question about watering for Locakelly and others

Kelly- You have mentioned on different threads that you water deeply every 3 days. What does that mean exactly? How are you watering... drip, hose, watering can? How much water do you give each plant?? Are there any plants that need more or less water than others? For example, does a watermelon need more water than say a bell pepper? I have plants in raised beds, half wine barrels, and in the ground. Would you water these all the same, or would you water some more or less often??

If anyone else has any suggestions on watering, I am happy for the advice!

Thanks!

I am an extreme newbie to veggie gardening, but have lots of landscaping and flower and tree gardening experience.
I take my cues from Texas farmers and what I see them grow without additional irrigation.
Corn and watermelon does not need too much water.
Cucumbers and squash need lots of daily watering, maybe twice a day here in hot Texas.
Don't skip days on watering tomatoes, to avoid cracks in the skin. Same for jalapenos and other peppers. Their skins can crack too.
Raised beds and containers ALWAYS need more watering than plants in the ground. These especially need mulching, even if little handfuls for each container.

I'm out there handwatering every day. We will be putting taller risers on the sprinkler system in our landscaping to water the containers, in the fall. But this is only if we go out of town for a couple of days because this means putting the containers right up under the sprinkler heads. I learned the hard way not to skip days on watering plants. The veggies can dry up fast and can't be plumped up afterwards.

The best system is to install a drip system. That way the leaves of the plants don't get wet, to avoid fungus growth. A master gardener, Dr. Tom Harris, will be publishing a book soon called "Drip Line Gardening".
http://voices.mysanantonio.com/waytogrow/

Installing a drip system also helps to stay gardening. Lot less work on a daily basis.

organicfarm has good advice there JLEM...

All my watering is done by hand with a hose;o)

What I have in the ground is mainly ornamentals - flowers, shrubs, trees... Summer watering for trees (mostly citrus) is 1 x week. The hose runs on them at a slow rate for a few hours. Things like established bougainvillea and cape honeysuckle get no supplemental water unless we get no rain - a common occurence int he summer. Then the CH gets weekly water and the bougies maybe 1 x month.

Anything in pots gets watered daily. I try to keep things in as much shade as they can tolerate and still produce/flower. Cuts down on watering. Also, pots sitting on the ground seem to do better than pots on stands, et cetera...

All my veggies are in raised beds. Most vegetables as a general rule of thumb need 1" of water/week. If you don't get rain you need to provide the water. Evey 3 days, deep water - the hose is placed in the beds and waters slowly. My goal is to let the water soak in deeply and not run off and out the bottoms of the beds;o) Since we get little rain here in Phoenix, it is pretty easy for me to control fruit cracking in the tomatoes since I control their water. Before watering I also like to pick all the ripe ones and a lot that have blushed.

In general, anything in the ground will require watering less often than things in raised beds or containers. It takes trial and error to get a schedule down. Also, mulch, mulch, mulch - especially in hot climates. It really does help keep the moisture in longer and helps to keep the plants' roots cooler. Mulch is your friend;o)

An irrigation or drip system is nice, but for me the fact that I garden in raised beds and am always harvesting and replanting something makes it a pain. I don't want to me moving and dealing with hoses in my way... My veggie beds are currently 108 sq ft, so it is a manageable size for me to hand water. Takes me about an hour to do the beds. I have 3 4x4 beds, 1 4x10 bed and 1 2x10 bed...

Hope this helps...

JLEM, I do raised bed vegetable gardening. I have two 40x4, two 20x4 and one 24x4 beds. This spring I ran pvc pipe through out my beds. I tried drip tips but didn't like how they worked so I removed them and drilled holes with the tinyest drill bit I had. On the pipes I ran to water my beans I drilled a hole ever six inchs. The ones that watered cages I drilled a hole that put the water right in the cage next to the plants. Each bed has all the pipes tied in to a main water supply that connects to my hose. I installed gate valves on each pipe so I could control the flow to each pipe. I run the water as slow as I can. This way I can leave it and do something else. When I see a little water begin to seep out of the bottom of the bed I turn the water off. I water raised beds every other day unless we get a nice rain of a half inch or more. This has really worked well for me. It frees up my time so I can accomplish other things and I get a lot better job of watering. This is also the first year that I haven't been bothered with blossom end rot in tomatoes. I think the reason is because the watering is consistent. Hope this helps a little.

Jim, wanna come to Phoenix and install one of those in my beds - lol?

I sure wouldn't mind it. I was experimenting with mine and now I know how to do it. It is really very simple and not to expensive.

Better wait 'til fall though, or better yet winter. It's about 112° today in the shade and humid as all get out. Miserable day to be outside...

