Q&A_ Watering

Q&A: How do I know how much water my plants need?

Watering can be one of the trickiest parts to growing food. Watering too often can lead to oxygen-starved roots, and too little water can lead to wilted and dead plants.

Q: How do I know how much water my plants need?

A: Watering can be one of the trickiest parts to growing food. Watering too often can lead to oxygen-starved roots, and too little water can lead to wilted and dead plants. The amount you need to water can vary greatly between climates, seasons, and weather. Generally, you can’t really go wrong making sure your garden receives a good soaking at least twice a week. You can back down to once a week during cool seasons and you may have to up it more in really hot conditions.

This is one of the areas we are working to make things easier for you. Future versions of this application will be able to calculate rainfall near you and guide you through watering based on those amounts. Until then, we have our gardens set to be watered from automatic timers that I adjust throughout the season based on all the factors above. Click here to see our DIY PVC irrigation system.
 

We’ve also built automatic drip irrigation systems with commercial drip products and they’ve worked very well and allow you to water more at a time than the PVC system. Click here to see a video showing how to build it!

We use an Orbit automated timer to automate the watering of our gardens. However, there are a host of options in this area and the technology is improving all the time. You can also find wireless irrigation sensors that allow you to control watering from your phone!

orbit-timer-3
Orbit Automated Timer
wireless irrigation controller
Wireless Irrigation

Learn more about growing over 100 different foods, including how to manage various pests in our FREE iOS, Android, or Universal Web App!

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3 thoughts on “Q&A: How do I know how much water my plants need?

  1. Please include a section that defines the differences between your labeling. Ex. consistent vs constant. What’s the difference?

  2. Yes! What does light watering mean? Once a week? Is moderate twice weekly? Is heavy daily? What about “water well”? Where does consistent moisture fit in? For a beginning gardener, those terms are not helpful.

  3. I agree with the other 2 comments… can you please define those terms? How often is “moderate” or “light” or any other phrasing you used?

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