How and When to Water
Presenter: Nigel Ruck
How and when you go about watering your garden is crucial to its success with the aim being to promote strong, healthy plants in the most water efficient way possible, especially during these difficult dry times. The idea is to encourage plants to develop deep root systems that can access water further down in the soil making them more robust, self sufficient and able to deal with dry periods for longer. This is achieved by deep watering less frequently, as opposed to more regular shallow watering which has the opposite affect, creating shallow weak roots systems.
Nigel sets up a high tech experiment using a plastic cup filled with soil that represents the soil profile, and a bottle of water. He pours in a small amount of water as if shallow watering, it does not go very far into the soil which means the roots will be concentrated close to the surface. By adding more water as if deep watering, the water goes much further down encouraging the roots to do the same, accessing water less affected by evaporation and available for longer. This will result in, strong, deep, healthy roots.
How often you water depends on the time of year and associated temperature, individual plants requirements and their drought hardiness, and soil type. The best time of day to water is early in the morning, allowing the water to soak through the soil before the heat of the day kicks in causing water loss through evaporation. Late afternoon is also a good time.
All of this is well and good but water restrictions across New South Whales affect the use of town water, with level 4 areas having a total ban on using water on the garden. This raises some very good points, which Nigel believes should have been addressed years ago. Things like harvesting rain in rain water tanks and recycling grey water from the laundry and bathroom. Other water saving measures include the use of water crystals and wetting agents, using drought tolerant plants, and a thick layer of mulch, all of which help to reduce the use of our most precious resource; water.
How and when you go about watering your garden is crucial to its success with the aim being to promote strong, healthy plants in the most water efficient way possible, especially during these difficult dry times. The idea is to encourage plants to develop deep root systems that can access water further down in the soil making them more robust, self sufficient and able to deal with dry periods for longer. This is achieved by deep watering less frequently, as opposed to more regular shallow watering which has the opposite affect, creating shallow weak roots systems.
Nigel sets up a high tech experiment using a plastic cup filled with soil that represents the soil profile, and a bottle of water. He pours in a small amount of water as if shallow watering, it does not go very far into the soil which means the roots will be concentrated close to the surface. By adding more water as if deep watering, the water goes much further down encouraging the roots to do the same, accessing water less affected by evaporation and available for longer. This will result in, strong, deep, healthy roots.
How often you water depends on the time of year and associated temperature, individual plants requirements and their drought hardiness, and soil type. The best time of day to water is early in the morning, allowing the water to soak through the soil before the heat of the day kicks in causing water loss through evaporation. Late afternoon is also a good time.
All of this is well and good but water restrictions across New South Whales affect the use of town water, with level 4 areas having a total ban on using water on the garden. This raises some very good points, which Nigel believes should have been addressed years ago. Things like harvesting rain in rain water tanks and recycling grey water from the laundry and bathroom. Other water saving measures include the use of water crystals and wetting agents, using drought tolerant plants, and a thick layer of mulch, all of which help to reduce the use of our most precious resource; water.
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