Watering allotments?

[Guzzik]

Our water is supplied on our allotment, we have a bath at each plot that has a ball cock attached etc. We tend to water at night time/late evening to give the water a chance to soak in. We also have a saying that runs "It's gorra fifty/fifty chance boy..........Live or die!". Our sweetcorn has about 40 litres of water put on every two days, we work the watering on a rota basis as well. Monday is spuds, tuesday is onions and so on. The poly tunnel with all the tomato's in gets watered every two days and fed every four days. One thing I have noticed at our plot is that the soil developes a "hard" crust when it is watered, if the water is put down on this crust it just runs everywhere so, I tend to walk each row first to break the surface up then put the water down. I also have a nice sprinkle head on the 12 litre can I use, I go over the row, not the ground between but over the actual plants once, then come back and do them again, this gives the first watering a chance to get into the soil and it kindova acts in a capilliary manner by pulling the second watering down into the soil rather than running of everywhere.

[Dottie]

Hose pipes can and are used at my allotment. I have 5 water butts spread out around my plot and only use the hose about once a week/10 days to give it a good soak and top up the water butts if needed. But some folk don't bother to have water butts and use the hose every day. So although I'm very happy to have water access, I'd also be happy if the council put some kind of water restrictions on the plots.

[Kittypickle]

I have 2 water butts and a bath. Problem is we got the plot in February and haven't got gutters attached to our new shed yet. So apart from when they go in, the plants aren't getting any water. It has hardly rained since 2nd April and I'm pretty pleased at how things are going considering the pretty much total lack of water.

[Two_Sheds]

Sounds like one heck of a lot of water to me?

It does, doesn't it? Mine gets less than a fifth of that, at best guesstimate,and I never go hungry

One thing I have noticed at our plot is that the soil developes a "hard" crust when it is watered,

So does mine, and that's but one reason why I don't water the soil (slugs and evaporation are 2 others).
I have big flowerpots and 5 litre water bottles sunk around the plot, and water direct into these.
The soil stays dry on top, but the water goes straight down to the roots where it's needed.

[The Large One]

We have about 5 stand pipes dotted around our allotment filling water butts which we can draw from using watering cans
Not allowed hose pipes or seeper hoses connecting straigt to the stand pipe but you can draw from your own water butt on your plot if you like

We have a small stream running at the back of our plot which we have been told we can draw from if we like, so have got a drill powered pump to fill some butts but since then the farmer further up the stream has blocked it for his own use so stream dry at the moment

[Alison]

We don't have running water at the lottie anyway so hoses are kind of irrelevant although we have taken up largish bottles a few time to get something in the water butts. The outside stuff is getting pretty much no watering but I am trying to keep on top of the polytunnel so that it doesn't all die. Nothing outside dead so far but am still crossing my fingers. The brassicas seem to be thriving on no water but the tatties are definitely smaller than last year.

[Guzzik]

So does mine, and that's but one reason why I don't water the soil (slugs and evaporation are 2 others).
I have big flowerpots and 5 litre water bottles sunk around the plot, and water direct into these.
The soil stays dry on top, but the water goes straight down to the roots where it's needed.

We have two litre pop bottles sunk into the soil with their bums cut of in the polytunnel for watering the tomatoes and peppers and melons etc, works a treat. Next season I am going to sink some 10 litre plastic flower pots we have into the ground for watering the Sweetcorn, might work better than surface watering.

[Two_Sheds]

I am going to sink some 10 litre plastic flower pots we have into the ground ... might work better than surface watering.

It does. It's less work, the water goes where it's needed, and the slugs are reduced too. Win Win Win

[Tail End Charlie]

There's some good tips here, anything which reduces slugs is a must in my book. Great.

[smallfrog]

I have a water butt at home which i drain the water off into big tubs,like u use for camping. Then take those to allotment to fill water butt there only have 1 at lottie and both ran dry in the drought.

Also thinking of rigging some guttering up across the bean wigwam to harvest some rain through the winter as we have no shed. Have mulched everything dug bean trenchs and did what the old'un said and haven't watered too often so the root go down into the ground rather than sit on the top.