10 Common Watering Mistakes (to Avoid)

you would think that because we do it every single day that Garden watering would become easier and we'd have fewer problems with it but it's one of those things that so many gardeners just aren't doing completely right that it leads to more problems than it should join me today as I share with you 10 common mistakes with watering the garden good [Music] hi I'm Gardener Scott and you would think that because we water the garden every single day and because it's such a simple task that we shouldn't have many problems with it but so many of the issues in our garden the pests that are attacking our plants or maybe the diseases that are running rampant so many of those issues can be traced back to poor watering practices because I think gardeners just get complacent when it comes to watering the garden they think all they have to do is just put water on their plants and everything will be okay but it's not that simple that's why I want to highlight these 10 things in particular that if you're not doing them right could be causing a problem the first Common mistake is watering at the wrong time now you may have heard this expressed as watering at the wrong time of day and that is an important aspect of it but I think in general some of the advice we get is incomplete you may hear water when the plants need it well I tend to disagree with that we actually need to water before the plants need it if we wait until the soil is dry and the plants need water it's too late the plant becomes stressed and that's when some of those pests and diseases can begin attacking the plant instead we need to water before the plant needs it we need to water to keep our soil moist so that when it's hot when the transpiration is taking place and the plants need the water from the soil it's already there we've already watered at an appropriate time to keep the soil alive and keep the soil moist and the plants will benefit from that there is a best time of day a more appropriate time of day for most of us to water it's mid-morning and this is the time that I usually water my garden I have very low humidity and very hot days in the summer so I want to make sure my soil is as moist as possible going into the harshest part of the day the point when the plants are going to suffer most if the soil dries out so for me morning watering tends to be best but on some of those really dry and hot days I may also need to come back and water in early evening because as much water as I put into the ground early the soil May dry out before nighttime comes sometimes the correct time to water is twice a day if we have overcast skies and it's raining once a day is often enough and for those of you in very rainy areas you may only need to water every two or three days you have to look at your own garden and your own soil to determine the best time to water the second mistake is not checking the soil to see how moist it is whether it needs water or not in this bed I have open soil and I watered it about 24 hours ago as I check the soil the top inch is pretty dry as I dig down a little bit more it's starting to be moist and when I get about two to three inches deep the soil is clearly moisture than the top inch I watered this bed also yesterday morning and the soil is quite a bit different in this bed the top is not dry at all this top inch is actually moister than two or three inches down in that other bed and if I go deeper still well it's even close to soggy so how do we explain that difference two beds in the same Garden watered at the same time of day one is dry and lightly moist and the other is moist maybe even a little too much at a deeper level well that leads us to our third common mistake and that's not using mulch mulch is Magic when it comes to watering the garden on a bed like this with no mulch the soil is more likely to dry out quicker the plants are more likely to suffer the plants will probably not do as well in a bed without mulch as in a bed with mulch except when I'm trying to make a point for a video all of my vegetable garden beds are mulched I do this as soon as possible when the plants are small and then increase the mulch as the plants get taller mulch reduces the evaporation of the water that's in the soil which means for many of us that you don't need to water as often which can be important in a region like mine that's so hot and dry and where I have to pay for my water mulch actually saves me money in addition to moderating the moisture level in this soil but when you use mulch it could lead to mistake number four which is watering on a schedule this is a very common mistake and all of us do it we get on a schedule every morning we come out and water the garden and we water all of the beds in the same order and we give all of them the same amount of water and we do that day after day it's especially prevalent if you're using a drip irrigation system one that might be on a timer and it comes on at the same time every day and gives the plants the same amount of water every day it's easy we like to get into a pattern when we do our garden work but it can lead to problems that bed without mulch where the soil is dry needs water today but as you saw in my metal bed the soil is moist enough today I don't need to water that bed I do need to water that bed this bed Falls in between it has a light layer of mulch about the top half an inch of the soil is dry but below that the soil has adequate moisture so today when I water the first bed gets a full amount of water a metal bed gets no water and this bed can go either way I could skip watering this today or come back later this afternoon and check on the soil moisture and maybe give this an evening watering if the soil dries out over the course of the day that's the right way to water it's to do it at different times depending on the soil The Mulch and the plant needs if we're not physically checking the moisture in the soil and whether our plants even need more water well it could be a problem and if we don't anticipate the difference between a bed that's mulched and a bed that's not mulched it can lead to a problem and that's the next two mistakes that are too common in our Gardens over watering and underwatering when we water all the beds the same without taking into account the actual soil