I give a good soak (2 hours or so with a drip hose or a pencil-thin stream from a regular hose) about once every two weeks during dry and hot weather. This time of year, in my climate, I don't water at all.

Long soaks less often mean your plants will grow deeper, stronger root systems and will be more resilient. If you don't care about that, and want to maximise top growth at the expense of deep roots, you could water more often for a shorter time.

I do water small seedlings and recent transplants more often -- maybe each day for the first two days now, or for a week in summer. But I start training them to grow deep as soon as I can.

Last summer, we used drippers at one foot or eighteen inch spacings, for an hour or so, twice a week, on un-mulched soil growing things like tomatoes, corn, beans, and strawberries, in a summer of temperatures varying from around 70F to around 100F.

All that detail, of course, tells you little without knowing _what size drippers_. I don't remember; we just put down drippers, watered, checked the soil, and reduced the watering time until it seemed like we were watering "enough."

Then we got the water bills, and this year we will be working out a way to make a smaller amount of water "enough". :) I'd like to water twice as long and one quarter as often; we'll see if that works out.

But maybe it will give you a vague order of magnitude answer.

My main concern with your post is that you say that you're watering "lightly". It's best to water as deeply as you can, and as infrequently as you can. I'm wondering if perhaps your watering was always shallow, so that your soil has never been adequately watered.

I would suggest that you get a soaker hose, wind it over an area of ground, and start soaking. Come back after an hour, dig a small hole with a trowel, and see how deeply the ground is wet. Then after a second hour. Then after a third hour. And so on. Learn roughly how many hours it takes to soak the soil several inches deep. If you're in summer and haven't been watering much, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes eight hours or more to do an initial "make up" watering

Of course, "several" inches is still a vague guideline. My perception is that it should be possible to water to a depth where the wetness from watering meets the wetness from retained moisture in the soil, so that there is no dry layer, but I don't know if I'm right about that.

All depends on what you're growing. I think the general rule is the deeper the root system, the longer, deeper soaks.

I've never grown corn, but I've read that they need lots of water. But I believe they're somewhat shallow rooted, so my guess would be shorter, more frequent waterings with a soak now and then.

Peppers, on the other hand, are somewhat deeper rooted, but they like to dry out between waterings. General rule for peppers -- let them wilt a little before giving a good soak.

Most veggies like moist, not wet, soil. Mulching really helps a lot.

Kevin

Chickenfreak has got it right :).

>get a soaker hose, wind it over an area of ground, and start soaking. Come back after an hour, dig a small hole with a trowel, and see how deeply the ground is wet. Then after a second hour. Then after a third hour. And so on. Learn roughly how many hours it takes to...water to a depth where the wetness from watering meets the wetness from retained moisture in the soil, so that there is no dry layer

This was how I learned how much I need to water and when. It's been so many years I had forgotten about it, but I think it's a great method :).

I suppose people in very arid climates and with sandy soil may not be able to forgo a dry layer, but here in the pacific northwest the dampness in unwatered ares is only maybe 8 or 12 inches down in the driest part of the year.

I water again when I have to dig down 3 or 4 inches to reach damp soil. Different plants will handle different depths of dryness

Right now I'm watering twice a week (when it doesn't rain). I have soaker hoses but I don't like how they perform so I went back to hand watering with a hose. I have one of those wand sprayers with all the different spray patterns, I use the soaker one and just put it at the base of each plant for 30 seconds or so. This will most definitely change once we reach our normal summer temps (mid 90's but last year there was a LOT of days where we hit 100+).

The soakers I think I'll keep just for when I want to saturate the whole bed, rather than the plants. Or maybe I'll try to reposition them. They're the flat kind that are soakers/sprinklers depending on which way they face. The problem is unrolling them and pinning them down so that they're 'soaker' hoses. Little jets like to spray out the sides and out of the beds or up on plants (which defeats the purpose of the hose to begin with, it's to keep the plants dry when watering) wasting water (which is another thing they're for, conserving water). A lot of the problem with the spraying is because my longest beds are 20 feet, so I have to snake the hose around and where ever it curves, the sprinkler face shows.

Has anyone tried burying soda bottles or milk jugs next to plants to soak the roots? I guess you cut the bottoms off and bury them halfway into the soil next to certain plants and just fill the bottles occasionally. This helps direct the water deep down into the dirt where the roots are.

I assume you know there is not one set schedule that applies to all? There are far too many variables involved to ever set any sort of specific schedule. So the simple answer is "whenever the plant needs it". :)

But I will say that those moisture meters are notorious for being inaccurate and that the general guideline is that less frequent but deeper watering is far better for plants than frequent shallow watering. Frequent, shallow watering only encourages shallow rooted plants that then demand more water and it becomes a vicious cycle.

Further, different plants need different amounts of water of course and since it is well-documented that most gardeners OVER-water rather than under water, "when in doubt, don't water" is a good rule of thumb for most of us.

Your soil sounds like the real problem so what plans do you have to improve it?

Dave

I watered about 2-3 times when I had a stretch of weather in the 70's to 80's for the last week of March. I haven't watered since then, or any other time this year.

All of the above is good stuff!
I try to group plants with similar needs together. The tomatoes are all in one bed cause they like the same watering pattern. I let them dry out a bit rather than sprinkle a bit each day.
I actually have a set up for each of 4 large beds. I bought a hose splitter that has 4 different spigots, each controlled by it's own control.Each connected to a soaker hose.
The tomatoes get about 1/2 hour once a week, the asparagus, 2x per week etc etc.
This way I only have to dedicate about an hour a day (or less) to watering.
I also make sure to hand water about once a week in order to inspect all of my plants and look for critters etc!
Garden ON! Nancy