With some time still left to the season and my tomatoes still producing new fruit, I was hoping to revive my experiment even though I suspect that we're going to continue to have a good amount of rain through the end of summer.

My question is: if I cover the soil with plastic, is that sufficiently "dry" in the event of rain, or will the leaves and the fruits themselves actually be absorbing enough rain water to nullify the dry-farming flavor effect?

Or to put it another way, how much water is absorbed by leaves and fruit when it rains? Could you, for example, avoid splitting fruit by covering the soil, or would it actually be necessary to cover the plant? (I know you can harvest early to avoid splitting fruit - I'm just trying to understand the water absorption aspect).

Thanks to anyone who takes this question on.

Sorry I can't be of more help; in my area I have rather the opposite problem of trying to keep the soil wet enough for anything to grow.

I'm not too worried about covering the soil - I'm not using an airtight cover, the soil is not that wet and it's also not that hot right now (I'm in NY). The plants have a good amount of leaves that shade the soil, so trapped heat isn't an issue, though I can see why it would be in your neighborhood!

The plants that I did not mulch with black plastic were semi mulched with newspaper, but it was difficult to keep it in place and some of it blew away. The plants in that row were much more susceptible to disease than the ones in the black plastic.

I plan to mulch them all with black plastic next year, to leave large holes around each plant (covered in some kind of mulch that will enable me to water them easily if I need to). It gets tricky to water through tiny holes when I'm standing some distance away because the plants are so bushy!

One problem with the black plastic that I used was that it was very thin and weeds grew underneath it. I lifted it, installed newspaper to block all the light, and re-installed the plastic.

HTH,
Linda

Of those plants that can stand minimal amount of soil moisture, are the ones that have long tap roots.
Farmers have tried to grow plants in arid conditions for ages and they have found methods and varieties more suitable. They have been doing it, not because of fun but as a matter of necessity. I want to just tell you how to grow watermelon in an arid condition.

1- Dig a ditch(~18" diameter, ~18" deep.
2- Prepare the soil down there,( Mostly clay)
3- plant the seeds.
4- as the seeds turn into seedlings(1 or 2 of them), keep filling around the stems. Until you have a shallow dish-like formation around the plant. This is to collect rain water by a remote chance.This also reduces exposure , as opposed to hilling that increses the exposure.
5- mulch it to prevent from excessive drying.

6- you may choose to give each plant one glass of water now and then.

You will end up with some small but sweet tasting watermelons.

Linda - Are you using plastic in order to conserve water or are you trying to restrict the intake of water in your plants (i.e. dry farming)?

I'm using the plastic in order to conserve water. Isn't that a similar idea to dry farming? I have only heard about the concept quite recently and think it's an excellent idea.

Linda

In my case, I haven't needed to conserve water this year because we've had ample rain. I haven't needed to water at all. Now, I'm actively trying to limit the amount of water that is getting to my plants so as to improve flavor, but in reality, I really should have started much earlier to have the results I'm looking for. (in other words, this experiment is probably not going to work, but I'm doing it anyway!)

Thanks for explaining. I like the idea of concentrating the flavour! I also like the idea of not watering and not getting blossom end rot, but it seems difficult to dry farm when Mother Nature decides to bless us with some showers!

Linda