moisture the problems arise the metal bed where the soil is already moist maybe even too moist watering would cause an over watering situation if I watered my entire Garden assuming that all of the soil is at that moisture level well then that bed with dry soil might not get enough water which means those plants are going to be under watered and the plants themselves need different amounts of water at different stages of their life these zucchini plants are growing very well right now they're growing so well that they're using more water than the carrot plants that are on the other end of this bed and when these plants begin to fruit well that developing fruit and that growing fruit requires even more water the carrots still won't need that much even when they get mature even within the same bed we have to recognize that some of these plants are going to need more water some of the other plants won't need as much so you have to accept the variability of the plants and their water needs within the garden as a whole and maybe within the individual beds the plants themselves will often give you Clues as to whether you're over watering or underwatering Leaf curl is usually a sign of one or the other if the leaves of your plants are beginning to curl get down into the soil and check the moisture before you assume that is caused by wilting and then you add more water and you may exacerbate the problem tomatoes are a great example of the fruit showing you that something is wrong if you have blossom end rot the most likely culprit is over watering or underwatering so when that first blossom end rot tomato appears get down and physically check the moisture level of the soil throughout the garden you're looking for consistent moisture levels of your soil that may mean water every day every two days every three days maybe even twice a day but you have to water to the plants needs and the moisture level of the soil when we water we want the water to go down to the soil to the roots to get the best benefit for the plants this leads us to the next common mistake and that's overhead watering now for plants that are grassy like this garlic water is usually going to run straight down to the soil and it's not that big an issue this is one reason why drip irrigation systems and soaker hoses are so great because they're applying the water directly on the soil surface but in other beds with leafy plants like this zucchini and these beets and these turnips and this lettuce when I overhead water most of the water is staying on the leaf surface a lot of the water on these leaves is pulling up or the drops are remaining in a hot dry region like mine that water is going to be gone in no time not because it went down to the soil but because it's evaporated into the dry hot air this can lead to another underwatering type of situation so much of the water we're putting on the bed is evaporating that the plants may not be getting enough so overhead watering with leafy plants at the same amount as another bed that doesn't have the leafy plants means you're going to have an imbalance the soil moisture levels are going to be different in each of those beds and don't think that if the plants are wilting and they look like they need more water that overhead watering is going to fix the problem they're wilted because there's not enough moisture in the soil for the plants to take up or maybe it's just a natural response to Sun that's too hot the overhead watering is not the answer you want to get down low at the soil level to give the water that the plants need here's a mistake I'm guessing you haven't heard before it's watering when the water is too hot we don't even think about it we just assume that the water coming out of our hose is going to be nice and cool especially if we're watering in the morning well this morning when I came out to water my garden the air temperature was 75 degrees Fahrenheit and I measured the temperature of the water fresh out of the hose it was almost 118 degrees Fahrenheit I've measured my water temperature during the peak of the day and it's been well over 125 degrees Fahrenheit I have a black hose and a dark green hose like many of us do that's going to heat up the water you've probably heard that one of the reasons you shouldn't overhead water your plants is because you're going to burn the leaves well that's not entirely true it rains all the time on our leaves and the raindrops don't burn them I think it's a more likely issue that people are watering their plants during the heat of the day without thinking about the heat of the water and they're burning the leaves with hot water and especially those young seedlings that might need to be watered three or four times a day when they're first getting started if you use 120 five degree water on those seedlings it's going to cause some problems some of those seedlings might not survive and if you're wondering why they're dying well it could be because you haven't let the water run to get to the cool water and then water the plants this next mistake is another one that all of us make some of us on a pretty regular basis and that's not using our weather forecast correctly now if you're not regularly looking at the weather and how it's going to impact your garden you should definitely do it but too often we see that rain is in the forecast so we decide not to water our garden and wait to see how much rain we're going to get well remember some of the plants may need water earlier in the day the soil may be drying out and they can't wait for the rainfall it's better to go ahead and water in the morning even when rain is coming the dry soil in many cases is going to repel the rain water that hits it or maybe it's only going to soak in half an inch deep moist soil is going to absorb the rainfall all the way down so if the very bottom of your beds or if deep in your soil it's dry the rainfall is actually going to help those lower levels of the soil get some of that much needed moisture how often do you look at the forecast to see how much sun you're going to get on this bed I have shade cloth shading the tomato and the tomatillos underneath I don't have to water this bed as much as the other beds that are in open sun it acts like an overcast day there's less evaporation of the soil moisture in a shaded area so if the forecast