The solution to this is to water from the bottom. Watering doesn't disturb the top soil, and the plants learn to reach down for water. And, water will wick up through the peat-heavy container soil I use.

The first year I put a tube through the soil to the bottom of each planter, and did pretty well with some cheapo plants. I never got to enjoy much of the fruits of my labours because I went to Bristol and then the Beach. The second year I didn't use the tubes, and top-watered, partly laziness and partly wondering if it mattered. Last year's plants did not do well because it was harder to water evenly. With the prior year's tubes I could fill the bottom of a container until the hydrostatic pressure at the base of the tube was greater than the pressure in the column of water in the tube. In effect I created a water table for each plant. And it was easier to water as a daily habit: just add water until I can't. Miss a day or two in the heat and there's still a lot of water in the container.

This year I thought if I was going to the effort to grow tomatoes again I needed to solve the watering problem. I like a little interesting work up-front to take away a lot of uninteresting work later. And I wondered if I could improve on my tube setup from the year before - it worked, but my funnel-pressed-on to the tube connection was poor, especially as the plants grew.

So, I trolled a Dollar Store for something "tubey" and a new set of funnels. For cheap. For $5.18 I carried out a kid's hockey net set, 2 funnel sets, and a tube of contact cement. I grabbed an old shirt I kept for its end-of-life rag value.

Here's how that became plumbing for my new tomato plants, Franco and Ernestina, after Frank and Ernest , a comic strip I liked (and clipped) from the newspaper.

plumbing for each container The hockey net had 8 red plastic tubes, 8 white plastic elbows, 2 white plastic connector tubes, and a net. Net aside, the rest made 2 sets of convenient shapes.		ascending-size holes drilled On the underside, drainage holes that get larger with distance from the main feed tube, to try to keep water pressure even. Styrofoam poked out of some computer packaging seals the open tube end.		in the containers Trim 1" off each short tube and the whole unit fits right in the bottom of a container, kept about 1" off the bottom by plastic struts molded into the container. The vertical tube is plenty long enough to reach above the soil.		covered with wicking The old (cotton corduroy) shirt gets cut up and used to line each container to wick water up the walls and keep dirt from clogging the holes in the short tubes. I have no idea if this will matter.
the happy couple		the happier couple		Franco is a Hybrid Roma		Ernestina is a Bush Early Girl II
Some Dianthus for around each plant, though both are a bit shrubby to leave much room.		The funnels were trimmed and cemented to the white connector tubes - very convenient to be able to slip the funnels off the plumbing. I didn't glue anything else together because leakage doesn't matter. I first filled a container with 2L of water, and some soil. Then I placed the plant in the middle of this soup, and filled around it in 2 layers of soil and bone meal, each layer watered in with 2L of water. Finally I dressed the top and watered in with another 2L of water. That's 8L of water to build a reserve and consolidate the soil around the plant.

We'll see how that works. Overnight the peaty potting soil will absorb a lot of water, and it won't be hot for a few days, so the plants won't be very thirsty. I have to add the dollar-store metal broom handles I got in the first year to add more support than the cages that came with the plants offer. Next summer maybe I'll find a better support system.