Hi All,

I have been lurking on this forum for about a year and have found it tremendously helpful in setting up my first container garden on my deck - last year I only grew petunias and mint. This year I am still totally new to gardening but I have a bunch of flowers, a blueberry bush, pole beans, lots of herbs, 7 chile peppers, and 3 tomato plants. Most of the plants are in self-watering containers because I travel frequently.

Everything was going great until the past week, when I got over 12 inches of rain in less than four days (I'm in the DC metro area). When the rain finally stopped, I went out to check on my plants. Most seem to have come through relatively unscathed, and as a bonus, the rain seems to have knocked all the aphids off my pepper plants. However, I have two tomato plants (Stupice and Andrew Rahart varieties), both about 4-5 feet tall, in a large self-watering container with a few basil plants. The container is mulched with a red plastic sheet which is supposed to warm the soil and boost production. When I checked it, the basil was all very pale and the Stupice tomato plant had one or two branches that were completely wilted and droopy. I quickly realized that was because all the rain had not drained through the container, due to the plastic mulch, and so the container was full to the brim with standing water. I dumped it out, but there's no way to empty the bottom, self-watering reservoir to help the soil dry out more. When I checked the plants last night, the basil had regained its color and looks fine, and the Andrew Rahart looks fine. The Stupice however, looks even worse. Instead of one or two branches looking wilted or droopy, now almost all of them do.

My question, and I apologize for the long post, is whether I can expect this plant to come back, and if so, what I can do to help. Yesterday and today are sunny and hot and it's predicted to stay that way for the near future.