How to Grow More Vegetables : And Fruits, Nuts ... - Shroomery

76 SEED PROPAGATION
hose so it is more temperate by the time it reaches the plant
roots. The roots suffer less shock, and the soil and plants have
more time to absorb water during the cooler, less windy night.
Also, plants do a significant amount of their growing at night,
and this ensures they will have plenty of water to do so. If you
water early in the morning, much of the water will be lost in
evaporation caused by the sun and wind, and the watering will
be less effective. The loss will be even greater if you water at
midday. If you water in the evening, the plants will be more
susceptible to mildew and rust problems due to unevaporated
water left on their leaves. By watering in the late afternoon, the
water can percolate into the soil for 12 hours or more before
the sun and wind reappear in strength. When they do, the bed
will have a good reservoir of water from which the plants can
draw before their next watering.
Seeds and seedlings in flats and immature plants in the
growing beds may have to be watered in the morning and at
noon as well as late in the afternoon. Until the living mulch
effect occurs, the flats and beds dry out more rapidly. When the
leaves grow closer together, less watering will be required.
To determine how much water to give a bed each day, strive
for a 1 ⁄ 2- to 15-second “shiny.” 5 When you first begin to water, a
shiny layer of excess water will appear on top of the soil. If you
stop watering immediately, the shiny layer will disappear quickly.
You should water until the shiny layer remains for 1 ⁄ 2 to 15
seconds after you have stopped watering. The actual time
involved will differ depending on your soil’s texture. The more
clayey the texture, the longer the time will be. A newly prepared
bed with good texture and structure will probably have
enough water when a 1 ⁄ 2- to 3-second shiny is reached. A newly
prepared clayey bed may indicate that it has enough water
with a 3- to 5-second shiny, since a clayey soil both retains more
moisture and lets the water in less rapidly. A month-old bed
(which has compacted somewhat due to the watering process)
may require a 5- to 8-second shiny, and beds 2 to 3 months
old may require more than that. A 2- to 4-month-old bed may
require a longer shiny.
Eventually the watering process will become automatic,
and you will not have to think about when the bed has received
enough water; you will know intuitively when the point has
been reached. Remember to allow for the different natures of
plants. Squash plants, for instance, will want a lot of water in
comparison to tomato plants. One way to determine whether
you have watered enough is to go out the next morning and
poke your finger into the bed. If the soil is evenly moist for the
5. Another simple way to estimate the amount of water a bed is receiving is to first measure
the gallons delivered per minute. Turn the hose on, and point the spray into a 1-gallon jar or a
4-quart watering can. If, for example, it takes 15 seconds to fill the jar, then you know you are
delivering 4 gallons per minute to the bed. Currently, in our moderately heavy clay, we find each
5-feet by 20-feet bed will take anywhere from 5 to 20 gallons daily (10 gallons on the average),
depending on the weather, the type of plant, the size of the plants, and the tightness of the soil.