I think the one inch rule applies. If they are waxy leaved things they can probably even go a little drier in a pinch. You can check the soil around the rootzone to see if it is staying damp.

Most plants have a shut off valve on photosynthesis if the temps get too hot (the reason why you see sagging, wilted leaves in the middle of the day). So with this type of weather most plants are kinda dormant anyway. You can water them all you want but it won't really change things once the triple digits hit. If the heat wave was temporary you can keep things growing by sprinkling them with water during the heat of the day, which cools the leaf surface and keeps the photosynthesis going but this is a lot of work during extended hot spells and you won't really see much difference in the end.

Okay, thanks. I did run a soaker hose through most the plants, so it's not a really big deal for me to hook up the hose and let it go for 6-8 hours at night.

6-8 hours! Wow! Our well pumps 25 gallons per minute. I know it's a slower drip with a soaker, but I think our place would be flooded after that length of time. We use battery-operated timers that attached to the hose bib to run for an hour at a time every 7 days. We've only used the irrigation once so far this year, but our garden is now established.

My yard of trees/shrubs/perennials was installed in April of '03 (on the heels of the '02 drought) and I'm only passing along what I was told to do and did .... and I've never lost a shrub and only a few perennials (mostly my fault). Mulch is a given here - rotted leaf stuff delivered by the truckload, then and now.

My Garden Elves instructed me to water twice a week, dedicated hose spray directly to the base of the plant/shrub to a count of 10, or 15 count if there had been no appreciable rain. Being a good doobee, I did so religiously that whole summer. It was a bit of a pain, but has paid off.

Pictures of the yard then and the view now are an astrounding contrast - everything has quadrupled or more in size and is now self-sustaining. That first year of pain really paid off.

I still do hose water - thru last year's drought, and this week w/our searing temps - but more occasionally. Still, I employ the 10-15 direct hit method. Maybe it just makes me feel good ..... but, apparenty the plants like it too!

My yard of trees/shrubs/perennials was installed in April of '03 (on the heels of the '02 drought) and I'm only passing along what I was told to do and did .... and I've never lost a shrub and only a few perennials (mostly my fault). Mulch is a given here - rotted leaf stuff delivered by the truckload, then and now.

My Garden Elves instructed me to water twice a week, dedicated hose spray directly to the base of the plant/shrub to a count of 10, or 15 count if there had been no appreciable rain. Being a good doobee, I did so religiously that whole summer. It was a bit of a pain, but has paid off.

Pictures of the yard then and the view now are an astrounding contrast - everything has quadrupled or more in size and is now self-sustaining. That first year of pain really paid off.

I still do hose water - thru last year's drought, and this week w/our searing temps - but more occasionally. Still, I employ the 10-15 direct hit method. Maybe it just makes me feel good ..... but, apparenty the plants like it too!

Hey, I didn't say it was perfect. I'm still tweeking it, but I have new trees that also need some moisture so I'm not standing out there in those temps spraying 20-30 plants. Too hot for that. Maybe 6-8 hours is overkill, and I;ll have to work on that, but that wood mulch definately soaks up a lot too.

If you set the pressure or amount of water coming out of the hose really low it may be ok. When i ran my soakers i would run them for about an hour or 2. More than that seemed a waste because it ran off. It helps if the soil's semi moist to begin with (runs off dry soil instead of soaking in) and it helps if you mulch over the hoses. Having to keep running them before it was really dry was one reason why i switched to watering by hand. It also helps me keep a better eye on things. Perhaps you could get a hose timer, so you could set it and it'd turn off after a couple hours.

Yep, I set the flow rate at halfway or lower through the soakers, all areas have been hardwood and pine straw mulched, and I saw very little runoff although I'm sure there was some. I do have a timer and may just use that again.

I was in a panic to set the soakers and get some water to all of those new plants after the high heat and within water restriction guidelines also...and with soakers there is no restriction. I was slap wore out trying to haul pails of the rain water to all of those plants and shrubs in that heat that I had to get something else going.

I don't think the 6-8 hours per night was out of line. During extreme drought and at a time when there weren't any restrictions it was not unheard of to let soakers run all night (at low pressure). A soaker hose only holds so much water and it also only emits so much water, it all depends on how long the hose is and how it was made. So by turning it on and letting it run it sorta backs up the pressure and only lets out a tiny amount of water. Its not like you left your garden hose running for 8 hours, its a closed system with tiny holes to drip out water. That's why they are usually promoted as efficient watering systems instead of sprinklers.

To water trees deeply, that would be around 3 feet of saturation (I think). That does take a lot longer than our garden where we only want 1 foot depth of saturation.

In our previous home, our automatic irrigation system got clogged up (there were a few lawn sprinkler popups) one night and didn't shut off, keeping the popups running. The next morning, we had a literal flood in our yard and our neighbor's vacant lot as the clay soil didn't absorb the water. We were on "paid" water at the time. I had to find the water shut off at the street to cut it off. The water company forgave that bill, but they didn't want to as it was huge. That incident really got to me at the wastefulness of built-in irrigation systems at new homes.

As a result, I refused to have that kind of (main line) irrigation system installed here on our well at this house. We use the Mister Landscaper Electronic Water Timers feeding drip hoses with no popups. We have no real lawn (it's meadow), so no grass watering, thankfully.

wonbyherwits - I have 2 that look just like the link below. The funny thing is mine is a Melnor, so I guess they're made by the same folks. I installed a "Y" to the faucet and hooked this timer up to one side so I could leave it hooked up to the faucet for the season and still have access to the water supply for other things. Works well. Easy to set too, compared to the other ones I've had.

Here is a link that might be useful: mash here

We have Y connectors on all of our faucets, too. Works great...especially the one that links to the outdoor rain shower!