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maine USA

I get around 3-4 gallons per minute from my hose, I use a sprinkler to water my plants. My patch is around 1200 square feet. How long do I need to water my plants each day to keep the plants properly watered in a week that has no rain? thanks KathyT

8/3/2007 7:27:49 AM

Ham Lake, Minnesota

Water to your heart content! Actually I've found that the more the better. I drop a hose under the vines let it go full nuts under its starting to pool over over, then move the hose. If the ground can absorb it out of sight in 5 minutes or less, give her more! As always at your own risk, individual results may vary. I have sandy soil so it goes in quick and dries out fast.

8/3/2007 11:53:32 PM

Rhode Island

kathy

every soil is different. some are sandy and require a lot of water and some are heavy clay type which hold moisture and require less watering.--- although this year in ri we have has so little rain you could almost water every day.

to much water in a heavy clay soil will promote disease and also will pack down eventually and form a hard area under the surface

a good rule of thumb is to take a handfull of garden soil from just under the surface, squeeze it together in your hand and then open your hand. if the ball stays together you are ok.if the ball of soil falls apart you need watering.

pap

8/4/2007 6:28:30 AM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Great question Kathy and mentioned above, it really depends on your soil structure.

My soil is very high in organic matter for the top 18" and then is very sandy, gravel and rock below that. I don't have alot of clay in my soil so I've actually added it with a product called turface.

That being said, my soil has really good drainage and I need to water quite a bit when it is dry here in July and August.

Tremor posting this awhile back and I still find it very usefull;

Let's boil this down by the gallon & some specified areas.

All of these quantities are for ONE INCH of water.

1 acre (43,560 sq ft) = 27,000 gallons
1,000 sq ft = 620 gallons
100 sq ft = 62 gallons
10 sq ft = 6.2 gallons
1 sq ft = 2.5 quarts

As the roots expand, the targeted irrigation area increase rapidly. The freshly transplanted seedling may only require a 1 square foot area of water for a week. Hence a gallon of water would be overkill.

Given good growing conditions, this area will expand to 4'x4' or 16 sq ft in the second week. So now 10 gallons will be needed to deliver a FULL INCH to the same plant.

If the same plant is ultimately rooted into an area of 600 sq ft, it will then require 370 gallons to achieve the same result.

So, for your garden of 1200 square feet, you would need 744 gallons of water to achieve 1" of water and like most here I would double that to 2" of water per week when there is no rain to help you out. So that would be a little over 3 hours of watering time to get that 1" of water or 744 gallons each time you water.....alot isn't it? Hope ya'll are not on a water metre and paying per gallon.

8/4/2007 1:32:24 PM

Hayward, CA

Pap and North Shore are very right about soil condition. We have a clay soil base and we are now paying the price for overwatering. This is a very important part of growing of these plants. They love to swim, but cant have wet feet for very long. I wish you the best of luck and have fun!!
Puter

8/4/2007 11:11:16 PM

maine USA

I am sorry, I should have mention my soil type. I have loam with clay. Details!
Thank you all for the info, it is exactly what I need. Grow them big. Kathy

8/5/2007 8:46:28 PM

Pa

Does the square footage apply to the whole plant or just the area that is burried, such as the main vine and some secondaries, in my case. It seems to me that if you watered whats not burried your just wasting water, except for a few tap roots that won't get what the rest of the plant receives. Since the tap roots are rather short I can't see that they pick up a lot of water. what's right and what's wrong?

8/7/2007 9:29:34 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

It is just a general guideline. You'd be surprised how far out from the plant that the roots extend...believe me, you would not be wasting water.

I just take a rough estimate of the plant size and go from there. For example, my main vine is 25' long and most secondaries are 12' to 14' so I am watering roughly 650 square feet of soil right now.

8/7/2007 10:42:18 PM