Watering Question, Just bought a timer.

[gixxerific]

Well, I just bought a timer and I have it set to go off everyday for a half an hour at 5:30-6:00 am. It just starts to get light at about 6:00 here.

Is that enough time (30 Min.) should I do more, maybe more time less day's. I'm sure the time of day is good.

This is considering no rain, if it rains or is going to rain I will shut it off.

Thanks Dono

[tomf]

It depends upon what you are watering and how much water flows. That does not seem like much time all though. This year I put in a drip system for my garden and I am still working with getting the right amount of water to the different plants. I run it about 6 to 7 a few times a week. The way I am working it out is just to feel the dirt and look to see how wet it is.

[gixxerific]

Yeah I was thinking if anything it might not be enough. I will have to play with it and see how wet the garden is after a sprinkling.

Dono

[tedln]

Gixx,

I have been using a timer for many years. I first used one with a drip system when I was gardening in containers. I now use one with my soaker hoses.

How long you water, depends on the plants you grow, the soil you grow in (does the soil contain enough organics to retain moisture or does it simply run off from the garden) the season you are growing in, and a few other variables.

I typically start the season when it is cool and the plants are small by watering my beds for about 6 minutes, morning, noon, and late afternoon. When it warms up or gets hot and the plants are large, I increase it to 8 or 10 minutes per water cycle. When the weather gets over 100 degrees, and the plants are really large with lots of fruit, I went to six times per day at 5 minutes per cycle.

What you want to achieve is slightly moist soil all the time. You do not want the soil wet because it will induce root rot. You also don't want the soil to go through extreme wet/dry cycles. If the available moisture to the plants or the fruit varies to greatly, it will cause blossom drop, fruit drop, and other problems from moisture stress. The most common problems I have observed from excessive or insufficient moisture is cracking of ripe tomatoes and cucumbers large on one end and small on the other end.

During rainy weather, you need to turn the water off and let nature take care of it. After the rain stops, let the beds dry a little before restarting the water.

Ted

[gixxerific]

Thanks Ted, I pretty much got the feel for watering, I usually do the finger jab test. If it's dry moisten it up. Just never had a timer so I didn't want to go over board. I have a thing about watering during the day, the sun is dang near straight up above my garden all day. I don't want the water to burn the leaves. Of course that is with a regular sprinkler. I do have a soaker hose (never used) the leaching kind not the spraying kind. They just don't fit my gardens layout well.

I'm finally trying to do things better in my garden, I have been thinking about different sprinkler setups I can do. May be by next year I will have it down to a science.

This is a new house too, so the garden is going into it's 3'rd year with a major modification this winter. Until then everything is up in the air, I'm still playing with a thousand ideas.

Thanks, Dono

By the way just wanted to say I love this site. As I said above, "Major modification this winter". All of your help on my ?'s and myself helping other people or just watching topics has really got me rethinking gardening. I'm not that far off but all the ideas lead to new ideas which lead to a better garden,

Thanks

[tedln]

Gixx,

I've gardened for close to fifty years. I hope you have noticed that I still ask a lot of questions. There is always more to learn.

Ted

[codyjp]

I'm watering at a rate of 1 1/2 gallons per plant every other day. I find that this leaves the soil just barely moist by the time the 48 hours are up. I think it might be a bit too much for bell peppers so I'm thinking about changing out those heads.

With some simple connectors and such I can swap things out easily next year.

[Rambo 09]

All I do is make sure that soil is moist at all time, I don't ever over welm plants with to much watering.