Irrigation - How Often & How Much?

[Innoma]

I always have a big problem with certain tomato varieties cracking or splitting, particularly blacks, which seem to be a bit sensitive in that regard. Last year I went to drip irrigation thinking it might help solve the problem, but no deal. So the question is, with drip irrigation, how often and how much do I need to irrigate in Zone 9 (Central San Joaquin Valley, CA) in loamy soil when using 1 GPH emitters? What's the key to keep down the splitting? Regularity? Amount? Anything else I might be missing?

[dcarch]

It might not have been the watering system.

Rainfall can throw you off totally.


dcarch

[Innoma]

Actually, the summers here are hot and dry with no rainfall throughout the bulk of the season (except for perhaps the very beginning and end occasionally). The problem is bad enough that for certain varieties, I end up throwing out at least half, if not more, of the crop. Hate to get ridda those tasty things!

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Innoma

I always have a big problem with certain tomato varieties cracking or splitting, particularly blacks, which seem to be a bit sensitive in that regard. Last year I went to drip irrigation thinking it might help solve the problem, but no deal. So the question is, with drip irrigation, how often and how much do I need to irrigate in Zone 9 (Central San Joaquin Valley, CA) in loamy soil when using 1 GPH emitters? What's the key to keep down the splitting? Regularity? Amount? Anything else I might be missing?

Hard to say how much you need to water, so many factors involved. Temperature, mulch, size of plants, rainfall, relative humidity, etc. If you're getting a lot of splitting with drip, that suggests to me that you may be watering too much in general (or there were some heavy rains that occurred at inopportune times).

In terms of keeping splitting to a minimum, consistency of watering helps a great deal, instead of letting things dry out completely and then flooding the area. But that probably isn't a problem with drip, unless you're doing something beyond the norm.

So does picking fruits before they are dead ripe, which is what I usually do anyway as a matter of course. And I always pick before a rain, if my schedule allows.