I'm learning so much from the peeps on this site!
I'd appreciate any tricks of the trade out there ;) to minimise watering.
There seem to be two camps among my neighbours on the plot. One is to water nearly every day (tap hogs!) >:( and one is not to water at all after transplanting (after watering-in). The theory is that the transplanted plants will thrust their roots more deeply into the soil to look for water.
I transplanted broccoli plants two weeks ago, watered them in and left them to fend for themselves (no rain). For five days they looked dreadful - flat out and limp :-\. After two weeks they are standing up and look OK :D
With water so precious, but with lots of dry days :P, has anyone found ways successfully to minimise watering without the plants suffering? Are there any veg. that must be watered to do well?
Any and all advice ::) gratefully received, thank you!
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0802/watering_veg.asp
Brassica - I agree with you.
But if you do water anything, make sure to do it thoroughly. Too little is worse than useless. I time the output from can or hose & always give a measured amount on each plant.
Try watering a patch - wait a bit - then see how deep the water has gone. A spray hose is very misleading. You can think you're putting gallons on, whereas it's possibly a litre. Measure it.
I expect like most lotties you can't use a hose so you have to get water from a stand pipe, or like some plotties they have no water on site and have to harvest it from the shed roof. Best bit of kit on the lotty is the water butt I've found if the water tap is a right trek away like mine :( They do say if you leave stones in the soil then you'll reduce evaporation so just remove the bigger ones and leave the smaller ones in (the reason being there is always moisture under a stone)
I know that folks on here allotmenting dry areas like Essex say that once you start watering you have to carry on so best not to start if you can help it. I don't water stuff growing in the soil, just the growbags and my builders rubble sack beds. I believe that CELERIAC has to be kept moist during its growing period
Thanks so much tim & wardy, off to measure timed hose output into a watering can this morning ;D. I was a bit narked to find a gravel patch on my plot but will now count my blessings too ;)
Wardy, will you say more about your builders rubble sack beds please? ??? :D
Yes :) As you peeps know I don't dig - well not til my back stops hurting that is and no sign of that yet. So I opted for any kinds of growing method which did not include digging and one of those is containers but you don't want to buy any if it can be helped. I used two of those builder's rubble sacks - those which sand and aggregate is delivered in. They have a handle at each corner and are huge. These are non-returnable so you might as well use them. They are meant to break down over time as they get discarded in hedge bottoms and such. Mine don't and I expect to get a few years life out of them as raised beds for growing my courgettes and squashes in. I filled mine with about 3 month old cow manure and put the plants directly into it. I think horse manure mixed in might be better than just cow muck as it dries out quick and goes hard. But anyway it was just cow muck and the plants are going great guns. I'll put something else in when the squashes have finished :)
Great! But what are the Daleks beyond??
WOW :P amazing!
As luck :-\ would have it the builders are building new homes right next to our allotment. I will shimmy along and see if there are bags for the scrumping for next year!!! As luck would also have it :D I have a huge pile of horse manure on my plot delivered 'by mistake', so maybe I could fill 'em up this year and cover some of the couch grass too ;)
Thank you so much for these tips wardy 8)