It’s important to know how to water your garden effectively and efficiently. Fruit and vegetables cost a lot of water for a plant to produce, so watering adequately will promote healthy plants and an abundant harvest. Insufficient watering can cause problems in the garden. In addition to making your plants wilt, inadequate watering actually stresses plants, which can lead to unhealthy and unproductive plants that are more susceptible to pests. Below are five best practices to follow when watering your vegetable garden.

1. Know your plants

If you watch your plants, they will let you know when they need water. They wilt. Colors become dull. Furthermore, different plants have different water requirements. For example in a standard vegetable garden, onions do not need as much water as carrots, and carrots don’t need as much water as tomatoes, cucumbers or beans. Potatoes and lettuce are very sensitive to not enough water, but peppers like it hot and dry.

The age of the plant also matters. The more mature and bigger the plant, the less frequent water it requires compared to young and small plants. Young plants are tender and have small root systems whereas a mature plant will have a bigger root system to cover more area below ground.

Follow Greg Price’s watering rule of thumb: For germinating seeds water less (in amount) but more often (frequency). For established plants, water more but less often. Always think about where you want the water to go. Do you want the water to reach the seeds just under the soil surface, or to penetrate deep into the soil finding the plants roots?

Always remember to water immediately after transplanting a young plant!

2. Know your soil

The ability of soil to store water is dependent on the soil texture, which is the ratio of sand, silt, clay and organic matter in a soil. According to Washington State University Extension, a 5% increase in organic material quadruples the soil’s water holding capacity. Organic matter not only holds and stores water but also insulates the soil against heating and cooling. One of the easiest ways to increase a soil’s water holding capacity is to incorporate more organic matter in the form of compost.

Mulch (i.e., straw, grass clippings, leaves, composted manure or compost) will also add organic matter to the soil as it decomposes while helping to smother weeds as well. Place a 1 to 2 inch layer of mulch on the soil surface around your plants or place mulch between plant rows. Start by using small amounts at a time so you don’t cause mold or fungus problems. We don’t recommend mulching with wood chips in an annual vegetable garden because wood chips are high in carbon and therefore require a lot of nitrogen to break down -- it’s compost chemistry, baby! In the end, your crops are robbed of the much needed nitrogen.

3. Deep watering

Watering deeply generally means watering a plant so that the water soaks down to at least 6 - 8 inches below the soil surface. The saying goes that one deep watering is much better than several light waterings for established plants. Encourage healthy root growth by doing a deep soak every other day. Let the roots work a little to seek the water that’s deeper in the soil! In turn, this encourages strong root development versus shallow watering everyday which only encourages shallow roots, which dry out easier and are more susceptible to stress. Soak your garden once a week to a depth of 6-12 inches and don’t water again until the top few inches begin to dry out.

4. Do the Finger Test!

How to tell if you’ve watered enough…get some dirt underneath those fingernails and do the two finger test! Take your index finger and middle finger and stick it into your garden’s soil up to your knuckle. Do you feel moisture at your fingertips? If yes, maybe wait a day to water. If you notice that only the top layer of soil is moist, you know you haven’t watered enough.

5. Timing is everything

What time of day you water and how frequently you water is very important. The cool of the evening is the best time to soak or drip irrigate a garden, because this gives the soil and plants all night to absorb the water. Early morning is an ideal time for sprinklers. The leaves of a plant can still absorb the water in the cool of the morning but dry out during the day which minimizes any leaf molds or fungus. Watering in the morning or evening instead of during the heat of the day also helps conserve water because less is loss to evaporation.

Also, avoid watering when it’s windy. Since windy conditions increase evaporation, it is inefficient for plants to absorb water. In fact, windy conditions even cause evaporation directly from the leaves of the plant as well. If possible, give your plants extra water before or after a warm windy day.

BONUS - Keep water on site

Water at the base of your plant instead of overhead watering. This way you can direct the water exactly where you want it to go, to it’s roots. Also, most plants don’t like to have water on their leaves (e.g. tomatoes!) because it can lead to disease and fungal issues.

Try watering slowly or in several stages a couple minutes apart so that the soil has time to absorb the water. Build up small mounds several inches high with your hands around the edges of your garden bed or around individual plants. This will act like a moat or dam and help keep water where you want it—at the base of your plants.

Lastly, if you have a hard pan developing on the surface of your soil, it won’t absorb water well and instead run off and pool up in your garden path instead. Try loosening the top inch of soil around your plants with your fingers, a hand trowel or to help the soil absorb the water.

Keep in mind that every garden and every garden plot is different, so we recommend trying a couple of these things to find what works best for your garden.

Don’t forget to water yourself - stay hydrated and stay cool!

Originally published July 19, 2018. Contributions by Genevieve Jessop Marsh, “Community Gardens: Three Watering Tips.”

Best Practices for Watering Your Garden