Watering - whats our priorities?

[Finedon.Dandy]

Hi all

Considering I havent been able to plant or sow direct outside, we have a decent working veg plot ands its all been down to Mr D. *beams with pride at her hubbie* Trouble is he seems to be getting in a little later and by the time he has watered the plot and picked the soft fruit, he isnt eating till past midnight.

I have been helping all I dare, by doing greenhouse, tubs and baskets, albeit the number of these has been drastically reduced but dont know how long I can keep this up. Only last night, we had to rejiggle things, as aubergines are really suffering in the heat, so had to put them into a deeper watering tray as I cannot manage to get around twice a day.

Anyhow, I have ended up waffling!, my question is what out of these crops really MUST be done and what can wait?

Listed in rough families the crops we have are;

beans
potatoes
lettuce
raddish - not been doing too well with these and suspect its cos they arent being watered
courgette
carrot
onions
brasicas

Hope you can advise

[shirlthegirl43]

Hmm, I give my stuff a good soak every few days rather than water every day. Would that method help? Sort of water on a rota system so he isn't doing the whole lot daily?

[Finedon.Dandy]

Thats what he is doing Shirl but most things just arent getting anything for over a week. I should have mentioned that being on a water meter and on a budget we have countless old 4 pint milk bottle cartons that he takes time to fill, from water butt (if rain forcast) and/or the paddling pool, if its been out. Incidentaly these bottles have been a godsend to me as I cannot lift a full watering can!

[shirlthegirl43]

Just water what is looking limp? I keep my houseplants alive that way - if they don't go limp they don't get water

[zazen999]

Stuff in pots
stuff looking frazzled
celery.

that's it - we don't have water on the plot and we still get crops. All the water butt water is used for watering in seedlings only.

[OllieMartin]

As my plot is outside my back door; I can see it daily. As a result it's easy to notice if any of the plants are wilting. As soon as I notice this, most of them get a dowse. My thinking is "If ones dry, they're probably all dry".

I focus on the ones that are trouble (E.g. Some of my spinach beet bolted, so I water that each time to keep it from stressing.)

If you can't check them every day it can be harder to tell.

As for individual plants, I guess you'll just have to keep a mental note of how long it takes before they start to wilt each.

[Matt.]

Anything in the ground will probably look after itself. I have loads of squash and courgette plants and these were fine when i visited the other day despite the heatwave. I hadn't watered in nearly two weeks plus we seem to miss the thunderstorms. Despite how dry the ground appears there is clearly sufficent moisture underneath. I don't have mulches or anything else like that either.

By the way eating past midnight can't be good for your health unless you're a nightworker on irregular hours. I'd try eating earlier if at all possible.

[Two_Sheds]

I only water newly planted seedlings and stuff in pots.

We have one of the driest areas of the UK, and our soil is very free-draining and sandy.

I still get loads of crops... my allotment is groaning with veg.

[Finedon.Dandy]

Thanks guys, I feel alot better now - cant wait to tell Mr D to stop fussing so much!

[jonohanson]

I just set up a watering system in my allotment greenhouse. It consists of a waterbutt, and a waterbutt irrigation thing (£10 from B&Q) and will water all my g/h things (upto 36 pots) for about 4 days, but i'm going to add another 2 waterbutts so when we are away for 2 weeks it will self water.

[tamsin]

You can chop the bottom off those bottles and bury them in the ground then fill them institu. I think you can get syphon/pumps that fit to water butts so you can use a hose. Or just raising it so the hose is fed by gravity might do it. Then put a spray gun on the hose so you can control the water

Deeper saucers can mean less watering for pots, you can get washing up bowls or similar cheap from pound stores etc. Also if you have a large soil surface area in a pot you can put a circle of plastic around the base of the stem to stop water evaporation.