In article ,
"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


Taking Susan's suggestion of 1/2" to 1" of water per week, for you that
would mean multiplying the length and width of your garden in inches

7' x 12"/ft. = 84" 8' x 12"/ft. = 96"

84" x 96" = 6,064 sq. in. of surface,

1" high would be 6,064 cubic in.

A gallon is 213 cu. in. so,

6,064 cu. in. / (231 cu. in./gal.) = 26.25 gal

Now take a 5 gallon bucket and measure how long it takes you to fill it
with your sprinkler head. Let's call that amount of time "y" minutes or
seconds.

The amount of time you need to water for 1 inch "x" is:

x min.=(26.25 gal )(y min./5 gal)

As Puckdropper says, this is all rather empirical, more importantly
check the dampness of the soil and look for wilting leaves (water
stress). You will quickly get the feel of it. I've always heard that the
best time to water was just when the ground starts to get warm because
this is when the plants can best use the water. Given a choice between
morning and evening, I'd pick morning, again because there would be more
moisture in the ground, being less time between application and need. No
matter when you water, in general, try to water the ground and not the
leaves.

I use drip irrigation. I get the paper in the morning, turn on the
water. Finish my coffee, turn off the water. Watering is very relaxing,
if you have the time, and lets you spend more time observing your work.

- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)