The Art of Watering

Water.

water_drop

70% of our planet.
60% of our bodies.
100% essential for healthy plants.

Watering plants is nothing short of a fine art.

However we believe everyone is born with a “green thumb” and with a few tips you and your plants can enjoy the “art of watering”

The amount of water a plants uses depends on its environment.

  • LIGHT: is the plant getting direct sun or very little sun? is the plant growing under lights and what type of lights?
  • TEMPERATURE: is the plant indoors or outdoors? what are the day & night temperatures? is there lots of air movement?
  • MEDIA: is the plant in soil or a hydroponic media like rockwool, coco or grow rocks?
LIGHT

Plants in high light use more water. As a general rule of thumb plants in low light should be allowed to dry out more. Plants under lights generally require more frequent watering since the lights are on everyday, where as plants that are grown under the sun are effected by the weather and the season. For example during winter the days are shorter and many plants even go into a rest mode and require very little water.

TEMPERATURE

Plants use more water when it warm and less when its cold. Plants that are grown indoors under lights require consistent and regular watering since their “weather” is typically the same every day. Plants that live under the sun either indoors or outdoors are effected by the weather, if there are lots of grey overcast cool days the plants will need to be watered less often but if the sun and heat comes be ready to water more.

MEDIA

Plants’ roots use oxygen. There a two ways the roots get their oxygen, one is through the soil or other media drying out and opening up air space and the other is the water filling in the open space and offering fresh H2O. How quickly the root zone drys out depends on what it the soil is made of, how much aeration it has when fully watered. In soil it is important to let the top 2 inches dry to the touch, where as with rockwool & coco we can water even when it is still wet because they offer more air space when fully wet.

In the next posting of the “The Art of Watering” we will dive deeper into watering recommendations for plants in soil, rockwool, coco and grow rocks as well as what over watering looks like and how to revive a plant is suffering from too much water.

Let us know if you have any questions about watering your garden by posting a comment or sending an email.