Wow- it sounds like you are having a hot summer so far Kelly...I feel for you. We have been blessed with abnormally mild weather so far. I am sure those 100's are just around the corner though.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I would love to get some kind of drip system going so that we don't have to ask the neighbors for help every time we go out of town. Maybe next year. This summer, I will continue watering by hand. At least I have a little more information on how much and how often to water. THANKS!

You're very welcome. You will find what works for you with some trial and error. My first summer I did not water deeply and had to water sometimes TWO times a day, in the 110°+ heat - oh my my... I learned a better way real fast - lol.

We had really no winter - 2 days in early December near 30° and that was it. And more rain than normal and a really mild spring, so I am thankful for that. We didn't hit 100° until mid-June - unheard of. And this week was our first 110°+ day, so I say we've been dodging the heat for too long. I have heard we are supposed to have a cooler summer with more rain. I sure hope so.

What zone are you in JLEM? California is like Arizona - we run the range of zones from probably 4-10...

We are only hitting about 101 where I am but with a humity of over 85 per cent the heat index is up to about 115.

I just tell everyone that I am finally living by the Bible where it says to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. More than my brow was sweaty today when I go through picking blue berries.

That humidity is a killer. It was 80 something and high humidity at 6 am when I was going to work - yuck.

Glad I didn't live here 20 years ago, though my DH did. I think the hottest it has been since I've lived here is 116° or 117°...

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/valley-residents-remember-record-breaking-122-degree-day

I am guessing zone 9b. During winter our lows are usually between 25-35 degrees(sometimes colder or warmer). In the middle of summer our temperatures are usually between 95-105 degrees. Luckily it's is not humid here. I don't know how you all put up with humidity. :-)

Sounds like a Zone 9... Zones only refer to lowest temps, so a Zone 9 Phoenix and a Zone 9 elsewhere are two different animals - lol...

We're normally not humid except this time of year - they call it monsoon season - I call it nonsoon - we really haven't had a good monsoon with good rain for years. When I lived in Tucson we had real monsoon storms. Not here.

Our humity is constant. Seldom is it below 60. I can handle 85 humity in the summer but in the winter at 30degrees with 85 per cent humity you will freeze to death.

JLEM's temperatures sound exactly like our Zone 9a Houston weather. Welcome to our little group of growers. Sorry you missed growing spuds with us. We had a great time together!

Now we're gearing up for the fall/Winter crops.

Hey, guys, I started a planting spreadsheet that includes what we've said we plan on planting. I'd like to flesh it out, so, if you wouldn't mind, please let us know when you plant out, and whether you DS or set seedlings. Somebody tell me where I can post the spreadsheet For our group 2 view it. I remember someone posted one on the Google websIte if I'm not mistaken. Tell me how and I'll put a link in our Sticky above.

Thanks!!

Yep - you can do it in google, though I've never done it so I'm not sure how. I think it's called Google Docs.

I've already replanted yellow squash this past Friday. It remains to be seen if it can survive this heat. It is shaded by the green beans so maybe.

Gymgirl- I look forward to seeing your spread sheet. This is only my second year gardening, and I didn't try a fall/winter crop last year. I'm not really sure what to plant, so your spread sheet will be a great way to get ideas.

Do we all plant about the same crops in the fall? Its just that some of use plant a little earlier then others? Currently I am harvesting tomatoe, squash, okra.Basil

JLEM et al Zone 8-9 growers!
I've created the spreadsheet and uploaded it to a site on Google docs (Thanks Kelley!).

Now,
Do you all want direct access to plug in your own planting dates? If so, I'll need to add you as a group member, and I'll need your email addy to invite you.

Or, you can just go to our dedicated thread (Zone 8-9 Fall/Winter 2010) and post when you plant and I'll log it in to the spreadsheet. I believe everyone can have read access to the spreadsheet.

Behillman,
I believe the majority of us are planting the same types of fall/winter crops. It's just that some gardeners are more skilled with the planting timeframes than others (like me). That's specifically why I've created the spreadsheet, so the less experienced of us can benefit from and "grow" with the seasoned Zone 8-9 growers.

Keep in mind, there's no hard and fast rules about when to plant, and there certainly is freedom to follow your own planting schedule. We all have to consider slight differences in the relative zones, as well as subtle microclimate differences in each growing site. But, by updating the spreadsheet with everyone's chosen plantout dates, we learners can get a sense of when others are doing it, until we find our own planting grooves!

The beauty of the group is that we're all growing our crops simultaneously, documenting our progress, and teaching and learning from each other. This flattens the learning curve tremendously! And the shared pictures and information is invaluable!

So, ya'll jump on over to the other thread and pick up this discussion!

Oh, and feel free to point any other Zone 8-9 fall/winter veggie gardeners to the site, as well.

Hugs!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1110561/