Self watering ideas for leaving tomato plants whilst on holiday?

ispookie666

Micro drip irrigation is what I have done in the past.  
Last year, used a garden timer and lawn sprinkler 

Tigsteroonie

Two years ago I sucessfully used the bucket-and-wick method of watering for two tomato plants, they survived 11 days. Last year I used the same method but must have got something wrong in the setup of the wick as one plant got all the water (and became water-logged); the other got very little but fortunately survived.

J63320

Do you have a neighbour that you get on with? My old neighbour’s “self-watering plan” was to ask me to do it!

Eldi_Dos

TUVOK said:

Problem is that we will be away for a week, not sure that unless a very deep tray, that it would work for me.
Thanks for the idea though.

A large enough pea gravel bed with plants in rings works,have been away for more than a week and things were fine.
Shading the greenhouse before you go is a good thing to do.

bex2012

Late to the party on this one, but this is something I’ve had success with in the past. When putting your tomato plant into its final pot/hole, bury a water bottle next to the stem with a couple of pin holes in the bottom of the bottle. Fill the water bottle up before you leave and the water will slowly drip out. I successfully left my plants for ten days using this method.

JohnB47

I would second the idea of putting the pots in a large container and then filling that container with water. I've done this myself occasionally.

The plants don't seem to mind sitting in water. In fact, tomato plants can be grown hydroponically where the roots actually grow directly in water.