New Trees And Plants How Often To Water

[chiangmaikelly]

Planted two weeks ago Rayong area. It is not raining now. How often should I water and how much?

Thanks much

[loong]

When you dug the holes to plant them, was the soil dry or moist?

Assuming that you had not had rain prior to planting, if the soil was moist, you could probably manage with watering once a week until the root system is well established. If the soil was dry, maybe twice a week is better.

The moist important thing is to water so that the water penetrates deep into the soil. It can be amazing how much water this takes. Often you may think that you have watered enough, but the water has actually only penetrated a few inches.

If only the top few inches are moist, it does not encourage the roots to grow down into the soil, they may tend to grow outwards at a shallow depth.

Sometimes it can be a good idea to dig a small hole near the plant and fill this with water, maybe cut the bottom off a plastic bottle and put upside down into the hole (cap removed obviously) as this gets water down to root level quickly.

[chiangmaikelly]

When you dug the holes to plant them, was the soil dry or moist?

Assuming that you had not had rain prior to planting, if the soil was moist, you could probably manage with watering once a week until the root system is well established. If the soil was dry, maybe twice a week is better.

The moist important thing is to water so that the water penetrates deep into the soil. It can be amazing how much water this takes. Often you may think that you have watered enough, but the water has actually only penetrated a few inches.

If only the top few inches are moist, it does not encourage the roots to grow down into the soil, they may tend to grow outwards at a shallow depth.

Sometimes it can be a good idea to dig a small hole near the plant and fill this with water, maybe cut the bottom off a plastic bottle and put upside down into the hole (cap removed obviously) as this gets water down to root level quickly.

That's interesting. I had a garderner plant them as his team did some other landscaping work so I didn't notice about the holes.

[cooked]

When you plant, water a lot, leave the hosepipe there on the ground for 10 - 30 minutes. Afterwards maintain the surface moist looking, watering every day won't do any harm. When you see signs of growth, you can begin to reduce the frequency of watering but as mentioned above, you must be sure that the water is getting to the roots. Water logging is evidently not desirable.

Putting it more scientifically, 20-30 liters/M2 at the beginning, 10-15 liters/M2 until it starts to grow. One centimeter in a flat vessel = 1 liter /M2, so you can calculate how long to let the water run.

Garden looks nice!

[xen]

Not to contradict either Loong or Cooked as their advice is very sound but this is what i do is when I am hand watering . I do several cycles watering the soil once to break the soil surface, then water the next plants and some do a cycle and return to water again several times . I do this when some soils become "oily" and will repeal water . There are chemicals you can add to the water to aid the soils ability to accept the water but this way works just as well. If you water several times the water will soak deeper into the soil. Break the soil surface first then re-water.

Loongs idea of burying a plastic bottles is a good idea . Also agric pipe buried when planting is good too. Also build the soil up with organic matter (will hold moisture better and buffer extremes in soil conditions) and perhaps mulch around the plants so the soil does not dry out as quickly and it will also protect the soil and the root zone in heavy rain. Perhaps use more of the stones to cover the whole area so they have a practical use as well as decorative.

The other thing is to get water to the soil , don't spray water all over the leaves as you can increase the humidity and increase the chance of fungal disease and,also, water either early morning or late evening if possible.

[drtreelove]

Use a 'soil moisture meter' (google that term). Anything less is guesswork.

Of course some people guess very well based on experience with the specific sites and soils that they work with, But if you're not experienced, then the moisture meter will help you learn exactly what it takes to thoroughly wet the soil and let it partially dry out in between waterings. don