calls for a lot of clouds you may not need as much water that day if it's completely Sunny without a cloud in the sky you may need a little extra water when you check your soil moisture because there's going to be more evaporation because of the Sun and the wind is an important factor as well especially if you're overhead watering wind is going to dry out the soil and your plants faster than a calm day I like these Spinners in my garden but they give me a clue as to how much wind I have and I'm always looking at the forecast to see if it's going to be stronger later in the day I might need a little bit extra water on those really hot really dry really windy days and think about the temperature as well as the days begin to cool going into Autumn the soil is going to have less evaporation as well so on cool days you may not need to water at all and if you have a period of cool days you can often go many days between watering as opposed to my forecast for the next week I'm going to be in the mid to high 90s I'm definitely going to have to water every single day stand by for a bonus mistake after this tenth one this tenth one is too common and it's not understanding the watering advice that you get and it holds true for everything I've covered in this video but it's especially true for a lot of the advice that you might read or see in a YouTube video or on a PBS show a person that's giving you that advice has a different Garden than yours their region their weather and their soil is different than yours the advice they're giving may be appropriate for their plants it might not be appropriate for your plants some of the very first information that I learned in the Master Gardener training I went through almost 20 years ago is that trees should get one inch of water per inch of diameter once a week but does that really make sense for you is that guidance that you should follow I don't think it's appropriate for me if I lived in Virginia or North Carolina and I had regular rainfall and I had put in some young fruit trees then supplementing the water with one inch per diameter per week might make sense for a tree that's four or five or six inches wide where do we put that water is it in a small area around the trunk or is it around the entire drip line there's more information we need to know and how old is the tree well this tree is about one inch diameter actually slightly less than that it's a plum tree that I just put in this year if I give this tree one inch or slightly less than one inch of water directly under the drip line in my Colorado garden over 7 000 feet elevation with humidity in the single digits the water is going to be used by the tree and or evaporate pretty quickly and young fruit trees in their first two years of growth are establishing their Roots so if the soil isn't moist enough for their Roots these trees aren't going to be established as well as they should and they might even die so information presented by a Master Gardener can be wrong if it doesn't fit you and your garden setting all of the information I've covered so far in this video should be a starting point for you to begin learning more to take the mistakes that I've highlighted and to learn how to improve on your own actions in the garden how to get it right next time because there's always more information whenever anyone gives you gardening advice this peach tree has now been in the ground for two years it's got more growth the diameter of the trunk is wider I know it needs more water but when you see advice that says to water out to the drip line of the tree yeah that's great but I know from experience and from education that the roots of this tree are already extending beyond the drip line especially in dry regions so be aware of that when you're watering a young tree like this you can water close to the trunk but Big Trees a little drip emitter close to the trunk does almost no good at all that's a big reason why I've got mulch in this area deep mulch so when the soil gets wet The Mulch helps keep this entire area nice and moist and that leads to the bonus mistake not understanding how mulch works and assuming that just because it's magical it's going to solve your problems in deep mulch like this it's actually going to hold water away from the soil as much as it's going to hold water in the soil I'll go ahead and start watering the mulch it's pooling up this might be a point that I would go ahead and stop assuming there's enough let's go ahead and water a little bit more how effective was the water in this area as I pull the mulch aside it's moist now it's dry looks like only about the top inch got a good amount of water as I go down a little bit more this mulch right here is bone dry I go down a little bit further it's dry as well but when I get to the bottom I actually see moist soil thick mulch is very effective at retaining the soil moisture it's so thick that that moist soil underneath doesn't dry out but you have to get that soil moist in the first place so if you're going to be applying a lot of mulch water the soil first then apply The Mulch and don't assume that just because you're putting enough water for the soil on top of the mulch that all of it is making it down to the soil because especially in these dry regions this mulch is going to dry out pretty quickly in that top one to two to three inches but the soil underneath will be nice and protected and moist if you took the right preparation there's a lot that can go wrong with watering there's a lot that can go right and to learn more about some of the things to do and to avoid in the garden go ahead and watch one of these videos next I'm Gardener Scott enjoy gardening [Music]

Channel: Gardener Scott

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Keywords: gardener scott, gardner scott, gardening tips, gardening for beginners, watering plants, gardening mistakes, how to water plants, watering vegetable garden, how to water vegetable plants, watering tips, watering vegetables, watering a garden, garden mistakes, watering plants in garden, how to water a vegetable garden, watering the garden, vegetable gardening mistakes, over watering, gardening tips and tricks for beginners, watering mistakes

Id: 0OswEnMSETQ

Length: 24min 47sec (1487 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 16 2022