I apprenticed on a small organic farm in Connecticut where we dry farmed our tomatoes. On the day of transplant, we watered their beds, covered the beds with black plastic mulch, then cut holes in the mulch and transplanted. And then without watering harvested the most delicious tomatoes I’ve had. I tried it this summer in my garden in the Los Angeles area, but used straw mulch and watered after transplanting until the plants started setting fruit, then not at all. No blossom end rot, no wilty plants, delicious fruits and as far as I could tell, my plants produced just as much fruit as anyone else’s garden at the community garden, if not more. And some of them were watering every few days. That being said, some of them probably also used disgusting synthetic fertilizers while I took great care in building up the health of my soil.

Hi

I live inLaguna Beach and am currently dry farming six Early Girl Tomato plants. They have a 100 plus fruit on them collectively, and have had zero irrigation since the week before Memorial day. The plants are starting to stress the first branches are dying off, and a couple of the tomatoes have blossom rot. I am worried that all of the tomatoes will have the same fate. Is there anything I can do without using water to prevent this?

water conservation should be done because we are already having some water shortage these days~,~

We grow dry farmed tomatoes on a small farm on the coast between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. The farm is called Struggles Tomatoes – because that is what the tomatoes do – struggle. But in the process of struggling the small amount of fruit they produce tastes really, really good … We don’t water at all. Not sure how this might work in inland locations where there is a lot more heat. Here on the coast we have cool foggy mornings that produce some “rain” under each plant every day. Beyond that nothing. No water at all. No where near the yields of Central Valley “fertigated” industrial tomatoes – but oh so much better.

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tee Riddle. Tee Riddle said: Reduce Watering By Dry Farming Tomatoes http://is.gd/b9TF3 #gardening [...]

[...] One thing we’ve found to really improve the taste factor of our tomatoes is watering- or rather, NOT watering.  It may sound surprising, but once the tomato plants are established in the ground and going strong, it’s time to cut off that water supply cold-turkey and let nature do it’s own work.  I’m serious.  Even in the heat.  Their roots grow deep- they’ll be just fine.  We did this last year with great success- I didn’t know at the time that this is apparently called Dry Farming. [...]

[...] Daily has helpful advice on how to care for tomatoes in a rainy patch, whilst Veggiegardener has a detailed piece on Dry Farming tomatoes based on the concept of stressing them to maximise [...]

[...] Original post: Reduce Watering By Dry Farming Tomatoes : Veggie Gardener [...]