How to Water
Starring: Les Grober
Additional Notes about Watering:
- Important: Do NOT change the valves in the green box near the main garden water valve.
- When turning on a spigot at a bed, be sure to turn it on fully (e.g. turn all the way on to the left, not just one turn)
- The gauges are only operating when the water is turned on. Be sure to turn them off at the end of the watering session.
- For each bed, turn the timer on first, then turn on the water.
Raining? - Here are some guidelines to help determine if you need to alter the watering schedule.
If 1" of rain has fallen in the last 24 hours, watering can be cut down by half, except for beds with newly-planted crops.
- If rain cancels the workday, watering will not be done.
- The later days need to check the beds that were missed, especially if we do not get that crucial 1" the day the watering was missed.
- All beds with remay need to be watered fully regardless of rainfall as it sheds water.
- All beds planted in the prior 10 days also need to be fully-watered.
Other conditions that require watering be completed fully:
- Windy weather following the rain.
- Frost forecast. Dry plants are much more likely to experience damage in a frost than fully-watered ones.
- If a crop is watered only 1 or 2 days in the week, it needs to be fully-watered rain or no rain.
Our watering schedule looks AHEAD, not behind, as a way to determine needs. If a bed dries out, it is too late to avoid damage and significant setbacks in growth & development. It is an entirely different situation in a year with normal rainfall - but in the dry years the deeper soil is already very dry, and will quickly absorb whatever rainwater falls or is applied with irrigation.
- If rain cancels the workday, watering will not be done.
- The later days need to check the beds that were missed, especially if we do not get that crucial 1" the day the watering was missed.
- All beds with remay need to be watered fully regardless of rainfall as it sheds water.
- All beds planted in the prior 10 days also need to be fully-watered.
Other conditions that require watering be completed fully:
- Windy weather following the rain.
- Frost forecast. Dry plants are much more likely to experience damage in a frost than fully-watered ones.
- If a crop is watered only 1 or 2 days in the week, it needs to be fully-watered rain or no rain.
Our watering schedule looks AHEAD, not behind, as a way to determine needs. If a bed dries out, it is too late to avoid damage and significant setbacks in growth & development. It is an entirely different situation in a year with normal rainfall - but in the dry years the deeper soil is already very dry, and will quickly absorb whatever rainwater falls or is applied with irrigation.