Grow Your Own Magazine

I could do with some tips about watering. I am always in a quandry as to whether to:

• water a little but often (ie every day) or
• water a lot but occasionally (say three times a week?)

and

• should the hose be directed at the soil or
• above the plant (so that the leaves get wet),
• or a combination of both.

Grateful for advice from all of you in the know

From someone not in the know that is a very good question - please can I add....watering seedings - was thinking of buying one of those childrens watering cans so that the spray was more gentle than from a normal can...any ideas? Bernie aka Dexterdog

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

Jennie
Watering is not a simple business.
Little and often means that the plant will dry out quicker if insufficient is supplied - just because the soil surface is wet, the water may not get down to the roots where it is needed. In addition, little and often leads to more loss through evaporation.
However, a lot of water all at once may also stress the plant, as it will have begun to dry out - especially bad for veggies.
In theory, you should aim to keep the plants roots continually supplied with sufficient water to aid growth but not drown the plant !
Soaker hoses or T tape are good for this, releasing approx beween 1 and 8 litres of water per metre per hour. (T tape operates better buried but is considerably cheaper to buy than a soaker hose)
Where to put the water is another matter - try to avoid splashing water on the leaves - on a hot day this can scorch the leaves and damage the plant. In addition, water aids the transmission of various viruses etc so best keep your plants dry up top.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

We water the vegetables and fruit at the allotment every other evening but if the weather is hot every evening. I also water around the base of the plants and give squashes and courgettes a good soaking. Cauliflowers can be spoilt if they get water on the curds. As Rat says try to avoid splashing water on the leaves as this can cause the sun to damage them.

LJ isn't JA lucky
the words watering and hose in the same e-mail
we get to top up our bins in the weekly bunfight that is the hose is on
last man standing gets to fill first

on our lottie site we rely on the gods!.......Bernie aka Dexterdog

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

Well then Bernie don't let him rain on your cauliflower curds!!!

Phil we fill our water butts up if it hasn't been raining (which it always is!) and then use watering cans. It takes bloody ages doesn't it??

Hello Jennie, I go with Rat on the don't wet the foliage if you don't have to. It only leads to problems. I have a Rapitest meter, (about £8 from garden store I think) which I prod in and it shows how wet the soil is. Then it's down to which plants want to be damp at all times, watered thoroughly once dry, kept on the dry side, or what ? As Rat says - no simple matter. But I think the meter at least lets me know what is going on - then I can decide what to do

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

There have to be some benefits living here!

Thanks very much for all your advice and thanks SR for explaining it all so well. Am hoping to get a soaker hose for the polytunnel so perhaps that is the best way forward.

One thing I read, which quite appealed, was to dig a groove alongside the row and fill that with water - also dig in a pot next to say a tomato plant and fill that up - has anyone tried these ideas and if so with what results ?

We place upsidedown 2 litre bottles with the bottoms cut out next to each of the tomato and cucumber plants and top them up as required.
Works really well ( thankgoodness I have student kids who are happy to help out with the consumption of the 2 litre bottles in the first place!!)

Yes rednotdead I always put a pot beside each tomato, cucumber and courgette plant. It means the watering goes straight to the roots and doesn't wash the soil away around the base of the stem. Really necessary if they are in a grow bag too.

I'm with Nicos on the plastic bottle recycling for courgettes and cukes. Have used small pots with toms with some success.

DDL - I use one of those things that screw on to a plastic bottle and that works great. I think betterware do them, lakeland too but they are more expensive and one of the local garden centres sells them individually at 40p each (I think it was last year).

I can look to see if I have a spare one (had 6 at one point) and pop it in the post if you like.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

I use inverted pop bottles too...water the roots not the bare soil
BTW, my allotment is ablaze with flowers: cornflower, dahlia, limnanthes, calendula - none of them have been watered so I believe that you don't have to water as much as you think you do. (The veg seedlings do get watered cos they only have tiny roots at the mo)

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