Watering a garden

When is the best time to water your garden? My first thought is, anytime as long as it gets watered!! But I know that is not the answer you were looking for. There are many thoughts and reports on this question. Some make sense, others don’t. I also could see this making a huge difference based on what part of the country you are in because of humidity, daylight hours, season length, etc.

Here are a couple of the arguments for when to water. The first one is watering in the evening or nighttime. Some people argue that this is the best time because the plant stays wet all night and has less evaporation without the sun. That is a good point until you hear the other side say that because the plant and ground stay wet all night that there is a good potential for mold and mildew to set in.

The other argument is early in the morning. This seems to be the best argument because the plant stays wet for a decent amount of time as the sun comes up, and the sun hinders the growth of any mold or mildew because of it coming up right behind the watering.

Watering in the middle of the day has to be the worst time to water. There are two reasons for not watering during the day. First, the water evaporates very fast with the daytime heating. Second, the water droplets on the plants act as a magnifying glass and burn the leaves very quickly, damaging the plant structure.

Again, it is less important when you water, and more important that you water.

Happy Watering