Hud wrote:
Anyone have an idea how often and how long I should water a 7'x8' vegetable
garden? (carrots, green beans, tomatoes and peppers - not planted yet)
Common sense tells me the best times to water are in the morning before the
sun heats things up and early in the evening when it gets cooler. Is once a
day enough? I'm also not quite sure how long to water. I don't want to
over-do it. I'll be watering with a hose that has a sprinkler head on it.
I'm thinking a few minutes of watering is plenty for such a small garden.
Am I on the right track? Sorry if this seems like a silly question to those
of you with a lot of gardening experience. Prior to this year my closest
experience to gardening was buying vegetables at the grocery store. Lol
Thanks




Watering is a learning experience...it can vary from place to place
depending on humidity and type of soil etc etc. I use soaker hoses that
run for 15-20 minutes on timers. With a hose and regular sprinkler
attachment, I doubt I'd water one of my 4x8 plots for more than 2-4
minutes. Once a day is usually fine, too. It is possible to over water.

If you're going to do the watering yourself, I find it's best to do it
in the evening...unless you're up at the crack of dawn. You can tell if
you're underwatering if (given average temps) the next day the soil is
dry and the surface crumbly and cracky. You're overwatering if it's
still soaking wet the next evening. From there, you find a happy medium.

And of course, you don't need to water during wet weather...sometimes
for a day or two later.

If you water too much, also, you'll encourage shallow roots. You want
the roots to go down far...take the moisture from the ground.

..

MMVIII