Rant: I was drowning my balcony tomatoes for two whole summers before I figured it out

Blake Murray · 2026-09-11T05:35:05.744137+00:00

I feel like such an idiot. For two full summers I watered my cherry tomatoes every single morning, sometimes twice a day when it got hot, because I figured more water equals more tomatoes, right? Wrong. Last July my plants started looking sad, leaves curling and yellowing from the bottom up, and I kept dumping MORE water on them thinking they were thirsty. Then my neighbor Maria leaned over the rail and asked why my pots were sitting in puddles, and she pointed out the drainage saucers were full because my soil was basically mud. I pulled one plant out and the roots were brown and mushy, not white and fuzzy like they should be. Turns out I'd been slowly drowning them for weeks, and the sad part is I did the exact same thing the summer before and just blamed the heat. Now I stick my finger two inches down before I even grab the watering can, and honestly the plants look better than they ever have. Has anyone else killed stuff with too much love instead of not enough? And how do you all handle watering when you're away for a few days?

Librear

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Rant: I was drowning my balcony tomatoes for two whole summers before I figured it out | Balcony Veggie Gardens - Librear