I'm going away for a week soon and don't know what to dop about my Tomatoes

I'm going to Glastonbury next Tuesday and Won't back until the following Monday. Is there anything I can do to ensure I don't kill off my tom plants as I won't be there to water them?

Thanks

 

big bucket of water, bit of hemp rope (not plastic) and some cappilary matting

 

I've got the same dilemma! I've got tumbling tomatoes so they're all in hanging baskets. I was thinking of balancing some sort of pot on top of them all with a small hole in that drips water out slowly?

I've checked my weather (I'm in London) and it doesn't look like it's going to particularly sunny so I'm hoping my drip drip idea could work...

 

Low tech: Neighbour with a long hose?

High-ish tech: Poundstretcher do timers for hoses.

 

My suggestions (for those without a ready supply of electricity, hoses or neighbours!) .....

For the greenhouse, you can from these people, (for £6.95)
http://www.twowests.co.uk/TwoWestsSite/category/GREENWATER_DRIP.htm
get a 2 gallon reservoir bag which you hang up - take a look at the site, you'll see what I mean. You could perhaps rig up something similar without spending anything.

To thelittlegardeners, I wouldn't make holes in the top of anything - I've tried this and the water runs out much faster than you'd image. For my tomatoes in hanging baskets, I've done pretty much what ziggy searchfield suggests and relied on capillary action and I've done it like this:

For each basket you'll need an old 2 lt plastic bottle and some cheap string - I like to use the really cheap stuff which kind of unravels as you use (mainly because not only is it cheap, but it's pretty darned useless for anything else!). Discard the bottle cap and use a heated darning needle (or similar) to make 3 or 4 very small holes around the top of the bottle - about 2" down. Thread some fine garden wire through these holes and make a loop long enough so you can hang the bottles up. Next cut a piece of string (if it's very fine, you may need to make a twisted cord from it) sufficiently long to reach from the bottom of the bottle, across to your basket and to go around the surface of the basket several times. Using a screw or nail, hang the bottle up by the wire loop you made then fill it with water. Soak the string to get it thoroughly wet and weight one end - an old nail, screw or bolt will do in fact anything which will go through the small opening of the bottle - drop the weighted end of the string into the bottom the bottle, then take the other end and lay or coil it several times either around the surface of the basket or you could dig a tiny 'trench' and bury it a few mm below the surface. You'll need to ensure the string is fairly tight, it doesn't have to be pulled taut, just sufficiently tight so that it's kept straight - I slip a clothes peg onto one of the basket's chains and just hang the string over that.

If you've got old trainer laces they work well as a 'wick' too. In Britain the chances are that if you're away for more than a couple of days, it'll rain at some point so your outdoor toms will get a good soak, but I've found a 2ltr bottle of water usually lasts a good week.

 

Well done Figetsmum, i would have said more but only had a minute at lunchtime.

Don't use old trainer laces if you smoke roll your owns though, tobacco mossaic virus.

 

i got some of the iriso feeders from suttons, they seem ok
www.suttons.co.uk/Sh...

www.gardeningleisure...

After a bit of fiddling I found that a litre of water in the shade, with a hole in the top end approx the size of 50 pence piece lasts for about 36 hours on setting 3 (scale is 0-11).

1 litre at setting 2 ~ 5 days (200ml in 24 hot hours, in shade)

1 litre at setting 1 ~ 8/9 days

 

Fidgetsmum – thank you so much!!! Great idea.