What is the Best Time of Day to Water the Garden?

I have planted a back yard garden for many years, and I am always learning something new. There is so much more to it than planting a few seeds in the ground and hoping the sun and rain will take care of everything for you.

I take old garden hoses and poke holes in them to lay along side the plants in my garden. These hoses are hooked up to the faucet at the back of the house so all I have to do is turn the faucet on.

My garden gets a good soaking and I don't have to carry watering cans out there to water it by hand. Part of my morning routine in the summer is to turn on the hose for a hour or so and make sure my garden gets watered for the day.

I like to plant a lot of tomatoes because we make a lot of salsa and I also like to can them. One year I lost almost all of my tomato plants because we had too much rain.

I learned that too much rain like that causes the leaves to rot and the tomatoes never produced. Now I understand why they say to make sure the leaves of the plants have a chance to dry out before it gets cold at night.

@andee-- I have drip irrigation in my garden and I really love it. It has made all the difference for me. I know my garden is getting the water it needs and doesn't have to rely on me for that to happen.

It is interesting how infrequent watering is actually better for your plants than daily watering. That might explain why some of my vegetables didn't do so well in the past. I always thought it was best to water tomatoes every day, but now I am wondering if that is the best thing for them or not.

We have very humid, dry summers so having a drip irrigation is perfect for me. If I had to rely on rainfall for my garden to get the water it needs, it would probably shrivel up and die.

This is my second year of having a garden and I sure learned a lot from reading this article that I didn't know before. I never realized the time of day you watered your garden was so important.

With my busy lifestyle I just thought as long as the garden got some water it didn't matter what time of the day it was. I do enjoy gardening, but if I am going to increase my garden space I need to set up some kind of drip irrigation or some way to make watering not such a cumbersome task.

@seag47 – It's true that watering plants in the middle of the day in hot weather is more dangerous than doing so in cool weather, but remember that your mums will need plenty of time to dry out before sunset. If you water them at noon, they most likely won't have enough time.

I actually did scorch some flowers during the first summer I tried gardening. I didn't know a thing about when to water them, and I did it in the middle of the afternoon in the hot sun. The petals shriveled and the plants looked horrible by the next day.

You're right that this isn't likely to happen in the fall. However, rot is a possibility, so try watering them in the morning instead.

I got some fall mums a few weeks ago, and I've been watering them around noon when I get home for lunch. My neighbor, who is big on gardening, saw me and told me that watering plants in the middle of the day might kill them. I think that since the weather is cool, it shouldn't matter. Who's right?

I have a couple of outdoor garden fountains, but the water just keeps circulating and doesn't come out onto the plants. I wish there was a way to make the fountain water the flowers.

I have been using a hose with a spray nozzle and lightly misting the plants, but it takes forever to get enough water on the ground this way. I've also tried watering cans, but since I have a big garden, refilling my one gallon can over and over is tiring.

I think I would have more success with a drip hose. It would just slowly let moisture out right on top of the ground instead of onto the leaves and petals.

For years, I have been watering my plants at night. This is because I don't have time to go out there and do it before work.

However, my zinnias have been suffering from some sort of fungus. A couple of my rosebushes rotted at the roots. After reading this article, I think my watering method was to blame.

I love to garden, but I live in the hot Arizona desert and find it extremely hard to keep even potted plants and flowers alive in the summer. I’ve tried more expensive soil that is supposed to help prevent over and under watering and I also give them vitamins, but no greenery ever lasts longer than two months. I just invested in more greenery, including two sweet potato vines the sales associate said thrive in direct sunlight. While the vines will be planted in full sun, the potted plants are only in direct sunlight in the late afternoon and shaded the rest of the day. I was lightly soaking each plant or flower pot each morning, but after reading this article I’m going to change my frequencies but not the time of day; I think I was overcompensating for the heat and over watering.

"As a rule of thumb, try to water the garden with one inch (two and a half centimeters) of water every week,..."

***how much is two and a half centimeters? i spray lightly with a garden hose all plants until the water is slightly puddled.