Watering when hot

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urbanchicks
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Watering when hot

Post by urbanchicks »

It is such a hard and long job watering the garden,pots and baskets in this fine weather any tips?My baskets have the water retainning gel but do dry out quickly, howw do you all manage with watering?


Maggie
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Re: Watering when hot

Post by Maggie1 »

The best time to water is early morning or late evening. after 10am definitely not when the sun is out or at the hottest. You've done water retaining crystals which is good. Failing that water twice a day especially with your heatwave. Guess what we've had rain on and off all day.
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lancashire lass
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Re: Watering when hot

Post by lancashire lass »

When I make a hanging basket, I put a dish inside (such as a plastic tray that had mushrooms in or similar) The rest of the basket has drainage so that when I water, excess will drain out but the tray (filled with compost and sand) will be like a little reservoir where the plants roots can take in water. When I was growing toms in baskets, they were thirsty plants especially when they started to get big and full of fruit, so I made little water bottles (a standard 300ml pop bottle with a hole in the cap which I pushed into the compost, and a pin prick hole which sucks air in slowly as the bottle empties - you have to remember to put your finger over the hole when filling the bottle up with water LOL) After I'd watered but before I left for work, I'd pop the bottles into the compost and let them slowly drip so it kept the baskets moist for the day.

Other pots are in trays - during hot weather, I'll add extra water in the tray so that the compost won't dry out.

Along the same lines as the pop bottles for the hanging baskets, you can buy spikes (I got some from a Bettaware catalogue but they are like these from Amazon) which replace the cap so you can fill say a 2L bottle and push this into the soil next to plants. It directs the water straight down to the roots rather than on the surface where most of it will dry off in a hot sun. Following on from that theme, you can sink a plant pot next to plant (perhaps fill with stones) and water in that rather than the soil surface.

Then there is the moat method - some plants such as squashes don't like their crown being wet, so make a small trench round the plant like a moat and fill it up with water. Like the plant pot method, the water goes down to the roots.

Ever picked up a rock and found that the soil underneath is still moist while the rest of the bed looks bone dry? Mulching is a very good method to retain moisture - grass cuttings, bark chippings, gravel - you'll find that moisture is less likely to evaporate from the soil surface.

Breaking up the soil helps too - if you have heavy soil, all the soil grains are compacted and so the sun bakes it solid. In one way this seals the moisture underneath, but when you come to water or when it rains, most of that water runs off. So breaking up the soil especially round the plant means the water goes straight to the roots.

For those with sandy soil, you should add lots of vegetable matter such as compost which will absorb moisture and so not dry out as quickly.

Even how you water makes a difference too - despite having a hose-pipe at the allotment, early this morning I was out there with the watering can (without the rose) and watered the base of the plants. The rose breaks up the stream of water into droplets that go everywhere, whereas a heavy dump of water is more precise and adds a lot of water quickly.

The ultimate watering system is of course automated LOL - you can buy the hose and bits from most garden centres and diy stores. The popular Hozelok are expensive but you can get a cheaper kit from say B&Q, and then packs of bits (T-pieces and nozzles) to build on it. A battery operated timer is fitted to the outside tap which is left on, and it can be programmed to let water through as and when you like. It's very good for potted plants and hanging baskets - it will need a bit of diy to fasten the hoses to walls etc but once set up, you'd never have to worry about having to go out and water by hand ever again (except to check the battery is still working), and of course, is perfect if you go away for a few days. You could fit the watering system to a water butt with a tap at the base if you wanted so all you have to do is fill the butt up, but as you are using gravity rather than pressure, you'll have to make sure the tap is above the height of the hoses (hope that makes sense)
urbanchicks
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Re: Watering when hot

Post by urbanchicks »

Thank you for your helpful tips.

Maggie
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