You may have gone from not enough water to too much. My in ground plants only get watered if the soil is dry and that's every 5-7 days if we've had no or very little rain. Check it at a 6" depth. If it's moist, don't water.

well, I have read and been told by numerous people that a tomato plant needs about 4 gallons of water a week.....but with this rubber soaker hose that seeps at such a slow rate, that's why I run it for two hours, every other day.....the first time the soaker hose ran, the plants were much lusher than they were.....but ever since it started getting in the 80s and 90s temp wise, and not much cloud cover....it seems like they are burning up.

You have been told wrong! An inch of rain per week - about a gallon per plant, is more than enough.

Mike

Can't complain. Tomatoes producing very well.-have Celebrity, Rutgers, 2 beefsteak in ground around the polebarn, patio plant on porch. Hot summer here-we hand water to root area every a.m. -have only 16 plants; cannot miss a day watering -just estimate needs with hose. Feed 1 TB. MG tomato food in 1 gal. water once a week when producing fruit. If not watered daily they show stress. Enough to send 2 med sized boxes carefully packed to friends in Fl., plus neighbors since July 4. Ours love water-probably drainage factor.

I suspect that has something to do with how much ground soil can retain water. I have a 6ft tall sweet 100 growing in a self watering container with a 1.5 gallon resevoir. It's bone dry every 24 hours. In 26 hours, the plant starts showing signs of wilt. Some quick math says that that plant is using more than 10 gallons of water per week.

In regards to the original poster, it might be easier to make a suggestion if we could see a photo of the plants. Stating they look sickly could mean lots of things. Might be too much water, might be too much or too little nutrients, or it might be some sort of disease/infestation. I hesitate to blame the heat as it seems many on these boards are putting up with temps close to the 100s.

What's the easiest way to put up a
photo around here?

bgaviator, It's hard to positively state how often to water a garden without having some idea of the soil composition. My garden is 25' x 70' and the soil differs for one end to the other. The sandy end needs more water than the end with more clay. I water two or three times a week and even in the very hot weather we have experienced this year my tomato plants are still nice and green. They wilt terribly during the day but spring back up by morning. As mentioned earlier,maybe yours are getting a little too much water now.

Well, I just readjusted the hose timer to only run for 1 hour, every other day in the morning, vs. the two hours I was doing.....do you think this would be better, or should I cut the time down even more? What about just watering for say 20-30 mins every single day?

Can't say for sure what would be best in your situation but if my plants were yellowing or dying I would definitely try something different. You may want to call or visit an Ohio State Extension office if there is one in your area. These are knowledgeable people with lots of free information. My tomatoes had blossom end rot this year and I went to the Lake Co. office in a panic and was told the problem is lack of calcium due to inconsistent watering. They also told me that the plants usually outgrow this disorder as it matures. I adjusted my watering to a more consistent schedule and so far everything looks good. This week alone I've picked bucketfuls of tomatoes. Don't give up as I almost did. I wish you the best. Unc

I had a terrible problem with BER too, until I started using the soaker.....occasionally I will still get some BER, but not to the extend it was before using the soaker hose.

Well, someone mentioned it would be nice to see some photos of the garden....this is my first attempt...sorry the lighting is really bad....I had my camera in Auto mode, so I don't know why it didn't take the sun into account better....I will post better pics when I get time.
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grr, why didn't that work? I used the html code as instructed with the link piccasa gave

After trying your new setting for a week, dig to a depth of 6-8" to check the soil moisture. If it is just moist and not wet then your new setting may suffice.
See Hot Pepper FAQs for posting photo.
If you decide to use a hosting site, Photobucket is the easiest IMO.

Here is a link that might be useful: How Do I Add Pictures to My Posted Messages?

The sun really washed out the photo.
Note the burned up looking stems and leaves....soaker hose in photo 2 running along base of plant, set away by about an inch.

Looks like the lens on your camera may have been fogged up when you were taking the shots as well. Some clearer shots would be helpful but from what I can tell.. it might be some kind of bacterial wilt.. or very generally abused tomato bushes. How do you prepare your soil for planting? Do you till it? Add compost? Fertilizers? Prior to you beginning to water more often, were there dead branches like there are now? Did the plant look wilty before the extra watering(still green foliage but hanging very limply)?

Without any other answers, you might want to cut away the dead foliage and give them a shot of fertilizer with a reasonable amount of nitrogen to see if you can get the leaves to perk and cause a bit of new growth.

Some closeups of the semi-healthy leaves might help too.. as, if its a disease, fertilizing probably won't help alot.

Unless these plants were left totally dry for awhile prior to your increase in watering, this kind of damage seems pretty severe for over watering.

Try taking photos facing away from the sun. Get some closeups of any yellowing leaves. Dead leaves need to be removed and discarded constantly.

bgaviator,

I agree with Taz that you may have gone from not enough water to too much water, but it is difficult to know for sure as wulfe said, it depends on your soil.

An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 4.7 gallons of water per square yard or 22,650 gallons of water per acre! Most tomato plants will have roots that take up more than a square yard of space. You can't really say so many gallons to a plant unless it is in a container. The surrounding dry soil will wick water away from your tomato when the moisture is uneven. By the same process, if a tomato plant has taken up all the water in it's immediate area, the moisture in the surrounding area will migrate towards the tomato plant. So what you need is an inch of water for quite an area all around the tomatoes.

sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: "Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it's time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don't like being over watered and it's helpful with in ground plants too." I have a 4 foot dowel marked off in foot increments that I use to measure spacing when planting in rows, and since I read Jennifer's suggestion, I now "store" it in the garden by poking it into the ground. It is easier than finding my meter or digging a hole to check the moisture.

The lens on your camera is dirty, probably a finger print or smudge, clean it up with a very soft lint free cloth or lens tissue paper (I used to "shoot" professionally) then as Taz said, take the picture with the sun behind you or to the side so that it is not glaring off the lens. If you can provide better pictures with some of them close up, I am sure there is a lot more we can tell you about your plants.

Betsy