I wouldn't remove the leaves. I have some that are at the soil line. Some of them died and fell off, others remained, and eventually grew away from the soil. I would let the plant decide. I water with a hose. It has a Miracle Grow attachment, and I put it on the shower setting. I water all around the base of the plant and the pot entirely. I wait a minute or two, then water again. This is to ensure you don't create wet and dry pockets. I'm still new to this. I'm sure others will be able to offer better advice. That's just the way I do it. Good Luck!

Yes, I suggest as peppernovice does. Water a little, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of what you think the container will hold, then move to the next plant. Go down the line. If you only have a few plants, wait a half hour or so and rewater another 1/3. Keep going down the line as before. If you have 25 or more containers, you can probably just start over when you get to the end of the line. Once you see water running out the bottom, quit. Then, if you intend to add nutrients that are water soluble, wait a good half hour or so and then you can just mix them up in a 5 gallon pail at the recommended strength. Then dump about a gallon of the solution on each plant for 5 gallon to 7 gallon containers. More or less for bigger or smaller containers.

That is basically how I do it. Seems to saturate the mix all the way through that way and the last dose of ferts pours through and pushes the regular water out the bottom but most of the ferts stay with the plant.
Bruce

I'll have to disagree. You should never water in sips. It promotes the accumulation of solutes. If you are using a medium that ~requires~ you to water in sips....your using the wrong medium for a container, period. Specifically when you are using soluble fertilizers, you should ALWAYS water so that some of your irrigation water flows from the bottom. This will ensure that accumulated solutes are flushed away. Always remember, water absorption and nutrient uptake will be most efficient when the level of solutes in the medium are lowest, and the oxygen level is highest. By using a well built, properly aerated and free draining medium, there is no reason to water/fertigate a single planting more than once per application - unless your intent is to flush the medium.

PJ

I appreciate your offerings, all of you! Very contrasting ideas though. PJ, how would you recommend I water/fertilize given the size of my containers and medium within? In all, I have about 6 containers. 3 bell pepper plants and 3 hot peppers.

Bruce is watering in sips repeatedly so that the end result is a complete watering. He is just giving it time to equalize / absorb and hitting it again rather than flooding it all at once. I don't see anything wrong with that method. If you've let some of the mix dry out too much, it will help rehydrate it. At least that's what I took away from his post. The main difference between what the two of you said is Bruce uses ferts at full strength, and you advocate lower concentration.

as far as washing holes in your soil, what i do is throw a
salsa container lid in the pot, and let the water fall o0n that, which breaks up the flow and changes the water direction from vertical to horizontal.....good luck with it

as for the other question....i water, wait, water again. i figure twice is plenty. i do this in my regular garden also. I feel that alows any dry soil to pick up some moisture, and the next time it absorbs better...my thoughts

It all comes down to your medium I guess, so to each his/her own. I don't use peat based mediums, so I can't speak for them, other than I think that there are better ways to go about things. That being said, when using soluble fertilizers its better to fertilizer at low doses more frequently than high doses less frequently - although this is not always practical.

As for watering in sips, repeatedly: If you are letting your mix, whether peat or bark based, dry out too much between waterings (bad), this will be required - yes. Both peat and bark tend to repel water when they are too dry. Just know that if your media is that dry, your plants roots may not be able to extract moisture from it. I know many people say this plant or that plant ~likes~ to dry out, but I think that's a very misrepresented and misunderstood concept which more often than not leads people to underwater. For my money, my plants will ALWAYS have some level of moisture available to them. I strive to maintain my mix at about the moisture level of a wrung out sponge, it doens't get much better than that. Note that most media will feel dry to the human skin below about 30% moisture content, although roots can extract water down to about 15%, in most cases.

I can tell you that the mix that I use (5-1-1 ~ bark-perlite-turface), does not require sips. First, the bark will pick up plenty of moisture on a single pass given it's above 30% moisture content, which it always will be in my pots (unless I am face down in the pool). The perlite only holds water on its exterior surface, so multiple applications of water will do nothing except replace what was already there, and the turface is internally porous, and is very efficient at absorbing water - thus plenty of moisture can easily be absorbed in a single, thorough pass. From there the mix will equalize itself, within a few minutes. Like I said previously, I strive to maintain my mix at about the moiture level of a wrung out sponge - a single pass is very effective at that. Moreover, I can literally fill a 2 gal watering can, and completely empty it into a 2 gal pot in one swift shot without the water ever broaching the surface. It flows out of the bottom at the same rate as I apply it, you just can't do that with a peat based soil - and thats where the difference of opinion is born.

On another note: I said before that water and nutrient uptake is most efficient when solutes are low and oxygen is high. If you water in sips in a less than optimally aerated medium like peat/soil/compost/whatever, with the first sip, you effectively replace some level of oxygen in your media with water while not successfully removing the accumulated solutes, therefore; you've reduced the efficacy of uptake. You repeat this process 2 or 3 or 4 times, until you FINALLY flush the pot, but by that time the oxygen level is as low as it's going to be for the next few hours because the soil is totally saturated - and you've missed your window of greatest opportunity.

2 cents, check.

PJ

> "When I try to water with a watering can, the soil just collapses and leaves a hole wherever it touches."

This tells me that your soil is not compacted enough. Depending on your medium, you may have to really push it down into the pot around the edges, then fill with more medium and repeat.

I use a cedar chip mulch on top of the pots. In the heat (which isn't here yet) it really cuts down on evaporation. And it keeps the watering thing from drilling holes. (You should be using shower heads anyway.)

The water-in-stages advice above - in fact, just about all the advice above - is excellent.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the advice, people. I used the shower attachment on my hose and watered at the base in one go until water seeped through the bottom. My next question regarding fertilizer application.

I decided to go with half strength feedings. Now given that they are 5 gallon containers, how much fertilizer solution should I be giving them? For my first time since I didn't know, I mixed up 2 quarts (biggest container I had) at 50% and gave each plant a quart. Given the size on the container though I feel as if a quart of 50% in a 5 gallon container is way too little. Any adoce would be great!

To prevent soil washing when watering with a hose, I mulch all containers with a single layer of small stones. It's attractive, holds in moisture, prevents weeds, and keeps mud from splashing on the leaves. A heavy bag is around $3 and supposedly doesn't affect ph.

When feeding, I just water fully / normally with the nutes added. Otherwise, you are left with the question you have. :-)