The ground itself *used* to be dry rocky clay. Been working on that for a few years now, and it's turning into Good! clay, amended mostly with home-grown compost (yard waste, UCGs, non meat/dairy kitchen scraps -although we *do* add eggshells, some paper or cardboard) and the occasional addition of this or that, such as the early addition of the remains of our peat supply and mulching. No tilling in this spot thankfully, we'd tried it in others and found we have hellgrass. I fork the plot and pull the weeds and roots pre- and post-season.

Past years I've had a very hard time with tomatoes anywhere in the bed. I've never grown many out there, it's about 150 sq. ft. in this bed. We keep getting plants that occasionally look ... just beaten down, which I've started to suspect is some of the wind. Last two years we've had nearly NO harvest due to early splitting and rotting or BER.

It was *better* last year when I covered the plantings in cardboard and topped that with a light layer of woodchips to keep it all down, but still not what I'd call good.

I've considered a drip system of some sort, but I have no means (nor, currently, money, ability, time or patience!) to set up a pump/timer system. I've been debating if setting something up using gravity for flow would work, but all the numbers and measurements for materials and flowrate seem to be based on pump/timer systems. I'm aware that's more of a question for the irrigation forums, and I'll probably take it there eventually. (A platform with a 5g bucket attached to a line? Then I'd just fill the bucket and be done? Maybe?)
Still, I've grown many other crops out here with success, and still the tomatoes defeat me!
I thought I'd drop all the info I have and see if any nuggets of wisdom or ideas pop up. :)

#2! WHAT? Not done yet!?
Heh. At least this one's basic.
We have some sparse bulbs along the back of the house, where our hose is. Easy to water!!
D'you all think I could plunk a Sungold in there so we have more attention on it? We're hoping for at least some cherries for the kids? I'm not sure if this will interfere any with the spring bulbs that are in there now. Nothing else is really there but lily-of-the-valley and I don't mind digging any of that out. ;) And nothing else really grows there but weeds, once the bulbs are done. I'm not a bulb person, so I'm clueless here.

o_0;
Thanks!!!

Since wind is a problem, I would not plant until its really warmed up and make a 3-4 foot wind barrier around the garden make from anything like burlap and poles, to solid fencing.

Watering regularly can stop spliting. When plants are dried out and then the soil gets drenched leads plants to aborb too much water causing spliting. Best cure, get a hose extension and water/sprinkle at regular intervals during any dry times > 2-3 days or extreme heat.

The hoses we have *just* reach to the garden, but are there any suggestions on amount/frequency of watering?
I'd usually heard, before, of 20-30 minutes of steady watering once or twice a week. Alternatively, I've heard 'just don't let it be dry any further down than an inch or two below the soil surface' or similar variants.

Neither of these seem to be doing the trick for me. I'm aware that either may have been just the wrong choice in the wrong year, but I'd rather not go yet another round of wasting half of the space to something that won't produce.

Tomatoes need between one and three inches of water per week depending on your soil (more for sandy or rapidly draining soil, less for clay or soil that does not drain well). An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 4.7 gallons of water per square yard or 22,650 gallons of water per acre!

So a 5 gallon bucket on a gravity flow system would work for your single sungold cherry, but not for an area with several plants.

A drip system on a timer would be ideal. I realize you said money is tight, but you are expecting, so I think you need to talk someone into buying you another length of hose so that watering is easier for you.

An inch of rain is exactly that, water that is one inch deep. One inch of rainfall equals 4.7 gallons of water per square yard or 22,650 gallons of water per acre!

GardenWebber sprouts_honor (Jennifer from Cleveland) had a wonderful suggestion on how to tell whether or not you need to water your tomatoes, and I quote here: "Get a wooden dowel rod (or two) and sink it in the ground near a plant or two and leave it. Pull it out when you think you need to water. If the top is dry and the bottom is a little damp, it's time to water. If it looks dark and feels saturated, wait to water. I use this technique with potted plants that don't like being over watered and it's helpful with in ground plants too."

By the way, we live on land that has no windbreak either. If my tomato plants are properly grown and hardened off, they seem to do just fine unless we have wind gusts up to 45 MPH. When I put them out, I do try to some sort of wind break for a few days on the side of the prevailing winds, and within a few days have the first course of the Florida weave up.

I hope that helps.

Betsy