By Florencia Gallino (@sitopia.ar)*
Watering is the main task in the garden, and the one that will take us the longest. Unless we decide to automate the system, it will be something of almost every day. When the orchards are not very large, and they are for personal consumption, it is better for the irrigation to be manual and not automatic, since doing it this way forces us to go out every day to observe, to see how everything is taking place, and This allows us to have better management. When irrigation is automated, we may be absent for a few days, in which pests often develop that we do not control in time.
In turn, the act of watering sounds like the easiest task in the garden, but if we don’t do it correctly, we can interrupt plant activities, washing nutrients and wasting water. When we irrigate, we are not only giving them a drink, the water is the channel through which the roots also absorb nutrients, a fundamental activity for the development of plants.
For efficient and beneficial irrigation, here are some activities to consider:
1. Not all plants need the same amount of water.
Watering a succulent is not the same as watering a lettuce. Succulents require very little watering, and an excess can kill them, while lettuce needs a lot of water, and if it is not watered enough, the plant becomes stressed and quickly seeks to complete its cycle.
Within vegetables, there are plants that tolerate drought better than others. The ones that do best are chard, corn, asparagus, sweet potato, mustard greens, okra, eggplant and legumes. In case you do not have time to water every day, you can choose to put one of these in the garden.
2. The quality of our soil will depend on its ability to retain water.
Have you ever seen how you started to water a pot and the water quickly came out from under it? This is because the substrate has very little water retention capacity. One of the substrates with the highest retention capacity is compost. That is why it is important that it always represents at least 50% of the total substrate in our garden. In addition, it provides all the nutrients that plants need.
3. The smaller the pot, the faster the water evaporates.
Small pots are a problem, not only because of the lack of space for the roots, but also because of the speed with which the substrate dries up. It is important that we give our vegetables a good space, and for those that are in small pots, keep in mind that they will need more frequent watering.
4. Avoid wetting the leaves when we water during the day.
When we water during the day, the plants are doing photosynthesis and sweating through their leaves, which is why we must avoid getting them wet and water directly around the stem. Only when the leaves of the vegetables are dirt or dirty, it is recommended to spray them with a little water to clean them, always in the afternoon, when they are already under the sun.
5. When we plant in pots, everything is limited, including the amount of nutrients that are available to the plants.
If we water and the water continues long and comes out under the pot, it takes nutrients along the way and washes the substrate. That is why we must pour enough water so that the roots can absorb it, but not too much so that the earth is washed.
6. It is recommended to use a chlorine filter for water.
Mains water is treated with chlorine, which kills pathogens but also beneficial microorganisms that live in the soil. That is why it is good to place an activated carbon filter, boil and let the water cool, or find a solution to filter the mains water.
7. The time of day we water depends on the season of the year.
In winter it is suggested to water early in the morning, this way the plants will have the day to absorb water and nutrients, and at night the substrate will not be so humid and cold. In summer the best time to water is in the afternoon, after the sun has gone down. In this way, the heat does not evaporate the water during the day, and the vegetables have all night to hydrate. In summer, if the heat is very strong, we can reinforce watering in the morning as well.
Source: courtesy of @sitopia.ar
8. One of the key activities to keep the soil alive and moist is “mulching”, “mulching” or “mulch”.
It is a layer of dry organic matter. It can be straw, dry leaves or wood bark. We distribute them throughout the growing box, around the plants, covering the entire substrate.
This has multiple benefits: the first is to maintain soil moisture for longer, the second is to prevent weeds from growing that compete with our crops, and the third is to provide organic matter to our substrate.
Although it seems simple, watering correctly is a key activity for the health of our garden, and even for ours. Irrigation can become a moment of the day with ourselves, where we slow down and connect with the environment: the sound of the water, the contact with the plants and the aroma of the wet earth, becomes an active meditation, where we are giving and receiving, for and with nature.
* Florencia Gallino is dedicated to promoting environmental awareness within the city. She is the founder of the Sitopia project, for years she has been promoting cultivation, compost, and sustainability urban. Through communication, workshops, design and maintenance of edible spaces, and collaborative actions, Florencia seeks to inspire everyone to start eating from their own pots and gardens..