When the ground looks dry it’s hard to determine if you NEED to water or not. In this episode, we go over how to tell if your plants need or don’t need water!
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47 Comments
My garden soil is very sandy so water twice a week when it's hot and no rain. It could probably handle a deep watering every other day!
You're one of the best!! Pleasant, knowledgeable and enthusiastic!!! Thank you so so much for all you give the community. 🤗💜
use grass clippings around will hold moisture for weeks
That is not a living mulch method. A living mulch method would employ a living ground cover of perennials, a temporary cover crop or a short length annual like Radish etc. In between your cash main crop. I use a constant dead mulch and sometimes a living mulch in addition. I don't have to Fertilize as much as you do due to this and my superior compost/vermicompost. Just saying, if your happy letting the sun nuke your soil between crop 😉 cycles so be it I ain't mad at you
Funny story, I went to my local garden center today, and I asked the lady if she had anymore blood meal? She said eew gross, you might have to go to a fish store for that. She clearly didn't understand what I was talking about. I politely said thank you anyway, I ended up having to get some from Ace hardware. Anyway just thought it was a funny story have a good one, grow big or go home.
I do somethingike a knuckle test! Thank you for another outstanding video!
I learned a lot Luke! Thank you!
We just installed a drip tape system this past weekend- not much planted yet but it’s doing great for what’s out there.
PRODUCT SUGGESTION FOR MIGARDENER: Hi. Here in Omaha, Nebraska, and all around us, we're having a dry spring. After tomorrow, it will be the DRYest May on record here, they say.
When I spotted your video title today – about how to tell if your garden is dry – I started laughing. #Humor
I don't water my "lawn" – only my garden – so the soil/dirt in my lawn is hard as a rock. We have clay and now it's dry, sort of like fired ceramics.
So might it help if I plant some DAIKON RADISHES around the lawn, to help break up the dirt? I'm thinking that's a place to start. Am I wrong?
And if it's okay to do that, where can we buy some DAIKON RADISH seeds? I planted some last year, forgot about them, they lasted all winter, and it did help break up the soil. But that was before our current bout of "Sahara Spring."
I figure if I can grow daikons here and there to break up some of the dirt, nurse it back to life in the ways you suggest, and plant veggies & flowers all over the danged place, that might help.
I am NOT a fan of grassy lawns. So far my neighborhood is okay about gardens, which is nice, too.
So do you have any DAIKON RADISH seeds – in stock or accessible? Is there a big demand for them most of the year – I mean will there be big demand, now that our weather is becoming more challenging all over the danged place? Trying to help with any MADE IN AMERICA business ideas I can think of. Wish I were better at it.
Oh, another reason to break up some of the very hard dirt now is that this drought will change to heavy rains at some point, and everything will tend to flood if none of the ground is absorbing rain fast enough. Daikons might help ease that? I'm thinking of using DAIKONs for lawn care purposes, but they are yummy, too, for food growing, of course.
Am I crazy or is that twice you’ve failed to say “or go home”
I've never had sun scald because i have limited sun and most plants in my yard only get a few hours a day. This year i have sun scald already. But climate change isnt real right? Lol off to buy shade cloth i guess. My watering game will likely be off this year but i did use straw so i hope it works out. In SE MI by the way. We dont usually get "too much sun".
I live in Kalamazoo, MI. This information is perfect for our Read and Seed Community Garden! Thanks so much!
I'm not sure if you mentioned this, but when you first put plants in-ground (grew by seed indoors) should you water everyday for the first week or so? I'm in Chicago, and have raised beds with some good leaf/wood mulch, and due to my new neighbors putting up a 7 foot privacy fence this spring, I get far less sun now 🙁
I bought a rain gauge a couple months ago. It hasn't done me much good these past couple weeks because we're having a dry spell, but it's nice to have when it does rain. If we get an inch of rain or more, I know I won't have to water for the week.
Thanks Luke.
Going through one of the driest Mays in history here. I go by eye and have started filling a 210 gallon tank in the creek then moving it to the garden and using gravity let it run through soaker hose into two beds at a time. Slow deep watering.
💚🌞
I have a 17 inch raised metal bed in full sun. It been in the upper 80s. First year growing after many years of not growing. I set up the bed using hugelkutur. And I used city compost sifting out the larger pieces of wood chips but yet used those chips in one of the lower layers. I’m not sure if I’m overwatering, or if the water is just draining out with all of the un absorbent layers. I see water coming out from the bottom of the bed if I have my soaker hose on for 25 minutes. Yet my knuckle test isn’t particularly moist to me. I am getting tomatoes and blossoms. To complicate it further I have herbicide drift damage so the tomato leaves are curly.
Hi I am from trinidad. I brought your fertilizer do you have an email address
Great video! I would like share my experience with the moisture meters. I have a loam soil and tried multiple meters. I would get down an inch or two and the pin would shoot all the way over to full wet although I hadn't watered in days. It made me thing my soil was not draining properly so I cat back my watering. After a week of no water the meter did the same thing. I searched some online threads and found that these are not designed for sandy, silty, clay soils as thay will give false readings. Apparently they are only for more of a potting type soils. With endless mixtures of soils I'm sure it works with many. But for mine it certainly doesn't
5 days of nearly constant rain isn't helping me. Boohoo.
