How Long Should I Run Soaker Hose For Tomatoes?

If you want your tomatoes to grow healthily, you need to ensure it gets enough water and all its nutrients. This ensures that your tomatoes thrive and sprout successfully; it also ensures that the plant doesn’t dry out. However, it is easy to make the mistake of overwatering your tomatoes, and this could cause the death of your tomato plants by making the flowers drop off. If you own a tomato garden and you’re wondering how long to run a soaker hose for tomatoes; you’re at the right spot.

By the end of this article, you will

1. How long to run soaker hose for tomatoes
2. Water tomatoes using a soaker hose

How Long do I Run Soaker Hose For Tomatoes?

After setting up your soaker hose system, what comes to mind next is how long do I run soaker hose for my tomato garden? Generally, this varies, but 30 minutes is a good start. There are two separate ways to answer this question, and we’ll be considering them below to ensure you adequately water your tomatoes.

1. Watering in Inches

The first way to answer that question is figuring out how much water your tomato garden gets in terms of inches. Usually, a vegetable garden should receive one inch of water during spring and more during summertime. This ideology works for tomato gardens as well and can help you answer the question of how long your soaker hose needs to run for tomatoes.

First, try to learn how long it takes for your soaker hose to seep out about an inch of water. You can practice this by placing a can underneath the soaker hose; this allows you to discover how long it takes your soaker hose to deliver one inch of water and lets you know how long to run the soaker hose for tomatoes.

2. Depth of Moisture

This is a common method among gardeners and is a simple method of figuring out how long to run a soaker hose for tomatoes. To measure the depth of moisture, simply start watering and then intermittently dig into the sol to see how deep the water has gone into the soil. The soil type determines how many inches the moisture should get in the soil; this process helps you figure out how long is required for your tomatoes to get properly watered by the soaker hose.

---

How Should I Water Tomatoes Using Soaker Hose?

To do this, you should place the soaker hose based on the size of your tomatoes beds. If it is a row, the soaker hose should be on a straight line, and if it is scattered, the soaker hose should be wounded around the plants. 

Next, take off the cap and connect it to the water faucet to moisten the hose before directing the water; this allows you to figure out the right pressure for your garden hose. Next, direct the water to the plants and ensure you lay it out long enough to let it deeply water your tomatoes. To prevent water from escaping through the porous surface, ensure you bury the soaker hose under a few layers of mulch but ensure the mulch isn’t close to the tomato leaves.