[Tenhens]

February's issue of Gardeners World has an article about tomato watering using three different growing methods.

Growing bag , In the ground and in a pot. Watering was done daily , every three days and weekly. All plants were grown in a poly tunnel and the variety was Gardener's Delight.

The grow bags - 2 plants per bag produced 31 tomatoes , 35 and 45 per plant . Watering daily, every three days and weekly.

In the ground    produced 24 , 29 and 14 on the watering schedule

In the pot results were 19 , 22 and 15

All the plants were fed with a high-potash feed once a week when the fruits had started to set.

The 'winner' was the plant in a grow bag, watered once a week! There was no discernible difference in taste or texture. 

[oldgrunge]

Interesting, started growing mine in pots last year, not sure yet about results. Thought it would be am improvement on grow bags, now I'm not so sure. But I did put three plants to a bag.

[adri123]

Much depends on the quality of the growbag I think.  Premium branded vs Aldi cheapo will give very different results.

[oldgrunge]

Oddly, last time I grew toms in grow bags, I used a premium brand, and Aldi bags - there was no discernible difference.

[mumofstig]

A trial is a trial - but I bet you'd have trouble repeating those results 

Number of fruits need to be weighed, before it can be called a true comparison.
Also in the ground, different areas often give different results...it's all a bit simple for me.................. sorry!

[BabbyAnn]

I'm inclined to agree with mumofstig - it's a very small sample and might be different if there had been say 100 or more plants for each scenario.  Also, I'm a bit confused about the experiment - are you saying that one bag containing 2 plants was watered daily, another bag every 3 days and the last just once a week?  Like-wise the others treated the same way?  Surely conditions would play a role too such as heat and humidity - some days hotter than others especially when the sun was at its strongest.  I wonder how many of the say weekly ones had blossom end rot as a result of stringent watering?

[Tenhens]

"Time-saving guide to tomatoes"            "Want to grow tomatoes but don't have the time to water them? Kay Maguire tests just how little you can water and still get a bumper harvest with surprising results"

"Our watering trial"  "We grew tomatoes in nine different ways to test the impact of watering on the harvest"
From the magazine

Grow bags appear to give the best results. With a 'test' of this nature there are going to be variables. Blossom End Rot does not get mentioned, nor does the size requirement of the fruit.

[mumofstig]

There's nothing wrong with anything they said  - it's just think it's an unreliable test.

Up to everyone to make up their own mind, perhaps do their own trial 

[Dave NE]

My toms are going in wicking tubs this year, interested to see the results at the end of the season, Dave

[Kristen]

it's a very small sample

Quite

I haven't seen the article but if:

"The grow bags - 2 plants per bag produced 31 tomatoes , 35 and 45 per plant . Watering daily, every three days and weekly."

was 3 growbags in total, each with two plants, each with a different watering schedule - i.e. one bag per test - then it isn't worth the paper its written on. Far too small a sample to have any statistical significant whatsoever.

At best, given they only grew one variety, it has no relevance to any other variety of Tomato ...

[jrko]

The only statistical significance is how many of these poorly designed 'tests' make it to print.  I take most tests with a pinch of salt unless the method is clearly described and the numbers are large.

We've been doing this for millennia so stick to what's works. 

No point reinventing the wheel because plants don't have them   

[JayG]

If I've understood the experiment correctly, they appear to have drawn an illogical conclusion - 2 out of the 3 growing methods were less productive under the weekly watering regime. 

You could reasonably conclude from this stastically insignificant trial that growing GD in growbags is possibly more productive than in soil or pots, but we don't know what the soil was like, or what was in the pots.

Bet the growbags weren't the skinny cheapo ones, although even so they must have absolutely drowned the ones on the weekly watering regime. 

[Kristen]

The only statistical significance is how many of these poorly designed 'tests' make it to print.

Did GW copy an article for Daily Express or Daily Mail perhaps?

[8doubles]

Water them when they need watering !

Watering them twice daily if needed !

[Baldy]

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics"
and tomatos...
 
Pip pip,
Balders