Can I water in the evening?

D

Dirtmechanic

Member
Hardiness zone
8a
Can I water in the the evening? The question comes to my mind as I watch my 95 year old neighbor watering here at 6pm on a day that scorched 95f or higher. He found a young fellow (71) that was interested to run his garden and they will share the bounty.

I hope he waters until the sun comes off the garden. There is chatter about this and that aspect of morning vs evening watering. The one that strikes me is that water simply retains infrared heat across multiple frequencies of the infra red spectrum from visible lights end at roughly 750 millions of a meter wave length to 2500 nano (millionth) meters. Add to that the other half of heat energy being in the visible area from 350ish nm to 750ish nm and I say run the cooling water to sundown if you start in the evening. When you stop the corn may well pop on the plant if not. Once the cool of night has begun ease off.


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This topic has been debated over and over on Forums forever. One thing about it is that people have their opinions...and they usually are not hesitant to offer them even if not backed by experience.

My take on this is that here in East Texas it can and does rain at ALL hours of the day and night...every single hour at one time or another gets rainfall summer,fall,winter, and spring. The plants must be able to cope with rainfall at ALL these occasions...and I have the photos that prove to me at least they certainly can and do cope with rainfall at any hour.

A far more relevant and impactful question is what type of water do you apply to your garden plants? This has far more significant impact than time of day or night applied. Plants do not like chemical laced city water...and it does not matter a tinkers dam when it is applied, it is not like rainwater. To a lesser extent, they also do not like non-oxygenated well water... again no mater the hour rainfall is far superior to non-oxygenated well water.

Like the proverbial Myer Lemon, which generates many questions on Forums, time to water will be forever debated...when in actuality a far more important consideration is the type of water.
 
We have a small section of our garden that gets water in the morning and in the evening. I haven't had any issues with it. Our little garden is doing great, and especially where the evening sprinklers are (okra, watermelon, and some cucumbers). My thinking was just like that of @Meadowlark in that if the plants can survive rain in the evenings, we can certainly water in the evenings.
 
I have learned over the years most of us tend to over water our gardens.

I do not think the plants care when the get water if they need water.
 
True it can rain at all times, but not usually in strong sunlight, it is likely to be cloudy.
I water evenings, sometimes if there is reason, some thing is drooping or newly planted, I will water during the day, but watering on the ground and not leaving water on the leaves if I can.
Fully agree with Meadowlark about types of water, even water from a butt that has got a bit smelly or green is preferable to the municipal supply.
 
My gardens don't get watered unless the lack of rainfall is dire, and even then, when that happens, there is usually a hosepipe ban anyway. If the water was more plentiful, and preferably soft, stored rainwater, I would always choose to add it at the end of the day, so that it would have a chance of soaking down to the roots without the sun undoing the effect.
 
Like Tetters, if I water it's done after sunset so the ground and plants have all night to soak it up. My area has soft water drawn from lochs (lakes) and has very little in the way of treatment before household use. There's also the chance of leaf damage as Olly has said, unless watering during the day is kept to the base of plants.
 
If I absolutely need to water after the hot Georgia sun has risen I water the soil with a wand from my city water hose, or a watering can from my collected rain water.

Right now we've gone for 4 weeks without any measurable rainfall so, I am forced to water, once my plants are in shade, with city water. ATM , I am watering my shade garden with the sprinkler. Yes it's city water and at night, but the alternative is death to my plants.
I work hard so my plants can have a better life but no way am I standing outside with a flashlight watering the soil in the dark. 😄

Plants can take it in a pinch. They aren't all that delicate IMHO.
 
Just got done with watering, the cycle where the wife says honey turn off the water sprinklers. But I did not. Here in Birmingham it is also becoming dry like Georgia. I manage to let them run 4 hours. They do not put much out really and as things dry out the surroundings soak up as much water as you would intend to put out in the first place. I think the internet wisdom says one inch is good. I do not see that as deep watering. We have a second water meter, an ag meter, for irrigation. I guess I will wait to explain when the bill comes in that in a few places I ran the sprinkler all night. The soil will stay moist enough for almost a week doing that in this old clay. There are some places in the lawn with tree roots under grass that get amazingly dry.
 
I dread my water bill next month because they charge for it coming in, then for it going out, even if it doesn't actually go down the drain.
Relocating my sprinkler, which is just a rotating sprinkler attached to the hose, no matter how hard I try, I get soaked every time !! I'm just too lazy to cut it off before moving it and then have to walk back to the house to cut it back on afterwards.
I'm praying for rain and if any of you west of us, would like to send your excess East, we would really appreciate it.
 
The water company kept cutting our supply, and we had to pick up bottled water, so my missus registered me as a vulnerable person so they would deliver it if she were not here for some reason. Then we had a hosepipe ban, and the water company wrote saying that they realised this might impact on me as a vulnerable person and I am exempt. I normally water with a can and mostly in the greenhouse, we are on a meter and I only want to use what I need, but it is tempting to put the sprinkler on the front lawn and piss off the unpleasant neighbour opposite :)
 
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