Plant Watering

If you grow vegetables or you are just about too for the first time then you should know how important water is for plants, but how do you go about watering your plants correctly?

You may think that giving all of your vegetables a good blast with the hosepipe or a watering can once or twice a day is good enough, but sadly it is not as different vegetables require very different watering routines to get the best crop from them.

A good example of this is that some plants need watering at least once a day such as tomato plants, yet other plants such as cabbages, cauliflowers and sprouts can cope with being left on their own to survive on the natural watering they get when it rains.

But these forms of plant watering are totally different. The tomatoes rely on you watering the roots ideally twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. The cabbages and cauliflowers take on board most of their water through their large leaves when it rains, however if you only water your tomatoes leaves then they will not get enough water and indeed watering them mid-morning on a hot summers day is likely to mean that your tomato plants end up with leaf burn, and the leaves will not recover from it.

Likewise if you soak the roots of your cabbages and cauliflowers twice a day then the roots may well become waterlogged and fungal rot may set in as a result.

So it is obvious that some plants have very different watering schedules compared to others so you always need to ensure you water your plants not only at the right time of day but also give them the correct watering.

Taking tomato plants again, they are best watered when it is cool, so ideally water them early in the morning before you go to work and last thing at night when the sun has just gone down. This should keep the plants roots damp and stop them drying out during the day.

Other plants such as runner beans will thrive when it rains but will also benefit from watering the roots with a hosepipe or watering can every 4-5 days if it has not rained. Other plants such as most root vegetables will be happy just to be watered by Gods own rain and nothing else is often needed.

Once you have established what the right watering regime is for each type of plant then you begin to think about installing an automatic watering system. These come in many forms from gravity powered systems through to electronic watering controls that can water your plants at preset times of day.

Whilst an automatic watering system may seem lazy, if you lead a busy life and are constantly losing vegetable plants to lack of water then they are well worth considering, they also look after themselves whilst you are on holiday. So you do not have to worry about someone else watering your vegetables.

By Richard Allen -