ButterflyLady29]

I think there is more to the relationship issue than just watering the tomatoes. Might be time to do a PRO vs CON list and see how the chips fall. Trust me, you don't want to spend the next 30 years arguing over if the garden needs water or not.

[jal_ut]

Hmmmmmmm, ever hear about "Talk" ? Talk it over. ButterflyLady29, brings up a valid point.
Get one of those lil soil and plant moisture meters.
You poke the probe in the ground and it tells you how wet the ground is.

[PinkPetalPolygon]

My desert plants are drowing, and I tell him not to water them and he waters them anyway.

That's where talking goes. Discussing = him telling me, "we're different people and I'm not listening to you"

I'm not sure how that shouldn't be an issue, or how it is something I could overlook, but I understand you might not like reading about how woohoo loca it makes me feel.

I had decided not to even talk about my relationship dynamics any more and feel kind of close to wanting a new username... the "discussions" I tried to have with my boyfriend were worse than I could of imagined. I wrote about it initially but this isn't like an abuse help forum so I erased it and tried to put it back to gardening...

It has been hard to work out what has been my real issues in garden have been, and I really didn't mean to be so mellowdramatic or all that over-revealing. To be exactly honest about what the tomatoes have gone through I did feel I had to explain the circumstances to get specific tailored-to-me advice.

And I just wanted to update today to say that we made a lot of adjustments and everything is doing a lot better with everyone's guidance.

The BER only happened on one plant, and the rest of them are doing great. I'm back to babying them. Some of my seedlings I grew from seed are bigger than my storebought plants: yay!

A rain meter sounds perfect though. Next year we will have our own plants. And I will watch him sneak water to them. And then try to compensate desperately until summer comes and we actually need all that water?

Or I won't be fighting with him any more.

I think trying to keep the nutrients in the containers was the best thing I could of suggested for him to do, and he really embraced that though.