|
Post by macmex on Jul 20, 2022 9:44:05 GMT -6
Over the years I've seen a lot of discussion/disagreement about whether or not one can water the garden when the sun is shining. There are probably a number of factors which come into play with this question.
1). Climate is a bit factor. I know, growing up on the East Coast, it never occurred to me that I couldn't water during the heat of the day. But there, the "heat of the day" is not as hot as here in Oklahoma. If I were to fly from Oklahoma to NJ and step off the plane there on a real hot day, I'd probably think, "Hmm, the air here is heavier. It's more humid, but the sun isn't as strong as back home."
2) Angle of the sun: there are times of the day that the sun's rays are stronger. I don't understand why, but mid afternoon (around 4 pm), here, the sun always feels much stronger than other times of the day.
3) The kind of plant being watered affects whether or not you dare water during sunlight hours.
Here's a photo of some hosta which was watered when the sun was shining. The entire planting looks burned. I take it that hosta is more sensitive to the sun, when wet, than a lot of other plants.
Notice this hosta. Only one side of the plant is burned. The unburnt side is partially shaded by a Japanese Split Leaf Maple.
Hosta which did not receive any watering, yet was exposed to several hours of afternoon sun did not burn.
So, that's my observation.
On the other hand, I have watered my zinnias and sweet potatoes when it's sunny, with no ill effect.
|
|
|
Post by hmoosek on Jul 20, 2022 9:54:26 GMT -6
Yes, I believe that’s true. Especially with my tomatoes. I’m very careful when watering them during the heat of the day to keep it off the foliage.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jul 20, 2022 10:36:11 GMT -6
Beautiful flowerbed with sweet potatoes and zinnias!!
Good info too.
I'm probably gonna catch some flack for posting this, because I know that I'm supposed to water plants in the morning so that if they get wet, the sun will dry them off. I've been watering everything late in the evening after the sun goes down enough that all the plants are in the shade. I'm not a splishy - splashy watering type guy, & it hasn't caused any diseases, so I've just continued to do it that way.
Okay, I'm ready to be scolded, so give it your best shot...
|
|
|
Post by hmoosek on Jul 20, 2022 10:59:26 GMT -6
Beautiful flowerbed with sweet potatoes and zinnias!!
Good info too.
I'm probably gonna catch some flack for posting this, because I know that I'm supposed to water plants in the morning so that if they get wet, the sun will dry them off. I've been watering everything late in the evening after the sun goes down enough that all the plants are in the shade. I'm not a splishy - splashy watering type guy, & it hasn't caused any diseases, so I've just continued to do it that way.
Okay, I'm ready to be scolded, so give it your best shot... I do the same! I’ve been told the same thing, but it’s been working for me for years! I’m not a bushy tailed fellow in the morning.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jul 20, 2022 11:09:20 GMT -6
Beautiful flowerbed with sweet potatoes and zinnias!!
Good info too.
I'm probably gonna catch some flack for posting this, because I know that I'm supposed to water plants in the morning so that if they get wet, the sun will dry them off. I've been watering everything late in the evening after the sun goes down enough that all the plants are in the shade. I'm not a splishy - splashy watering type guy, & it hasn't caused any diseases, so I've just continued to do it that way.
Okay, I'm ready to be scolded, so give it your best shot... I do the same! I’ve been told the same thing, but it’s been working for me for years! I’m not a bushy tailed fellow in the morning. Cool!! I reckon we will be a pair of flack catchers.
I'll change my catch phrase to:
Okay we are ready to be scolded, so give us your best shot...
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Jul 20, 2022 11:47:57 GMT -6
When it's this hot I have to water something in the evening and something in the morning. I don't have enough time to cut my potential watering time in half.
Okay, sorry I couldn't scold you
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jul 20, 2022 12:15:15 GMT -6
When it's this hot I have to water something in the evening and something in the morning. I don't have enough time to cut my potential watering time in half.
Okay, sorry I couldn't scold you Thank You, macmex. You wouldn't believe how much better that makes me feel to hear you say that...
|
|
|
Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 20, 2022 12:29:23 GMT -6
I’m certainly not about to scold anyone for doing what needs to be done to keep plants alive.
I try not to water in the heat of the day because that would do me in, and I believe that water evaporates from the surface more quickly. I like evening watering because I believe it soaks in better and stays longer, but I often can’t pull that off. Unlike HMooseK, I am my most bushy-tailed in the morning, and I’m collapsing by evening (and I’m not even really a morning person either. I just get worn out.)
The one time I’ve really burned plants by watering in the sunshine was earlier this summer. I was watering my whole garden, but my oldest needed to be dropped off at the library on Saturday morning, so I paused the watering and drove there and back. I was away for about an hour, and I picked right up where I had left off. It was still morning but later than usual. What I didn’t realize, though, was that the water in the house had heated up in the sun while I was gone, and I sprayed that hot water on some young plants. I noticed it when my hand that was touching the watering wand started burning. The leaves ended up burned, but the plants pulled through. It was mostly volunteer zinnias and a young basil plant, maybe some okra. I can’t recall now.
A month of so ago I was taking care of my neighbors’ plants while they were out of town. I would water my garden in the morning and theirs in the evening after the sun got less intense. I had to spend some time exhausting water from hoses each evening because it was scalding hot from sitting in the sun all day. At times it was even hard for me to hold the hoses or the spray nozzles because the hose itself or the leaking water would burn.
I’ve been reading articles about high heat and drought and gardens this summer. I’ve actually seen recommendations for a midday watering directly on the foliage to cool the plants off. These articles seemed to indicate that the idea that the water would be a magnifying glass that would cause plants to burn has been debunked in recent years. I’m afraid I don’t have actual sources to site for that, though, as I wasn’t making notes or anything.
