I just read an article in the Victoria Advocate about conserving water. The writer said to always water till the soil is moist 6" deep and only water again when a plant is beginning to look stressed. I don't know if I can wait untill plants are looking stressed. When do you water?
Read the article, the info about how to water is in the last half of the article.
www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/columnists/gardeners_dirt/story/2925516p-3389668c.html
All of the articles are very informative and archived at this site.
Saving water.....when do you water?
I get in trouble for watering to much... all I can say is plant more natives! That is what I am trying to do, they take the heat better and look great year round in Texas!
I have no rhyme to my watering. I think I am guilty of overwatering, but then my stuff looks better than some I see that don't keep it watered. I probably water every 2 days if I'm watering with the sprinkler. If I just stand and water with the hose I end up watering daily because I don't water deep enough. I've been guilty of doing that for a long time, so I'm trying to really make sure I just water longer. I watered 2 days ago and today it was so hot and some of my stuff looked like it was going to die. I did hand water a few things then. I don't try and skimp on the water in the heat because if my plants die that would be a waste of my money and time, so I'd rather spend the money on the water.
I was given some good advise that has sure saved water (and water bills). Water according to how your plants look early in the morning, not after along day in the sun when they are stressed.
I start watering at 4:00 a.m. (Well that acutally sounds like i'm more industrious than I am, it's the sprinkler system that starts at 4:00). When I watered by hand I started at 6:00 a.m. I have the sprinkler set where the rotating heads go for 20 minutes and the constant sprays go for 10 minutes. Now that I've gotten the hang of the system, it only runs 2 days a week and I have to hand water the impatiens beds about twice more. So far this has saved water and everything looks really good.
I water very early in the morning or late at nite..when the sun is not showing its face..lol...
Well I don't have control of the sprinkler, that's DH's job. He and I don't see eye to eye sometime. But finally I think we have agreed that watering everyday for a short period evaporates and that the longer watering less ofter is more beneficial. So he has the system set for Sun, Tues, Thurs 30 min. Then whenever it is convenient we manually set it off for 15 min on Fri, or Sat morn. After dark or early am is always when we do the watering. It is working well so far with our heat being 101-102 most days now.
I have ever container I own (ice chests lg and small) 1 gal water jugs, 5 gallon water jug, buckets, waste baskets, anything I can find to catch rain water. I always seem to have enough till the next rain or atleast it seems I do. I also keep alot of things in pots in the shade right now. The yard is just fending for its self. I put small pieces or crumbs of the mosquitoe dunks in the water to kill off any larvae. It doesn't take much.
I just use a bowl or large cup to water my plants out of the containers. Helps on the water bill. But there are some tings that still get the sprinkler.
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
We have drip irrigation so it's set to start at 12:00 pm twice a week for 6 hrs. We found if we let it get really wet, it stayed damp until the next time, even w/100+ weather. We have to do the containers on the patio every day, though. That's life in Texas. We've been very fortunate the last few yrs. and we've had tons of rain. Not so this yr. The heat is back to "normal". I thought normal was a thing of the past, but I guess we still have a normal summer every now and then. I do hope we will cycle back to the wet times again. The trees got that much needed reserve, but it won't hold up long wl/these temps.
hilary