Watering is what allows your plants to grow. Like humans and animals, plants get thirsty and if they are not given enough watering, they are not able to grow big and strong and produce fruit. Here are some watering tips to make sure your plants are getting all of the water they need and are staying healthy.
- Water in the morning or at night when the sun is not high in the sky. This gives the soil time to absorb the water before the sun evaporates it.
- You do, however, want to make sure you do not water too heavily at night as the soil might not be able to absorb all of the water. Excess water could puddle around the roots and can over time cause root rot.
- I personally recommend not watering any later than around an hour before sunset. This will give some daylight to the plants, and also after then is when mosquitoes tend to start coming out.
- Water the roots of your plants, not the stems or leaves. Wet stems or leaves will shrivel in the sun.
- Water heavily, but do not flood the plants. The soil should be damp to the touch, but there should but no puddles remaining after a couple of minutes.
- The top two to three inches of the soil should be wet.
- Plants need to be watered more when it’s dry and/or sunny as the soil dries out faster. It is also important to water plants when they are young so that they have what they need to grow big.
- You can use your fingers to make little wells around plants to help the water run towards the plant and its roots rather than into the surrounding soil.
- Water seeds gently after they are first planted, if they are watered too heavily, they can be washed away.
- If a seedling is yellow and droopy, it may be getting too much water, or too little sunlight.