Those hostas do certainly seem to have suffered from their midday watering. In my experience hostas don’t like too much afternoon sunshine anyway, but you have actual unwatered ones that did get sun and didn’t get burned, so that really shows that the midday watering hurt them.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jul 20, 2022 16:29:46 GMT -6
I've got 200 feet of hose coming from the house that I use to water plants in a big area in my backyard. During the day, especially right now, the water in the hose gets up to scalding temperatures. If I want to use the water hose during the day, I have to run all of the scalding hot water out. Two hundred feet of hose holds a substantial amount of water which I don't want to waste. I have well water. Rather than waste the water that is too hot to use, I have a 5 gallon bucket, 3 gallon bucket, and six 1 gallon plastic jugs, to catch it.
Every evening, the first thing I do is fill all of them with hot water from the hose. It doesn't take all of containers to hold 200 feet of hose's hot water, but I catch that much so that I have enough to water all the squash plants midday. The water in the containers cools off during the night and the containers sit in the shade, so at about 1 pm each day I carry all the water from the containers to water the plants. Then at about 7:30 pm I fill the containers again, and the cycle repeats.
It has been so hot for the past several weeks that I have had to water the canna bed morning and evening. After I run out the scalding water into containers each evening, I water the canna beds, then the squash, then the tomatoes...
|
|
|
Post by john on Jul 25, 2022 4:36:08 GMT -6
No scolding here either, I agree with George, you have to water when you can. My garden is too big and my time is too limited to follow all the "rules". It's kind of like when people ask me do I plant by the cycles of the moon. I reply "NO, if I did that I would never be able to get everything I need to planted and in the ground". I plant when I can, I have enough restrictions on me with time, weather etc. If I followed all the old sayings and wives tales I would never get a thing done. If you know why these "rules" are made up and what they are trying to teach... you can break them, knowing what you are risking. Another one that comes to mind, don't pick or work your plants when it's wet. Sometimes you have to pick in the rain or in the morning. We have a small CSA and the weather doesn't care weather tomorrow is a pick up day or not. If it's raining you still have to pick.
|
|
|
Post by john on Jul 25, 2022 4:54:46 GMT -6
I don't live in Oklahoma so I can't speak about gardening in that climate. Here in the NOrtheast The only plant I have seen possibly get damaged from a midday watering in the hot sun was some Rhododendrons at a nursery I worked at. (I say possibly because often there are other factors at play too.) I believe the idea of water burning plants is that the droplets of water on a plants leaf act as a magnifying glass and concentrate the suns rays on the plant's leaf thus burning it. I actually use water to cool my Atlantic giant pumpkin's, they don't like the heat and it is a common occurence to have the leaves wilt badly at the vine tips especially early in the season before the plant has rooted along the length of the vine. I use timed irrigation to help prevent leaf scorch, the water cools down the plant and helps it through the midday. The only way I know what I can get away with in a garden and what I can't is to try it and learn. Not because someone said something or it was in a book.
|
|
|
Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 25, 2022 10:52:24 GMT -6
I was thinking about this thread this morning because I got an extremely late start on my watering. It was 9:30 or 10:00 by the time I actually turned on the hose. I knew that part of it had been in the sun, though most was still shaded at that point. I was actually soaking a bed to plant, and there was nothing growing in that section, so I let the water run there and kept my hand in it to feel it. As I suspected it started off warm, but it progressed to hot as the water moved through the hose, and then it went back to warm when it reached the rain tank. (There’s no such thing as cold water at this point of the summer down here.). I just thought it was worth cautioning that an initial check of the temperature of the water in the hose might not tell the whole story if one section of the hose has been in the sun.
|
|
spike
New Member
Posts: 39
|
Post by spike on Aug 8, 2022 13:38:07 GMT -6
Coming into this thread a bit late but I water my plants mostly at night but I have a different set up than some. I have 2 - 275 gallon water totes that I catch rain water in and use that to water with. I do not have a pump or anything connected to it isn't like a hard spray, so I just hold the hose near the roots and water away. So I am able to water whenever I feel like it or whenever the plants look like they need some water.
I will say that watering is not normally an issue here as we usually are getting more rain than we need. But this year I have drained one water tote and have started on the second. Since all I really have to water is my raised beds, that is very sad.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Aug 8, 2022 17:19:42 GMT -6
spike Gravity fed watering is a smart way to water plants. Especially using runoff rainwater that otherwise would be wasted.
I would like to have my backyard set up like that because I use grow bags and slow watering is much better for those...
|
|
|
Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 10, 2022 15:06:00 GMT -6
spike Gravity fed watering is a smart way to water plants. Especially using runoff rainwater that otherwise would be wasted.
I would like to have my backyard set up like that because I use grow bags and slow watering is much better for those... Woodeye, have you ever considered using ollas or terra cotta watering spikes in your grow bags. It wouldn’t replace all watering, but I find it to be super-helpful in maintaining moisture in containers that would otherwise dry out too quickly. Here’s a picture of how I used some spikes in a planter in my backyard. When I first moved here I asked my neighbors for wine bottles to put in pots with my blueberries. My neighbor told me about the “Plant Nanny” brand of watering spikes, and researching that is how I learned about burying terra cotta pots as ollas. I finally bought some watering spikes of my own this winter when I had an orange tree torn out of the ground, and I put it into a pot as a plant ICU. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t let it get too dry. One can just put a bottle in the ground, but it’s a little more tricky to make sure it works properly. We have a number of large rain tanks to collect runoff. We also collect air conditioner condensation. We have a 35 gallon can on the north side of our house. The drain on the south side is harder to use, but I got three watering cans full in the last day. (We often just keep a hose stretched out to one of our trees in the back, but right now I’m using that hose elsewhere.)
|
|