Administrators Pompeii Posted July 10, 2020 Administrators Share Posted July 10, 2020 How Not to Water Your Garden Cheryl J. Shenkle July 10, 2020 Forget those visions of a delightfully strong spray of fertilized water cascading over the tops of your garden plants. if you want to get the best of everything from your garden, it doesn’t work that way. Each type of plant that you raise has specific watering and fertilizing needs. Ignore this and your harvest will be sporadic at best. A Garden Journal from the previous year is your best resource. In it should be the seed packets you planted from, dates of all major treatments including fertilizers used, the plant’s location in the garden, and the results of that growing effort. There is a myriad of other information that you can collect for comparison in the following year and it will all prove to be helpful. It should also include the results of too little, too heavy or too frequent rains in conjunction with too warm/cold temperatures that resulted in disease problems. In the zone of a few feet under our feet is a nearly constant amount of moisture except for some variance during very wet or dry spells. Trees get their roots right into the damp area that they prefer on the average. Flooding can drown them by driving out the oxygen in the soil. An extreme drought may drop the water level below the depth to which the tree is able to reach. In both cases, the tree will be damaged or killed. All plants need an average amount of water at their root zone on a continual basis. Your garden plants are the same. If you splash water on the leaves daily, and if it never reaches further than an inch below the surface, your roots are still thirsty and so is the circulatory system of your plant! The sun can suck that water back out of the soil before your plant ever gets what it needs. Furthermore, the leaves and stems of your plants are a sponge just waiting for a fungal organism to land and start to multiply. Every fungus loves dampness. If your garden gets too dry, the soil can form a water resistant crust which actually diverts water across the surface rather than down into the soil. Think “run-off” which takes your top soil and some nutrients with it. Moist soft soil will require less water to keep the plant roots moist than will soil that has been allowed to become hard and cracked. Think of a sponge. You want the water to absorb into it to soften it and make way for additional water which drains away when the sponge is full. The water ends up under your roots where it belongs rather than in a ditch or a puddle in your lawn. Soil tilth has a lot to do with retaining the correct amount of water or in letting excess amounts of water drain away. Clay does not absorb water well, while loose humus and silt can absorb it too well. The perfect soil will allow water to drain through it, only holding back enough to supply the plants rooted into it. Our Central Northwestern Pennsylvania soils are usually clay and shale, so almost every garden will need amended with some sort of composted organic materials in order to balance the water and oxygen spaces around your plant roots. Otherwise you will be constantly fighting extreme changes in the moisture of your garden soil. You can attempt to water continually while not damaging the leaves on your plants or you can leave the garden all to luck. Many people basically abandon their gardens in early to mid-August as the soil hardens and weeds become impossible to keep up with, disease and pests have taken over some of the crops, and sadly, the abundance of food they might have harvested from a properly watered garden just didn’t happen. Let the frost and snow begin. At the very least, clean out the garden early and plant a cover crop. Now back up to spring. Get a Penn State Soil test sent as early in the spring as possible. The results will tell you more than you realize about your garden soil. The pH determines which plant will grow well in that location. It’s hard to change pH without years of work or very expensive amendments, so don’t try to grow Blueberries where Cauliflower and Celery grow best. Potatoes Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Onions and Garlic demand more acidic soils. Toss lime on them and you can kiss them goodbye along with the blueberries. Asparagus, Beets, Cabbage and Carrots will tolerate either end of the spectrum fairly well. However, Cauliflower, Celery and Beets want an Alkaline soil and love Lime. Careful side dressing can help, but broadcasting lime or ashes because Grandpa did it doesn’t always work. What does this have to do with water, you ask? Water is the transportation line along which nutrients, minerals and beneficial bacteria travel to the plant roots. Plants must eat every day to grow to their best potential. For that to happen, it must be evenly moist at the root mass of the plant. Watering deeply as needed is always the best practice. You will not lose moisture to evaporation, nor will you drown the plant’s roots. To find when water is really needed, then dig out a couple of inches of the soil near that plant. Is it gummy and soggy? Is it dry and crumbly? Is it just slightly cool, loose and damp? If there’s no rain in sight and a lot of heat in the forecast, then give the garden a good slow soaking at ground level till the soil is moist right down to the bottom of the roots. Check again in 3-4 days and determine whether the soil/water condition is sufficient to support the plants in the next 3-4 days of the forecast weather. Never water plants with an overhead shower. It’s not helping and it’s just asking for trouble in the tomatoes. Keep your garden as evenly moist as possible and you’ll see easier weeding, larger healthier plants, better harvests and much more gratification for yourself. Ad Certified Master Gardeners are local volunteers trained by Penn State to answer Horticulture questions with properly researched information. For a “best practices” answer to your question, call Penn State Jefferson County Extension at 849-7361, Ext 508, e-mail JeffersonMG@psu.edu, or mail your question to 186 Main Street, Suite 3, Brookville, PA 15825. Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. Certified Master Gardeners are local volunteers trained by Penn State to answer Horticulture questions with properly researched information. For a “best practices” answer to your question, call Penn State Jefferson County Extension at 849-7361, Ext 508, e-mail JeffersonMG@psu.edu, or mail your question to 186 Main Street, Suite 3, Brookville, PA 15825. Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Jefferson County Cheryl J. Shenkle, Coordinator 186 Main Street Brookville, PA 15825 814-849-7361 Extension 508 cjs5618@psu.edu http://extension.psu.edu/jefferson JeffersonMG@psu.edu https://extension.psu.edu/trees-lawns-and-landscaping/home-gardening(Newsletter) https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SVd6w3IB2Qd4t55T7 (Survey) Pappy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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