No overhead watering?!? That advice must be written by folks who have enough time on their hands to hand-water everything or enough money to burn on a drip system for every plant.

Seriously.

They're plants. They need water. They DON'T CARE how they get it.

IMO, if the plant is so frou-frou that no overhead watering is a requirement to avoid disease problems, then poop on it - I'll grow something else.

(sorry to steal your favorite word Ken, but I can't think of another befitting word at the moment - if something doesn't hit me later I'll have to check dictionary.com and see what a good synonym for frou-frou is LOL!)

I think that overhead is not advised because it can encourage disease on the foliage? Overhead watering could be different from rain because sometimes it is done when it's dry and sunny out, and it doesn't normally rain under those conditions.

I don't care that much about a little mildew, although I do generally water at the roots if possible. Right now I'm watering using buckets anyway, due to a voluntary water ban.

Recently I read that you shouldn't water butterfly and hummingbird plants overhead, because the water can dilute the nectar in the flowers. Could be.

But dry and sunny is a perfect time to water if you don't want diseases. The foliage drys quickly and that's what you want. Prolonged wetness on the leaves is what encourages crud.

With that said, this whole overhead watering and nighttime rainfall thing has always been a mystery to me too.

Kevin

Poop on it is right. Who cares?

I have tried soaker hose. After a few years, it got buried in mulch and manure.
Since I tend to plant wherever I see bare spots, I would dig into soaker hose too many times, so I gave up.
I have been watering with overhead sprinklers for more than 20 years now. My garden is doing fine.

There is more mildew on water stressed plants than those that received enough water from overhead watering.

I've heard the overhead watering thing has to do with diseases on the foliage also. And I always kinda wondered about rain too!

I do hand water, and no, I do not have time on my hands (I work three jobs) or money to burn (I work three jobs, lol!). My personal reason for it is water conservation. I feel that overhead watering is a terrible waste of water (lots of evaporation before the water even hits the ground). It also seems to me that with overhead watering, you need a lot more water to actually get it to the ground where it is needed.

I have a well, and not sure how good of a well at that, so I can't run sprinklers for hours because the well pump seems to stress. Even hand watering with the hoses, I have to water a few beds and let the well recover, then water some more, etc.

Also, I feel that watering at the roots/base of the plant is more beneficial to the plant. The water is going right where it's needed instead of sitting on the foliage and never making it down to the ground. It makes for a deeper watering.

I've tried soaker hoses, but don't use them much - water pressure is low, and again, that darn well poops out after a short time. The well is on the short list of things to do around the house, so hopefully in the next year I can see about updating. But I still don't think I would use sprinklers to water, or any kind of overhead watering even then, because of my above reasons.

All that being said, I sure do wish it would rain!
:)
Dee

Years ago, somebody was telling a joke about overhead watering at an iris society meeting. The only thing I remember about it was the punch line. "God, you're doing it wrong." I thought that really said it all.

Dee, it really hasn't been raining where you are? It rained here most of Thursday, and I'd expect you'd get some of that.

The only difference between rain and overhead watering is the evaporation of water on a dry day. Overhead watering wastes water and that is my main objection to it. When you are watering with a sprinkler the plants never get as much water as my plants do with my hand watering. I have a wand with a soaker setting. The water bubbles out of it in a stream. I put it under the plant and let it bubble all around the plant. I may come back and do it again. I want the water to go deep. I don't do all my plants at the same time. If they are deeply watered they don't need water as often. Usually I spend about an hour most nights watering if there is no rain, and I have a lot of flowers and a huge vegetable garden.

My neighbor overhead waters and he will leave the sprinklers on for hours and he doesn't get near the moisture to the plants that I do.

I suppose that like all gardening the best way to water is whatever works for you.

MG, we did get spit on late Thursday night/early Friday morning. So little that I didn't even know until someone told me later in the day Friday!

And we did have a wonderful soft rain one day last week - well, either early last week or late the week before - but overall, it is still very dry here and I feel like the only thing I've been doing in the garden lately is water! Too time-consuming and I have so much to do that I feel like my time could be better spent doing something else. But if I don't water everything will die and then there will be *nothing* to do, lol.

Even the weeds are wilting, lol!
:)
Dee

thanks for all of your input. I sit here on a ridge above the current water level of Lake Ontario and it is all sand all the time. My mantra is to protect my investment(in time, in dollars, in sweat equity.) I have placed rain gauges in key spots in the garden and try to supplement the natural water with overhead watering. If there hasn't been an inch of rain in the past week then the watering begins. I've figured out how long it takes to deliver an inch of water and time each segment of watering accordingly. It's not perfect but it IS overhead watering. What more can I say? Mea culpa!

The majority of my plants don't get watered by me, period. That said, basically the entire summer it's been a drought (which has been the case for many of you) and some of my plants did get watered by me.

I hand watered my plants that needed it, but what I do is set up the pot carefully at the base and let the watering can drain in while I do something else. It works for me!