📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): The “No-Water” Transplanting Myth
- 🥵 The Dangerous Myth: A common piece of gardening advice says you shouldn’t water tomatoes for 1-2 weeks after transplanting to “force the roots to go deep.” In a spring heatwave, this advice can literally bake your plants alive.
- 💧 Feeder Roots Matter: Tomatoes absorb the vast majority of their food and water through tiny, fragile white roots located in the topsoil. If the topsoil dries out into a hard crust, these roots die off, and the plant starves.
- 🌸 Stress Flowering: If a newly transplanted tomato is severely dehydrated, it may panic and push out blossoms in a desperate attempt to reproduce before it dies. This stunts the plant’s overall growth.
- ✅ The Right Way: When transplanting, you must soak the planting hole. Keep the surface soil moist while the plant establishes itself. Once it is actively growing and established, then you can back off on the watering.
Potos by Valtwelve.
This is a nightmare! If the frost doesn’t get them, the heat will burn all the seedlings to a crisp! The forecast is 86-88°F (30-31°C) for a whole week. I haven’t seen a May like this in my 65 years! Usually, the second week of May brings a cold snap and the bird cherry trees bloom, but this year they’re already done, and the apple and cherry trees are in full bloom… And it’s only the 13th… The sun is SCORCHING! 🔥🔥🔥
I transplanted my seedlings on May 7th, and they’ve been suffering in this heat without a drop of water for a week – I am purposely not watering them to force deep root growth. They need to endure it for another week… But they look so pathetic and stressed out. They aren’t growing at all, but they suddenly pushed out blossoms. It feels like a desperation move, like they’re going to bloom and then just drop dead.
I think I should probably cave and start watering them. What do you think, Ludmila?
Valtwelve (Valery) wrote:
…the apple and cherry trees are in full bloom… And it’s only the 13th… The sun is SCORCHING!
Hello everyone!! Over here, absolutely nothing is blooming yet. The cherry trees have buds, but they haven’t opened. The bird cherry just pushed out its flower clusters, the apples and pears aren’t showing any signs of life yet, and the linden trees don’t even have leaves… and it’s already the 13th… 🌿❄️
…As for your tomatoes: maybe you shouldn’t torture your seedlings like that? Especially if they’ve already started flowering! The plant now has too many jobs at once: survive the transplant shock, grow new roots, AND try to push out fruit for offspring – all while baking in the heat right after being planted. Anyone would want to die under those conditions… 😲
I water my newly planted seedlings immediately, and I keep watering them while they are establishing. I only back off on the watering *after* they have fully taken root… Sorry for chiming in, I know you were asking someone else…
Ivanovochka (Natalia) wrote:
…Over here, absolutely nothing is blooming yet…
Left to right: Rowan, Bird Cherry, Cherry, Linden, and Poplar trees.
And just some photos from today to give the ladies some spring mood! 🌸🌷
Valtwelve (Valery) wrote:
…I am purposely not watering them so they grow their roots deep…
How on earth are they supposed to grow roots when you aren’t giving them any water?! Try starving yourself for a week and see how productive you are. 😠
Wait until the plant actually establishes itself, then you can withhold water. I swear, the crazy ideas you guys come up with. You want everything all at once. 🤦♀️
To survive 1, 2, or 3 weeks without watering, the initial water reserve supplied at the moment of planting must be massive. The root zone needs enough moisture to drink and eat. If you didn’t soak the planting hole, then you need to water them now – don’t wait for them to die! 💦🌱
Valtwelve (Valery) wrote:
I think I should probably cave and start watering them. What do you think, Ludmila?
Valery! I have never done that in my life. 🚫 I’ve read that some people advise not watering for the first 2-3 weeks, but I can’t even imagine doing that. I think that advice only works if your greenhouse sits in a low-lying area where the deep root zone is constantly wet.
My greenhouses are on the highest, driest, and sunniest spots on my property. I love watering! Even right now, I water the center beds in my greenhouses almost every single day.
Here’s the science behind it: A tomato plant receives maximum nutrition through its tiny, white feeder roots. These roots are located in the top layer of the soil. The more of these feeder roots a plant has, the more food it gets.
If we allow the top layer of soil to dry out completely for just 2-3 days, these tiny feeder roots dry up and die off. That’s why it is incredibly important to keep that top layer moist at all times. 🚰🍅
For the past couple of years, I’ve been doing something similar to what Brilliant mentioned. When I plant (early May), I flood the planting trenches incredibly heavily (so the water literally stands in puddles). Then I put floating row covers over low hoops and completely forget about them for 7-10 days.
When I finally take the covers off, the seedlings always look fantastic! 😍✨
Aleksan9ra (Ludmila) wrote:
I think that advice only works if your greenhouse sits in a low-lying area where the deep root zone is constantly wet…
My greenhouse actually sits in quite a low spot, which is exactly why I can usually afford to use this trick to force root growth. But this year, the greenhouse is significantly drier than usual, and I have to keep in mind that the deep soil is still cold.
That being said, the bed I planted on May 3rd (before the heatwave hit) had time to establish, and they are doing fine right now. I’ll probably water them on May 18th.
But the bed I planted on May 7th was the coldest of all, and it looks much worse. Plus, that bed is mostly filled with varieties that naturally have “weeping willow” or droopy foliage (like African Liana, Donkey Ears, Japonka, Malakhitovaya Shkatulka, and Walford’s Wonder), so they naturally look sad and wilted even on a good day. 🥀
I’m not worried about them dying—they will survive, no doubt about it. They endured a week, and it will only get better as the soil warms up. What I AM worried about is that they will flip into generative growth, and in this extreme heat, I won’t be able to pull them out of it. And they’ll flip not because I planted them late, but because my indoor seedlings were overgrown and rootbound by at least 10 days.
On the bright side, this gives me a chance to observe the development of seedlings planted on different dates (April 27, May 3, and May 7).
I still didn’t water them today… Maybe tomorrow… 🤷♂️
The idea that withholding water forces roots to “search for water deep in the ground” is a half-truth that often kills young plants.While it’s true that mature, established tomatoes do better with deep, infrequent watering, a *newly transplanted* seedling does not have a deep root system yet! Its roots are still exactly the size of the pot it came in. If you let the top 4 inches (10 cm) of soil dry out into a hard crust, the plant has no way to reach the deep moisture.As Anya notes, if you want to skip watering for the first week, you must dig a deep trench and flood it with gallons of water *before* placing the plant inside.
