How to Save Over-watered Tomato Plants

One of the most common errors that new gardeners make is over-watering. It’s tempting to water your tomato plants daily but that might not be what your plants require, unless you live somewhere super warm and dry. Here are some tips on how to save an over-watered tomato plant.

For starters, how would you know if your tomato plant is over-watered. The most common signs and symptoms include the discoloration of the tomato plant leaves, a wilting structure, and root rots. You may also notice fruit cracking for tomato plants that are near maturity. Over-watering can also be noticed by the condition of the soil. If the soil is too damp then you may notice tiny puddles of water along the surface of the soil.

If you want to save your over-watered tomato plant then it’s important to take action as soon as possible. If the tomato plant is grown in a pot or container then the first step is to gently pull the tomato plant out (without damaging the roots). Once that’s done, you should gently place the roots of the tomato plant on some newspaper so that the paper can draw away some of the excess moisture. While that’s going on, prepare new potted soil in the tomato plant container. You could also wait for the existing potted soil to dry out although it’s probably best if you don’t wait too long.

Usually, we would recommend using new potted soil because the previous soil may contain things like bacteria, fungi, and viruses due to the prolonged exposure to standing water. Once you have re-potted the tomato plant, it’s a matter of just watering on the right schedule. We suggest you only add water to the soil when the top inches start to feel dry.