Watering your Crop

[Steve]

Dig a load of organic matter into your plot, it will hold water like a sponge and supply nutrients too. Don't skimp, get loads of it in there while it's cheap.

[Smiffy]

Well one day of steady rain has replenished the butts and all is well.

My estimate is that was about 3 weeks without any significant rain which my butts just about covered. Bearing in mind the importance of water (for me as well as my Sprouts) I think I need to increase my storage capacity somewhat.

(15 April 2014, 15:35)bigpaul Wrote: we have the opposite problem if anything too much water, we have so much rain in the south west we can fill up a 220litre rain barrel with rainfall alone in just one night.

They do have dry spells in the SW as well Having the rain is only part of the solution though, how much of it do you collect ?

[Barneyboy]

i have 1200 IBC and two 200 L butts ,but still I make troughs in the soil so the water runs and only waters the plants

[MaryN]

We have a lot of plastic butts, but if I can I go for galvanised metal tanks. The water stays sweeter and cooler - I do find water in the plastic butts can get quite smelly if the weather heats up. I found a big galvanised water tank on eBay; OH fitted a lid and it's brilliant. I'm not too sure if you could get rid of the smell from the plastic tanks, and if you had to resort to using the water for drinking it could be a bit unpleasant. Just a personal observation.

[Tartar Horde]

A trick for making water go further is to "spot Water", instead of watering all along a row of plants, which takes a lot of water to get down into the soil, put a small pot buried up to the top next to your plants and the water into the pot, filling it up. With it being buried the water goes straight to the plants roots, without wasting. A guy who grows great Toms taught me this, and you need a lot less water.

[Steve]

(21 April 2014, 12:45)Tartar Horde Wrote: A trick for making water go further is to "spot Water", instead of watering all along a row of plants, which takes a lot of water to get down into the soil, put a small pot buried up to the top next to your plants and the water into the pot, filling it up. With it being buried the water goes straight to the plants roots, without wasting. A guy who grows great Toms taught me this, and you need a lot less water.

The council do something similar with trees, they bury a length of plastic pipe from 6" above ground level to the bottom of the planting hole. I can't see any reason that won't work with fruit and veg.

[Geordie_Rob]

For your plants/water usage, there's a few things to do. Most have already been mentioned.

1) increase storage capacity

2) increase organic matter in the soil (fill it with rotted horse poo/home made compost).

3) use mulch on the soil to reduce evaporation

4) smart watering (only water around the plants, water the soil & not the leaves, water in the evenings).

5) add water retaining materials into the soil.

6) water regularly during times of plenty & healthy plants should have lots of roots. More roots = more chance to take any availabłe moisture from the ground during any droughts.

[Smiffy]

All good info. thank you.