Yes- I can assure you that it is quite true, I personally stop watering my tomato plants from around the end of July onwards,

for two reasons-

One is because by the time it gets around to that time, I am quite sick of carrying watering cans of water to them,
and two- because it helps to concentrate the flavour in the tomatoes instead of being bloated with water and too much juice etc,-it also seems to help with ripening the seeds better too.

hmmm thats so logical! :) thanks for the information.

Robeb- yes you are quite right about that fact, I forgot to take into account various time zones in other parts of the world, and seasons etc,

As a general rule of thumb -as they say, it is usually ok to stop watering about three weeks or a month before your expected full ripening time in your particular area.

i'm still watering mine once a week at least and getting a few tomatoes

I understand too much water for tomatoes causes cracking at the top, although they shouldn't dry out. Self-watering containers were a big labor saver for us in our dry climate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Tomatoes

No, too much water doesn't cause splitting at the top. stem end.

There are three kinds of splitting:

Concentric splitting is seen as circles of brown around the stem end which usually scar over and all is well. This is a genetic trait. However, if there are deluges or overirrigation then those splits can reopen and normal bacteria and fungi in the air can get in and initiate a rotting process.

Radial splitting, seen as rays of splits that radiate outwards from the stem. Everything I said above pertains here as well.

Horizontal splitting, which refers to splits that occur elsewhere on the fruits and those ARE due to too much water when the fruits are mature or almost so and the increased amount of water taken in splits the fruits b'c they no longer can expand.

I hope that helps.

I looked briefly at the link you provided and there's quite a bit of wrong and outdated information there, especially with regard to Blossom End Rot and Blossom Drop.

And for the folks who wrote that clearly worm castings have to be used at almost every step of tomato growing, which makes sense b'c I think that's what they're seeing. ( Smile)

Carolyn

For our area, not watering tomatoes is not an option. As robeb said, they'd be dead in a matter of days. (3 or 4 in July or August since we are technically in the desert.)

I think the article the original poster mentioned should have said "do not over water tomatoes!"

Betsy

I definitely agree with not overwatering especially during fruit development/ripening stages! I use drip irrigation and a water meter. When it is barely moist at root level I will give them a decent soak. Less water does indeed concentrate the flavors.