Replies

I have a question about watering and you two should know and you may think it’s silly for me to ask.

I went out to water, remember I have containers and not plants in the ground. The two containers that have a watering hole on each side down close to the bottom, water the plants from the bottom up. When they were baby plants, it said to water them from the top until their roots grew more, so I did that as well as put water in the bottom because that space is not supposed to get dry. I don’t water from the top anymore. The soil at the top of those containers was not dry so I did nothing except make sure the bottom space was full of water.

The rest of the plants are in grow bags, and the planter in the garden has the walking onions and there are some flower seeds I dropped on the actual garden dirt, so those flowers are the only plants actually in ground dirt.

Now, how dry do you let the potting soil the plants are in get, before you water? I’ve been sticking a finger about half an inch into the soil and if that is dry, I water the plant and have no idea how much I’m putting in. That may be wrong and that’s why I’m asking. I don’t want to water log the plant.

I also have that sesame flower plant in a large pottery pot and yesterday, it’s leaves were drooping, so I put water in the pot and today the plant is looking normal. I don’t know how much water I put in there, I just used the hose and put some in there.

I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to watering. The potting soil in the five tomato plants in 5 gal. grow bags, seemed dry to me when I put my finger 1/2 inch into the soil, so I watered them and that was using the hose and putting probably an inch of water in the top of the bag. I don’t know if that was enough or too much. Water does come out of the bags on the side and bottom so that water doesn’t stand in the bottom of those bags.

If you have developed your way of knowing about how to water, I’d like to know it. Even if you have a watering drip system, you are still limiting that water some how to know when it is enough.

I truly don’t know exactly how to describe what I do, and it’s probably not very scientific anyway. Most of my soil is Mel’s mix type of sq foot gardening fame.

It is almost impossible to overwater with this mix. So I just dump a bunch of water on it, if the plants look like they need it, or the soil looks pretty dry, I stick my finger in the mix, and if I don’t hit moisture by the time my 1st knuckle is even with the top of the soil, I figger it needs water.

For my tomatoes, I give each one a quart a day, unless it’s really hot and then I give them from 1 to 2 qts. twice a day. My tomatoes this year are in the raised beds and I planted 1 per each sq. foot. Tomatoes crack if they have inconsistent watering, so that’s why I just try to kinda give them the same amount each day, once they have fruit.

I like the planters you describe. Just feel inside the hole in the pot, and add water till it runs over a little.

The first year I tried to be scientific. I looked up how much the type of plant needed per week in inches. Then I figured up the volume for the size of beds, and divided by 7 to get the amount per day.

Alas, my brain just couldn’t remember it all, and I kept loosing my crib sheet. So I just gave up and winged it.

Sorry; I rarely do containers. When I do, I ‘let the plant tell me’: if it’s not droopy, it doesn’t get water; if it starts drooping in the afternoons, that is a temporary condition, unless it is still that way the next morning. I’m always more afraid of over watering than of under watering. The exception is the Topsy-Turvy tomato planters: they, per instructions, get about a half gallon a day, unless they’ve gotten a good dose of roof runoff.

For the garden, I usually go with the top inch or so being dry or barely damp, then give them a good shot of water to give them their inch/week.

For large water guzzlers, like squash family, and cabbage family, I plant almost rim-deep a large coffee can or similar size deep container with drain holes around the base of it between 2 of them, and keep filling it until it stays pretty much full, in addition to their regular watering. I can also put fertilizer in it to get it down to the deeper roots.