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I keep hearing about watering an inch of water a week- so how often do you water? I've watered every morning just with a sprayer at the end of my hose ( I live in the city and it's just a little garden in our backyard) for like 3 minutes or so. Am I watering too much? My plants don't really look like they're overwatered, but maybe I'm not letting the roots grow down and deep???
Unlikely to be enough. An inch of water as a minimum measure of available moisture (to go to the root zone) would take about 10 minutes, depending on your line pressure.
Try watering the soil, not the plants. A 50' drip hose snaked through your garden and left on for an hour twice a week would give your soil better saturation than spraying would.
If you can stick your finger in soil up to first joint and not hit moist earth...then it's time to water. Each soil type has different water-holding capacity and different watering duration. My basic sandy soil (despite ammendments) takes longer cuz water just soaks down to "netherworlds" before it finally absorbs enough to reach root zone.
John's so right, recommending the soakers. Saves you time, effort and is best for plants.
I water the vegetable garden once a week. Some of the flower beds get it more often, like every other day when it is hot like it has been lately. It is always best to give the ground a good soaking then wait a week or until you see some signs of drought stress. This encourages the roots to go down deep where the moisture is. If you just wet the top a bit the roots will be close to the top and the soil will dry out very quickly down to about 2 inches deep, then the plants wilt and or die. Your plants are the best indicator of whether they need water. Leaves may fold up or wilt to let you know they need a drink.
to give the ground a good soaking then > wait a week or until you see some signs of drought > stress. This encourages the roots to go down deep > where the moisture is.
I've heard this before and it makes sense to me, BUT, I also understand that a newly-planted plant should be watered frequently until it is established. Is there a rule-of-thumb, or how does one know when the little guy is 'established'?
Once I can't "rock" it in the soil, then I know it's sent out enough roots to hold it in the ground on its own. I just kinda gently "jiggle" it to see what's, uh....shakin.... or [u]not[/u], as the case may be!
As every plant is different in its "establishment time", there's no set time period.
It's worth a try if only because it seems to work. The roots need the water (although leaves can also exchange gasses with nutrients through their stomata cells but in a limited way)
There is a bit of a trick to switching to soaking vs top spraying. New transplants still need a bit of watering can attention until they have grown larger. Transfer rates using soaker hoses are much less (volume of aqua) than a blast with the hose, so be generous with letting things drip below the soil.
Still, wet leaves, notably wet leaves in the evening, often leads to foliar troubles. The only garden I quick-blast is the herb garden, herbs actually don't care for wet feet and prefer the drying out cycle. The rose garden is soil-watered only, overhead spray on roses is akin to driving after drinking....trouble WILL follow.