This is EXACTLY what I needed to know. Luke, you are my favorite gardener. I have learned so much.
???? How soon should you start removing the suckers from tomatoes????
YES! Everything needs water and now! No rain for weeks in WI.
Very helpful! Thank you! I love your math calculator analogy!!
The "Knuckle Test" is a lot cheaper than a water meter 🙂
Luke, would you do a video on shade cloth, please?
Hey Luke, could you perhaps address when leaves wilt in the hot sun, even tho they may not need watering, and will bounce back again when shady? Ty
I have sandy soil, it has almost no nitrogen in it, I've tried everything to add to the soil the last two years, still no nitrogen, it's going to be June here in a couple of days; What can I do to get a lot of nitrogen into the soil fast? I live on the Oregon Coast, the beach is a 5 minute walk, so sandy soil.
Very helpful , thank you.
Hi Luke, do you recommend using a little bit of peat moss in your soil?❌⭕️🙏🏽♥️
@MIgardener random question that has popped into my head as someone who's moved a lot and I'm sure you'd find funny. You ever actually/ ever considered taking your soil with you on a move?
This is very helpful! I’ve just been “winging it” by playing a guessing game, with no rhyme or reason to my watering! This video was badly needed! I just learned so much! Super helpful!
love it.. growing seeds i purchased from you
The leaf test is the only thing that really works for me in the greenhouse. Isn’t that less than ideal, because it stresses the plant?
Help! My soil is hard and cracker.. I layed down a few inches of home grown compost last fall,, how do I amend that?
This is so helpful thank you! I'm a newbie gardener from Pontiac, MI
I must be a huge pervert…. i couldn't stop laughing at the euphemism during the knuckle test. Oh my goodness.
But what about new direct seeding like carrot or cabbage radishs etx that are on planted very shallow and need moisture?
Yes I water them way to much love them to death, always trying to get better. Grow Big Or Go Home.❤😊
I needed this video! Thank you!
I have daily anxiety about both underwatering and overwatering.
My wife says 'no watering is too expensive' .. 'no watering is too expensive' …'no watering is too expensive' … when she says 'I think the garden needs water' … THEN it is time to water the garden (although usually half the leaves are shriveled up by then) 🤷♂️ … btw my ground is so bad and dry my finger won't go deeper than half a finger nail … (no rain in three weeks – and that is Spring not even the heat of summer … we are 7 inches below normal for the year already and close to the record low for May).
Thanks! This is helpful
A straight forward guide and more to the point. One of your best videos.
I don't know what to think of my garden. No-dig bed with some small branches above a cardboard layer then topped with both bagged organic raised bed soil and bagged organic compost/cow manure. Almost no rain all month so I've tried to water every couple of days or so. Tomato and lettuce wilt during the day even though soil is moist with knuckle test. I tried to cover nearly all my plants with loose-weave burlap bc that's all I have. Despite being in the ground for about two weeks now my seedlings are not showing signs of new growth despite being planted with bone meal and worm castings mixed into the holes.
Also, I have a moisture meter but apparently don't know how to decipher it. Should tomato and cucumber plants have a reading of 6? Should it be higher since they are mostly water and have a soil reading of 7 or higher? Should we just depend on whether it drops down to the "dry" area to water? I suppose I just don't quite know how to judge whether my soil is moist enough or not just using my finger. Suggestions? Comments? Hubby complains I'm a slave to my garden so I promised him I would quit after this year if I'm unsuccessful so the pressure is really on now. 😰
Trying to get used to the knuckle method. But, one of the things I'm learning is that different spots in the garden that get more or less sunshine/heat have different water needs. That makes using my irrigation system a bit trickier. Also, water meters are just ok, they only help with extreme dryness. I was surprised to discover that when I put it in 100% water it only came back as wet (as opposed to dry). So how the heck can it tell me if there is too much water, when putting it in only water doesn't even do that?!
I have extremely sandy soil and besides amending with compost and mulching with old pine straw from my property, the moisture just does not stick around in my soil. I end up watering nearly every day when it’s hot out (87 degrees plus). So far the plants still prefer rain water. 🤷🏻♀️ The top couple of inches can be dry by the next day! 🥵 Hopefully I’m not overwatering. 😬I’ve noticed some plants like more watering than others. My onions love to be more dry (I learned that by living in onion country out in the NV desert for 17 years lol). Whereas my lettuce and squash like lots of water. 🤷🏻♀️
used the leaf test, but I am going to use the others too, now, as I have sometimes overwatered. sometimes underwatered.
I live here in Arizona and i can tell you having a good mulch even on your containers for your garden is an absolute must, i have raised beds without mulch and currently need to be watered every day, however my containers i only have to water maybe every 3 or 4 days, the mulch combined with a good compost and perlite in my opinion gives you a sweet spot for soil moisture (not holding onto too much moisture and not loosing too much) not to mention it makes your garden look alot better with a good mulch on top but dont take it from me my raspberry plants can attest to that 😊 lol