I've got some ripe tomatoes going already on a 12 hour light cycle showing signs of funk. I've got them in pots sitting on a tarp. When I water them, the excess comes out of the bottom of the pots and just pools on the tarp. I can't the tomatoes sitting in water is good and maybe it is drowning them? I've been pushing the excess water off the tarp but it is a pain to do after each watering. Is it okay to have a little water pooling under the pots? Is there any better way to absorb or get rid of the water? I have the tomatoes in a grodan cube inside a pot with soil. I've been watering twice a day.
You should only be watering once every three days or so. Your soil tells you when it's time. You stick your finger in the soil and feel for dampness. If it's damp, it can wait. If it's dry, time to water. Twice a day might happen at the very end of your plants life but I doubt it your pots should also have collectors at the bottom to catch runoff. Letting it run to a tarp is a bad idea. It sounds messy and the tarp will begin to fail. Most plastic pots come with the runoff catchers connected
Tomatoes, really? This forum is about growing marijuana, and this sub-forum is about grow room design/setup not watering. As for water runoff, put a tray under the pots. Duh.
Watering frequency depends on many factors that have not been made clear by the OP. Pot size, grow medium, plant size, relative humidity, temperature, etc... He very well may need to water daily. It all depends on the specific setup. I agree though, checking for moisture with your finger and getting a sense of The weight of a dry vs a wet pot, is the best method I've found. I also concur with the suggestions to get some saucers and stop letting the runoff go everywhere. If there is standing water in the saucers, you can suck it out with a turkey baster by hand, or setup a pump with lines to each saucer and pump the water out. Or just let it evaporate if humidity isn't a problem. Or raise the grow onto grow tables and use one catch bucket for all the runoff. Grow tables offer a lot of advantages over floor growing. I do both, and greatly prefer working on the tables.