How much watering?

 

Anyone have an idea how often and how long I should water a 7'x8' vegetable
garden?  (carrots, green beans, tomatoes and peppers - not planted yet)
Common sense tells me the best times to water are in the morning before the
sun heats things up and early in the evening when it gets cooler.  Is once a
day enough?  I'm also not quite sure how long to water.  I don't want to
over-do it.  I'll be watering with a hose that has a sprinkler head on it.
I'm thinking a few minutes of watering is plenty for such a small garden.
Am I on the right track?  Sorry if this seems like a silly question to those
of you with a lot of gardening experience.  Prior to this year my closest
experience to gardening was buying vegetables at the grocery store.  Lol
Thanks

 

Hud wrote:

Watering is a learning experience...it can vary from place to place
depending on humidity and type of soil etc etc. I use soaker hoses that
run for 15-20 minutes on timers. With a hose and regular sprinkler
attachment, I doubt I'd water one of my 4x8 plots for more than 2-4
minutes. Once a day is usually fine, too. It is possible to over water.

If you're going to do the watering yourself, I find it's best to do it
in the evening...unless you're up at the crack of dawn. You can tell if
you're underwatering if (given average temps) the next day the soil is
dry and the surface crumbly and cracky. You're overwatering if it's
still soaking wet the next evening. From there, you find a happy medium.

And of course, you don't need to water during wet weather...sometimes
for a day or two later.

If you water too much, also, you'll encourage shallow roots. You want
the roots to go down far...take the moisture from the ground.

  ..

MMVIII

 



My philosphy's been that of minimal interference.  The more you do to
your plants, the more they'll depend on you.

I'm in NE Indiana, and only water the garden when the soil looks like it
needs it.  (Dig down a couple inches and see what the ground looks like
there.)  We get enough rain here that the soil stays sufficiently moist
for plant growth 90% of the time.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

 

wrote:


Jeff Cox says in "Your Organic Garden" that most vegetables need 1/2
to 1 inch of water a week.

It is better to water less often and do it deeper.  To measure the
amount of water you are getting for normal rainfall and hand watering,
put can or pot in the garden, make sure it is level  and stick your
finger in to check.  To the first knuckle is about 1 inch.  Heavy clay
soil holds water better than sandy.  Keeping the garden mulched helps
too.

I believe that you said you were in Ohio.  I do not have the
impression that Ohio is really hot and dry so you may not need to
water very often.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

 



Taking Susan's suggestion of 1/2" to 1" of water per week, for you that
would mean multiplying the length and width of your garden in inches

7' x 12"/ft. = 84"    8' x 12"/ft. = 96"

84" x 96" = 6,064 sq. in. of surface,

1" high would be 6,064 cubic in.

A gallon is 213 cu. in. so,

6,064 cu. in. / (231 cu. in./gal.) = 26.25 gal

Now take a 5 gallon bucket and measure how long it takes you to fill it
with your sprinkler head. Let's call that amount of time "y" minutes or
seconds.

The amount of time you need to water for 1 inch "x" is:

x min.=(26.25 gal )(y min./5 gal)

As Puckdropper says, this is all rather empirical, more importantly
check the dampness of the soil and look for wilting leaves (water
stress). You will quickly get the feel of it. I've always heard that the
best time to water was just when the ground starts to get warm because
this is when the plants can best use the water. Given a choice between
morning and evening, I'd pick morning, again because there would be more
moisture in the ground, being less time between application and need. No
matter when you water, in general, try to water the ground and not the
leaves.

I use drip irrigation. I get the paper in the morning, turn on the
water. Finish my coffee, turn off the  water. Watering is very relaxing,
if you have the time, and lets you spend more time observing your work.

- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)