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

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

"Hud" wrote in
:

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



My philosphy's been that of minimal interference. The more you do to
your plants, the more they'll depend on you.

I'm in NE Indiana, and only water the garden when the soil looks like it
needs it. (Dig down a couple inches and see what the ground looks like
there.) We get enough rain here that the soil stays sufficiently moist
for plant growth 90% of the time.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:58:23 -0400, "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


Jeff Cox says in "Your Organic Garden" that most vegetables need 1/2
to 1 inch of water a week.

It is better to water less often and do it deeper. To measure the
amount of water you are getting for normal rainfall and hand watering,
put can or pot in the garden, make sure it is level and stick your
finger in to check. To the first knuckle is about 1 inch. Heavy clay
soil holds water better than sandy. Keeping the garden mulched helps
too.

I believe that you said you were in Ohio. I do not have the
impression that Ohio is really hot and dry so you may not need to
water very often.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

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)

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


Put an empty can in the garden and water until you have one inch in the
can. Do this about once a week and you will be okay. Watering by hand
won't get you too far, try using a sprinkler and a soaker hose is even
better, less loss to evaporation that way. HTH

George

In article
,
William Rose wrote:

Watering is very relaxing,
if you have the time, and lets you spend more time observing your work.

Watering by hand that is.
- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

On Apr 14, 4:58 am, "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.

Yes avoid midday waterings unless your seedlings are about to shrivel.

Is once a day enough?

You would only water more than once a day if it is very drying
conditions and you have new seedlings planted. In most circumstances
every day would not be required.


I'm also not quite sure how long to water. I don't want to over-do it.

This will take some experience to learn. Study your garden carefully
each day, or morning and evening if you can, and work out if you
should water and if the last time you watered was deep enough but not
too deep.

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?

No. A few deep waterings (say once or twice a week) is much better
than a light sprinkle each day. Put it on no faster than it will soak
in but keep it going until well soaked. Having a river running down
the path is stupid and wasteful.

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

Don't take a formula approach to this, learn to be flexible.

The absolutely most valuable thing you can learn as a gardener is to
be a good observer.

Practice your observation skills with watering. Observe the plants
themselves as well as the soil. Are the plants wilting at all? Is the
top of the soil damp? How about 4 inches down? Your aim is to water
sufficiently deeply only as often as is required. How much that is
and how often depends on many things:

- air temperature and humidity
- wind
- type of soil
- degree of mulching
- type and size of plants.

There is no accessible formula that will tell you how to compute all
that and determine your watering needs, you have to learn by
experience. There is a mechanistic way used by commercial growers
that requires accurately measuring the water content of the soil but
the instruments are very expensive and complete overkill for a small
garden.

David

"Hud" wrote in message
...
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


Since its not planted yet, don't worry about it.

To encourage germination, keep the soil moist at all times. After weening
the seedlings, follow the advice of the well meaning folks here.
--
Noncompliant

Money don't wag the dog's tail.

"Noncompliant" wrote in
ink.net:

Since its not planted yet, don't worry about it.

To encourage germination, keep the soil moist at all times. After
weening the seedlings, follow the advice of the well meaning folks
here.

Don't forget that YOU don't have to do it. The natural rainfall in an
area will take care of some of that for you.

I almost always water after putting seeds in the ground, even if it does
look like rain. Some of it's not just about seed germination, it's about
encouraging soil to pack more tightly.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

"George Shirley" wrote in message
...
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
Put an empty can in the garden and water until you have one inch in the
can. Do this about once a week and you will be okay. Watering by hand
won't get you too far, try using a sprinkler and a soaker hose is even
better, less loss to evaporation that way. HTH

George


So, you're going to aerate the water first (evaporation) with a sprinkling
system before it hits the ground.

Hand watering is the most effective use of water, whether overwatered or
not. Not all the soil needs soaked like using a soaker hose. Maybe that's
why some municipalities overlook hand water method during water usage
times...
--
Dave

Apathy and denial are close cousins

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:22:05 -0700, William Rose wrote:

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.

Yes, watering is very relaxing. I walk around the garden and manually do
it. Every day I see the plants. The ones that are thirsty get a
drink.

stonerfish

jellybean stonerfish wrote in
news
On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:22:05 -0700, William Rose wrote:

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.

Yes, watering is very relaxing. I walk around the garden and manually
do it. Every day I see the plants. The ones that are thirsty get a
drink.

stonerfish



During the summer when I'm up at the crack of noon or later, I usually go
take a look at the plants in the garden before breakfast. While I'm much
more likely to water with the hose, I agree that checking the plants can
be a very cool thing.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm