Watering

[Durgan]

I have around 2000 square feet of good soil to grow fruits and vegetables which I Slurry/Juice pressure can.
The soil is good clay highly modified over the years. My climate can be dry some years warranting watering. This paints the picture.

I do selective watering. Use run off rain water in three 45 gallon drum barrels. If this is not adequate I use city water.

I have observed that most people water too much.

For this discussion I will concentrate on my 24 tomato plants. I water when appropriate about every five days doing dry spells. Timing is a bit subjective.
My method is to use a wheelbarrow to move the water and to give each plant a pail of water exactly to the root growing area. About a foot diameter centered on the plant. The soil outside the watered area is often hard and dead in appearance. Almost like a container. The whole garden are is heavily mulched with wood chips. Potatoes are treated roughly the same. I use minimum water and growth is usually phenomenal.

My point I am advocating is area watering and hose watering and drip watering is not necessary and careful application takes about the same time and is readily effective. I tried all the conventions over the years and now use the method explained.

http://durgan.org/2019/July%202019/31%20July%202019%20Wateing%20tomatoes/HTML/index.htm 31 July 2019 Watering tomatoes
The tomato plants were watered using rain water from three storage barrels connected to the house roof. The water is transferred by wheelbarrow to the plants. A milk carton is used to inhibit wave action when moving. Each plant receives one pail full poured into a bit of a trench at the base of the plant.

 

[oneeye]

Very well spoken Durgan, and I have to agree with you.

 

[headfullofbees]

Durgan is an experienced and skilled gardener, and I would heartily agree with his method.
There is one issue, though, and that is soil drainage.
The difference between heavy clay soils and light sandy ones is immense.
In order to find out just how good your drainage is, dig a hole a foot down, fill it with water (if it doesn't drain away too quickly to make that impossible) and see how long it takes to drain. Heavy clay soil, like where I used to live, can take days, and much of that loss can be evaporation.
I'd be most grateful to Durgan if he could do this exercise, to act as a benchmark, so others can amend the amount of water to use per plant per watering.
The reason I'd change the watering levels, rather than the frequency, is because roots like sometimes drinking, sometimes breathing, and if the water is there all the time, they'll rot.

 

[Durgan]

When I first bought this property, clay, surface water was always present about two inches deep in Spring and after rains. Basically useless for growing.

I dug two ditches 20 inches deep and about a foot wide. By shovel. Length about 200 feet. Put in a layer of gravel, laid weeping tile 5 inches on top, covered in gravel, Put sod back and had perfect surface water drainage. Now after 18 plus years I can walk on the surface and encounter no water, it all drains downhill to the storm sewers. Always dry. The clay soil good quality is about 2.5 feet deep before hitting hardpan. I modified the soil by adding city compost every year about ten yards. It is adequate for growing almost anything. I also now add wood chips yearly, it tends to keep the clay workable. Clay can usually be modified, but sand can be a misery. I usually always had clay. Soil improvement is on-going. I prefer manure but there are so many chemicals used that I avoid it now. Even city compost is contaminated by chemicals to some degree.

For a one household home garden the area need not be too large 1000 to 2000 square feet is more than adequate. Those small electric rototillers can do a lot of the hard labor.

 

[Durgan]

I have this rototiller.

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[Durgan]

The small electric rototiller digger tines rotate much faster than the gas driven tiller. Chunks get broken up instead of being thrown out. Sod is mostly pulverized, which can be a real plus when rototilling. AND it starts by pressing a switch.

 

[Arden Sage]

My point I am advocating is area watering

Interesting post; thank you.
From reading your post, I'm guessing your tomatoes are in the ground as opposed to in containers?
A recent gardening programme I listen to on the radio was discussing watering issues/needs and the following was observed:
plants in the garden need to be watered only when they begin to droop because they will send out roots to find the water level in the soil = deeper root growth. Plants in the ground which are hand watered on a regular basis come to rely on that watering and only produce shallow root systems. Those who profess to be experts prefer and stand by the first method e.g. let the plants roots do the searching and only water if looking droopy!
I like the sound of "area watering" because why waste water on surrounding areas which do not need/want it?
I let my plants in the ground tell me when they need help; my containers don't get a choice in the matter

 

[Durgan]

Interesting post; thank you.
From reading your post, I'm guessing your tomatoes are in the ground as opposed to in containers?
A recent gardening programme I listen to on the radio was discussing watering issues/needs and the following was observed:
plants in the garden need to be watered only when they begin to droop because they will send out roots to find the water level in the soil = deeper root growth. Plants in the ground which are hand watered on a regular basis come to rely on that watering and only produce shallow root systems. Those who profess to be experts prefer and stand by the first method e.g. let the plants roots do the searching and only water if looking droopy!
I like the sound of "area watering" because why waste water on surrounding areas which do not need/want it?
I let my plants in the ground tell me when they need help; my containers don't get a choice in the matter

Tomatoes are in the ground.
I like to water just before drooping, I cosider drooping with tomatoes to be a bit harmful. Anyway mine never droop.
Tomatoes in the ground are relatively easy to determine when water is required. The is usually a fairly large window.

Containers are a bit more difficult to determine when too dry. They can get stressed on a hot afternoon and need careful watching. I do no container growing, since I have ground space and sufficient hot weather usually for adequate growth for about 4 to 6 weeksfor vine ripening. I never ripen further off the vine.

I have become an advocate of heavy wood mulch in the last few years. I see no apparent downside to its use.

 

[headfullofbees]

I don't tend to let my tomatoes droop either, I think it makes them more susceptible to blossom end rot.