container gardening
this year I desided to grow a bunch of my vegetables in pots most of my pots are plastic anyway I wondering how often should you water when growing in pots I live in Oklahoma where our summers get very hot some times I worry about watering to much even if I all ready watered in the early morning what could you say about watering less so you can save on water I all most bought a earagaion system to water but there kind of pricey so I did not buy one
It depends on the size of your pot, the size of the plant, if the pot is on the ground or on a concrete surface, how much wind and rain, and of course how hot it is.
If your pot is big enough the roots should not be taking up all of the space in the pot. When you water the pot should drain well and not pool on top. Feel the soil a couple of inches down into the pot if it feels slightly damp then you can water again. If your plants are drooping in the middle of the day every day even when you water daily, the pot is either too small or you need to water a couple of times a day.
If your pot is big enough the roots should not be taking up all of the space in the pot. When you water the pot should drain well and not pool on top. Feel the soil a couple of inches down into the pot if it feels slightly damp then you can water again. If your plants are drooping in the middle of the day every day even when you water daily, the pot is either too small or you need to water a couple of times a day.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
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- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Agree. It is very hard to say how much to water, because it varies so much. Some plants need much more water than others. Plants in pots need more water than in the ground and plants in smaller pots need more frequent watering than plants in larger plants. And plants need more water when it is hot and dry than when it is cooler/ wetter.
But I assume in Oklahoma, you are having lots of hot and dry. In those conditions, plants in pots may well need to be watered twice a day. They will tell you.
They may start getting limp and wilty:
https://uconnladybug.files.wordpress.co ... kmelon.jpg
tomato plants may start rolling their leaves up:
https://myplasticfreelife.com/images/garden-58-sm.jpg
So if your plants are showing signs of heat/drought stress, they are telling you they need more water.
You could post a few pictures!
If your plants are wilting in the heat of the day, you could consider a homemade irrigation system through wicking or gravity fed.
Wicking just means that your containers are going to be connected to a reservoir of water, through a soft, fibrous wick (like rope or rag-cloth). I couldn't find a good picture, but something like this:
In your case, to decrease evaporation, you wouldn't want your reservoir to be an open bowl, but more like a 2 liter pop bottle. You could probably put several ropes down into it and then put each one well down into the soil of one container. Water travels from the wet end of the wick to the dry end and continuously adds water to your soil.
Gravity fed would be something like this:
pinhole in the bottom of the soda bottle lets water come out slowly.
or this:
https://growandtell.files.wordpress.com ... _spike.jpg
or a variety of ways to turn your containers in to self-waterers with reservoir underneath
https://naturesfootprint.com/wp-content/ ... utaway.jpg
https://www.motherearthliving.com/garden ... iners.aspx
Systems like this are useful, because they keep the soil more continuously damp, vs going through so many wet-dry cycles, which is stressful to plants.
But I assume in Oklahoma, you are having lots of hot and dry. In those conditions, plants in pots may well need to be watered twice a day. They will tell you.
They may start getting limp and wilty:
https://uconnladybug.files.wordpress.co ... kmelon.jpg
tomato plants may start rolling their leaves up:
https://myplasticfreelife.com/images/garden-58-sm.jpg
So if your plants are showing signs of heat/drought stress, they are telling you they need more water.
You could post a few pictures!
If your plants are wilting in the heat of the day, you could consider a homemade irrigation system through wicking or gravity fed.
Wicking just means that your containers are going to be connected to a reservoir of water, through a soft, fibrous wick (like rope or rag-cloth). I couldn't find a good picture, but something like this:
In your case, to decrease evaporation, you wouldn't want your reservoir to be an open bowl, but more like a 2 liter pop bottle. You could probably put several ropes down into it and then put each one well down into the soil of one container. Water travels from the wet end of the wick to the dry end and continuously adds water to your soil.
Gravity fed would be something like this:
pinhole in the bottom of the soda bottle lets water come out slowly.
or this:
https://growandtell.files.wordpress.com ... _spike.jpg
or a variety of ways to turn your containers in to self-waterers with reservoir underneath
https://naturesfootprint.com/wp-content/ ... utaway.jpg
https://www.motherearthliving.com/garden ... iners.aspx
Systems like this are useful, because they keep the soil more continuously damp, vs going through so many wet-dry cycles, which is stressful to plants.