My neighbor saw my sad tomato plants and gave me a weird tip

I was on my third floor balcony in Chicago last July, staring at my leggy tomato plants that wouldn't set fruit. My neighbor, Mr. Garcia, leaned over his railing and said, 'You're watering them too much, kid. Let them get a little thirsty, it tells them to make tomatoes.' I cut back to watering only when the soil was dry an inch down, and within two weeks I had my first green tomatoes! Has anyone else had success with this 'stress to produce' method for balcony veggies?

4 comments

4 Comments

terry_shah172mo ago

Actually, it's more about the type of stress. Letting them dry out a bit between waterings is good, but the real trick for tomatoes on a balcony is root space stress, not just water. If their roots feel cramped in a small pot, they panic and put all their energy into making fruit and seeds fast. That's probably what really helped yours along. Just letting them get thirsty can work, but if the pot is too big, they might just get bigger and leafier instead.

the_val2mo ago

That's a solid point from @terry_shah17 about root stress. So what's the actual best pot size then for getting fruit on a balcony? If a pot is too small the plant gets stunted, but too big and it just grows leaves. Is there a sweet spot where it's cramped enough to trigger fruiting but not so small it kills the plant?

tylerw7229d ago

Honestly that whole root stress thing sounds like bro science to me. Saw @sagey69's comment and he's right, you're just bullying the plant lol. For real, a happy plant in a big enough pot, like 5 gallons for a tomato, will give you way more fruit over time than a stressed one fighting for its life.

sagey6929d ago

So is the secret to gardening just making your plants panic? First Mr. Garcia says starve them for water, now @terry_shah17 says cramp their roots. Next we'll be telling them a frost is coming or playing heavy metal music to stress them into making veggies. My tomatoes would probably just give up and die if I tried all that.