Tips on Plant Watering

    Published: 06-16-2009
    Views: 13,708
    Mitch Baker is the Horticultural Specialist shares some tips for watering your new plants.

    Mitch Baker


    Hi, I am Mitch Baker with American Plant Food Company. Just a couple tips about watering. We talked about using the watering wand, but that requires some time, standing there so that you can see the water soaking in, not everybody has the time to do that. So, if its more convenient for you, maybe use a sprinkler, like an oscillating sprinkler that you can set up in the area to saturate the soil in that planting area. It usually takes about an hour, minimum of an hour, to run an oscillating sprinkler to get the equivalent of an inch of water to the root zone. So, oscillating sprinkler is fine, just make sure the water is getting to your new plants, and make sure that it runs for at least an hour.

    The other choice might be a soaker hose. There are lots of different types available. This is one thats made from recycled tires, so the water weeps from the entire length of the hose. In order for these to be effective they have to be either snicked through the planting bed or wrapped around the parameter of the planting area to make sure youre delivering enough water from a hose like this. Again, its going to take about an hour for a soaker hose to thoroughly saturate the area, but a hose like this can be buried under the mulch so that you dont see it, that way there is less evaporation and youre getting moisture to the soil area, where your new plants have been placed. Check it occasionally to make sure that water is actually getting to the root zone of the new plants. You want to make sure that theyre getting about an inch of water a week.