If you water in the morning, you should be good. What are your average temps. We got up to 84F. Some of my Lupines got fried. I'm a newbie, you might have to move them to a more shadier location.

yea, I knew it was going to be hot today - 84 here too, shocked at how much they drank and dried up today. Thanks, one more super hot day then some more spring like weather! Fun stuff!

Or, if you have lot of containers, give them shade somehow. Can be done with shade cloth, strategic placement of lawn chairs over them, upside down laundry baskets, etc.

Karen

I water my containers of seedlings during the day without any problems. My mist setting was too fine and took too long so I use a light shower setting.

Well I consider myself zone 6b. I have watered in the day, I have watered in the heat of the summer in the middle of the day. Well when I notice problems with it is during the hot hot hot summer, what will happen sometimes I will get bleached out burnt spots on my leaves, but like I said that is only during the extreme heat of the summer not like temps now and not 84 degrees. Heat of summer to me is a heat index of like 115, temp about 100+.

Some say you are not suppose to water at night because it promotes algae, well I am a rule breaker when it comes to gardening and sometimes dern it that is the only time I can water. No problems doing it that way, though if your one of those must follow the rules type of people then water in the morning, you will be just fine as ladyrose said.

Oh and I have tried to water just the root ball when I do water in the heat of the day, it doesn't matter somehow someway I always get water on the leaves, and that is why the bleached out burnt spots are there cause the water acts as a magnifying glass.

Thanks all!!!

They survived the day, I spot watered a few that were desperate and then gave them a good soak last night before bed, all looks good, a little algae, but I already had a little - so, loooking good here in NC!!!!

I found bottom watering is easier. I buy the tin roasting pans at the dollar store. And just let them soak up as much as they want, then remove them from the tin.

Only thing - I have to be sure to not have them sitting in the tin, when it rains, as they would get water-logged.

I agree about bottom watering if you are getting that much dryness. Also with the put in the shade advice. I put things under a chair or would use a sheet if desperate. You might try whichever side of the house gets shade at that time of day.
Are your lids still on? It gets about ten degrees hotter inside those containers with the lids on. If you have to taking the lids off during the day works well and covering them over with a clear plastic sheet at night so you aren't messing with every container. I used plastic from a mattress we bought and an old shower curtain one year.

This is the first time my WS containers dried out, mainly because I had to set so many of them under the covered part of my breezeway. There was 6 ft. of snow everywhere so I had no choice but to use the bench & patio table. Yesterday I set two under-bed plastic sweater bins on the step off my breezeway, poured a gallon of water in each and set the jugs in them to bottom-water. The bins each hold 6 gallon-size milk jugs so I got 12 done at a time. That step is in full afternoon sun but since it was barely freezing yesterday with an arctic wind blowing, the chances of anything getting too hot were slim to none.

I bottom water before the containers germinate and seedlings get a bit of size. With hundreds of containers that takes too much time so once the seedlings are growing well and the lids are off wand watering is the way to go for me.