Help with my tomato plant? Water/Pollinating?

What kind of soil in your raised bed? Seems to me if it's loamy, especially since the bed is raised, it may drain faster than regular ground. I'm not sure, but I grow in containers, and have that problem, so I worry. lol Basically check the soil before watering. If it's dry an inch or two down, then, yeah you're doing it right. I water every early evening and it works for me. (If you water early in the evening, that's fine. It's when it's starting to get dark out and you're just watering there is a problem - a chance of mold or mildew because it doesn't evaporate at night as easily. You have to watch out for this forum. Too many people assume about everyone else's conditions by their conditions and simply tell how they do it, like that works for every condition. A guarantee - if you ask a tomato question on this forum, someone will tell you your over watering and someone will tell you your under watering. The reality is, you water when they ground tells you it needs water. - which is the purpose of sticking your finger down an inch or two.)

Second, pollination by toothbrush? Two problems with that. Bees pollinate tomatoes. Keep your bees happy (give them flowers to visit and they're happy lol) and you don't have to worry about pollinating. And, toothbrush? Can you even do that without scrapping out all the things in the flower that it needs to pollinate? Sounds a bit rough on the flower.

If, for some kind of freaky reason bees aren't coming (and our country is suffering from something called Bee Hive Collapse, which is killing entire colonies of bees, so there is potential for "freaky reason"), if you just gotta pollinate, use a soft, thin paintbrush, not a toothbrush. And, learn how to hand pollinate. It's not just dipping the brush in each flower. It's collecting the pollen and then transferring it. But seriously? I've never heard of anyone that needed to pollinate tomatoes, and since you already have five growing on yours, apparently the bees are doing it right.

Also, everyone seems to be telling you that the flowers die in heatwaves. Really? I live in Philly. We don't get up to 100 often, but we hit the 90s way too often. (Once is too often for me, however, right now our weather says we'll be in this same heatwave - which is defined as getting into the 90s for 3 or more days in a row - as far as the extended forecast shows for 10 more days, at least. AND, we've been in it for 2 days now.)

August is usually more heatwaves than July around here. Two summers ago we had an over 100 three days in a row heatwave, too, and it never stopped the tomatoes from coming. Of course, we tend to grow 4-6 tomato plants per year, not merely one. (13 plants this year, but only because we couldn't throw away volunteers from last year's plants that the neighborhood squirrels pigged out on. lol) With that, we don't study each and every flower. Still, enough grow that there is never a time with less tomatoes coming up. I'd go with don't worry about the flowers that die off. Just seems that some do that. Don't worry. You'll get more tomatoes coming. After all, you live in the farm belt. I lived in Illinois for a couple of years when I was a teen. That was the most beautiful soil I've ever seen in my life, and I grew up in "The Garden State" (Jersey) and now get my soil out of bags. Your soil wins, hands down. lol

Oh and the scalding the plant is a bit of a old wives' tale mixed in with a little reality. Water on the leaves don't scald. They just don't, but, if you have a puddle under your plant too long, it can heat up like your steaming your plant, so it can hurt your plant. The obvious solution is not to let it puddle under it. You can water the leaves if you want, but the plant needs water in the ground, not on the leaves. ;)

As for tomato plants being so easy to grow. They are. You're proof. You already have 4-5 growing. Just don't worry so much. ;)

Unless you have a "heatset" type of tomato, the blossoms will not set fruit if daytime temperatures are repeatedly above the mid nineties. They will form but fall off before setting fruit. This is called blossom drop and is a survival reaction of a stressed plant (too much heat). You can help if you rig up some temporary shade for during the hottest part of the afternoon. If you don't have insects to do the pollinating you can gently shake the plant or tap the blossoms with a fingernail to loosen and distribute pollen inside that blossom. Tomato blossoms have both male and female parts in each blossom so it isn't necessary to move pollen from one to the other.

Don't try to follow a set schedule for watering. There are too many variables. When the top couple of inches of soil is dry to the touch, give it a good soaking. Water in the morning before sun and wind can evaporate the water and the plant can utilize that water during the heat of the day. Evening watering can leave the plant wet all night which can promote viral disease. I garden in the tropics and have never, ever, "scalded" a tomato plant, or any other plant, when I sprinkled it in the sun.

When temperatures are that high tomatoes will not set fruit, the blooms will just dry up. There is nothing short of moving them into an air conditioned space with a lower temperature that you can do. A lot of people make the mistake of adding more and more water, that will not help, all you will accomplish is to drown the plant. Just keep checking the soil and when it is dry down about 2 inches below the surface, water it. Eventually the temps will go down and if you have kept the plant healthy it will again start producing tomatoes.

There is no set time frame when you should water. YOU HAVE TO CHECK THE SOIL AND LET IT TELL YOU WHEN IT NEEDS WATER. In really hot weather you may need to water twice a day. This crap about scalding the plant is just that,--- a bunch of crap. I never water the leaves, I water the soil beneath the plant with a slow running water supply so that the water does not dig holes. A short length of soaker hose circling the plant is a very good way to go.

Tomatoes, indeed look easy, and so many people do it? I also live in the midwest and find tomatoes can be a great challenge here. We have a blight, and many insects that attack them. Personally I have found the easiest to deal with are the"patio tomatoes" container type plant. There are many of these, they produce well but they are very small.

It is easier to control the water usage, diseases etc, You said you are a beginner. The most successful gardeners in this area use greenhouses. This reduces the heat factor and its easy to control the environment of the plants. Congratulations on trying to pollinate the plants yourself. You did not say if it was successful Good luck.

Problem #1: "I water it everynight."

Solution: Stop watering ever night.

This is totally unecessary and harmful (See Problem #3)

Water when the top two inches of soil are dry to the touch.

Problem #2 "...the temps are about mid 90's to mid 100's. [...] '''the flowers seem like they're drying up.

Solution: Tomato pollen dies in extreme heat.

Nothing you can do but wait for cooler weather.

Problem #3: "The plant looks wilted." See solution to Problem #1

Probelm #4: I am starting to pollinate it myself with a toothbrush to see if that works"

See solution to Problem #2.

Make it simple :) Water your plant every other day and water it either every other morning or every other night. If you water it in the morning be sure that it's not yet sunny because that will cause the plant to dry and burn. With my tomato plants, I don't pollinate them by hand I sort of let nature take it's course so don't worry about hand pollination. Good Luck!

If its wilting then your not watering enough , deep soak it , you should get a reaction right away.