7 Critical Watering Tips Every Gardener Should Know!

Are you sure you’re watering your garden and landscape the right way? These 7 critical watering tips for could make your gardening endeavors much more successful. In this video, we break down everything you need to know about properly watering indoor and outdoor plants. From understanding soil moisture to choosing the right time of day to water, we’ll help you avoid common mistakes and keep your plants thriving. Learn to avoid powdery mildew, black spot, and root rot. When should you water? How should you water? These tips, tricks, and hacks will completely change how you care for your plants.

You’ll learn:
✅ How often to water your plants
✅ The best time of day to water (and why it matters)
✅ Signs of overwatering and underwatering
✅ How to water potted vs. in-ground plants
✅ Tips for watering during heatwaves or drought conditions

Whether you’re a beginner gardener or a seasoned green thumb, these watering tips will help you grow a healthier, more vibrant garden. 💧🌱

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#PlantCare #WateringTips #GardeningForBeginners #HealthyPlants #GardenHacks #IndoorPlants #OutdoorGardening #SustainableGardening

0:00 Intro
0:34 When to water plants
2:12 How often to water plants
3:27 How soil type impacts watering
4:54 Using soaker hoses and drip lines to water plants
5:53 Does water velocity impact plants?
6:52 How to check potted plants for watering needs
7:30 How to check succulent plants for watering needs

Perhaps the biggest mistake I see homeowners making with their plants is watering. When to water, how to water, at what frequency should you water? In this video, we’ll go over seven different steps of watering better so that our plants are more healthy and you can enjoy them for much longer. Hi, I’m Dr. Tom Warren and you’re watching the plant doctor. Let’s get started. [Music] So, the first thing we want to talk about when watering plants is when to water. What time of day is best for watering? The short answer is going to be first thing in the morning. If we water late at night, the water will sit on the leaves of our plants, and that’s going to give fungus and bacteria an opportunity to feed on our leaves, and that’s going to be detrimental to the plant health. If we water first thing in the morning, that’s giving water time to get down into the ground before evaporation takes place in the middle of the afternoon. But we’re also not allowing the water to sit on the leaves to the point to where bacteria and fungus are going to get a stronghold on our plant. And I understand that, you know, that may not be ideal for a lot of people. We’re busy. We got jobs and kids and a million other things going on. So, if you find yourself having to water your plant and it’s not first thing in the morning, a pro tip for you here is on plants that have elevated foliage, what you can do, you can go ahead and water like I’m doing here in the middle of the afternoon. It’s 12:30 in the afternoon here, and we can go ahead and water just fine. And if you notice here, I’ve got some mulch on the ground. And so the the mulch is actually going to allow the water to go through, get into the soil, and we’re not going to have evaporation happen as quickly as we otherwise would if it was just bare ground. How often should we water? That’s the next topic that I want to discuss. For example, these colas here behind me, these are annuals where I’m at in zone 8A. And most annuals you would think you water every day, but I do not water these every day. I’m a big proponent of watering deeply but infrequently. So what do I mean by this? When I do water, I’m going to water these to the point of saturation. The the the ground will be covered in water and I want that water to permeate through the soil layer and what’s going to happen is the roots will actually chase the water. So this has been documented. It’s is in peer-review literature. So, as the top layers begin to dry out, we’ve put so much water in there, there’s still water on the bottom layers of the soil and those roots will chase it. So, throughout the summer, these roots are getting deeper, deeper, deeper into the soil, which means we have to water less and less. It’s going to save you money by doing it this way. So, don’t go out here, water every day. Don’t water very lightly. When you water, water very heavily. Let the top inch or two of soil dry out and then come back and water again two, three, perhaps even 4 days later. Knowing your soil type is going to guide you in terms of watering frequency and how long you should water on the days that you do water. All soils are comprised of three components. They’re comprised of sand, they’re comprised of silt, and they’re comprised of clay. So those three together make 100% of your soil solution, what you have in your yard. Here where I’m at, u it’s 80 90% sand. I live on a location called Sand Mountain and it’s very sandy soils. An easy way for you to check your soil composition is to take a handful of soil, lightly moisten it, and begin to run it between your index finger and your thumb. If it feels real gritty and crumbles, it’s mainly sand. If it feels smooth and forms a very small ribbon and then falls apart, it’s probably mainly silt. If you begin to see a large ribbon, so a ribbon that’s 2, three inches long, that means it’s heavy clay. Shorter ribbons means more sand. Longer ribbons means more clay. The reason it’s important to know the composition of your soil is sandy soils are not going to hold near as much water as clay soils. So, you may find yourself watering more frequently in sandy soils and less frequently in clay soils. Another fantastic way to lower your water bill, increase plant health and nutrition is to use soaker hoses or drip lines in your landscape or garden. So, as you can see here, I actually have a drip line that is buried underneath pine straw and then I have admitters that come off the line to individual plants. This is doing several things for me here. So the the water that’s being released from the hose is under the mulch. I’m not losing any water to evaporation. Secondly, we’re not putting water on top of the leaves and so that’s lowering my risk for things like powdery mildew and black spot and all those bacteria and funguses we don’t want in our garden. It’s also lowering the amount of water that I need to put out in my landscape as well by not losing any water to evaporation. And that means all of the water is going into the ground to feed the plant instead of evaporating out into the atmosphere. A topic on watering that often gets overlooked is the velocity at which the water is hitting the root zone. And you may be thinking, what does that have to do with anything? You do not want a lot of force in the water hitting the root zone of your plant. A lot of pressure, really fast water. you. It’s almost like watering with a pressure washer. You’re going to disrupt the soil layer around the root zone of your plants. You’re potentially going to damage the roots as well. Especially a plant like that’s in a pot like this Japanese maple right here. Uh this this loose uh potting mix that’s not real soil is easily going to be disturbed and we can disturb the root zone as well. So when you water, you want to use a velocity that’s relatively slow, some smaller droplet sizes if you can as well. And that’s going to help prevent damage to your soil layer and also to your roots as well. Perhaps the biggest mistake I see homeowners making with watering plants, in particular, potted plants like this fern beside me, is going to be watering too much. So, with your potted plants, an easy way to know if you need to water your potted plants or not is something I call the finger check. Take your index finger, put it down in the soil of the pot, bring it out. If you have moisture on your fingertip, you don’t need to water. If it’s very dry, you can go ahead and water. That holds true for most plants. The exception being your succulent plants. So, your succulent plants, what you’ll want to do is actually check the bottom wheat holes. If the wheat poles are dry, you can go ahead and water. If there’s moisture down around the wheat poles, you’ll want to wait a little bit before you water again. I hope this video brings some value to you in your watering endeavors with your landscaping garden. If you have a tip, trick, or hack that I did not go over in this video that you use in your yard, please share those down in the comments below. Here on the channel, we’re a community of learners, and I would love to learn something from you, the viewer. Guys, as always, thank you for watching the Plant Doctor. And until next time, happy gardening. It’s so hot out here. I’m going inside. See you guys.