How to Water Seedlings:
Top-Watering:
When your seedlings are tiny babies, they likely don't have a long enough root to reach down to the bottom of the pot. For the first week after seeds germinate, I continue to water from the top. I water whenever it looks like the soil is drying out but don't wait until the soil is completely dry. I want to avoid stressing my seedlings, which is what would happen if they were left without water for even a short time.
When your seedlings are tiny babies, they likely don't have a long enough root to reach down to the bottom of the pot. For the first week after seeds germinate, I continue to water from the top. I water whenever it looks like the soil is drying out but don't wait until the soil is completely dry. I want to avoid stressing my seedlings, which is what would happen if they were left without water for even a short time.
To water from the top, I add enough water that the pot feels noticeably heavier but not so much that water comes out the bottom. A few drops comes out the bottom is totally fine, but you don't want to flood the soil. For one thing, that creates an environment primed for root rot and fungus. For another, it flushes nutrients out of the soil.
I also make sure to water only the soil--not the leaves. Water droplets left on leaves can create burn spots, which lowers the surface area that your plant can use to photosynthesize. This is more common if your plants are under grow lights than if they are sitting in a sunny windowsill. It can also create issues with fungus, which is more common if your plants are in a windowsill.
Bottom-Watering:
After a week or two (depending on how quickly the seedling grows), the seedlings will be established and ready for bottom-watering. Bottom-watering is simply watering from the bottom. You can do this by placing your pots into a bath of water. This encourages vigorous root growth. A good root system is good for stabilizing your plants as well as giving them lots of roots to absorb water through.
These days my pots sit in the incredible Bootstrap Farmer trays. I pour water into the tray and drain after 30 minutes. Before I had trays I used my sinks, 9x13 casserole dishes, and deep cookie sheets. Anything that holds water will work!
How NOT to water:
I had to laugh when looking at gardening stock images because I saw so many that illustrated improper watering. Please enjoy a sample selection:
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There are some instances when you might spray something on the leaves of your plants, such as when applying a foliar fertilizer or treating a fungal issue. But for your regular watering you will want to only water the soil surrounding the plant--not the plant itself.
Watering Issues:
Over-watering is much more common than under-watering.
An under-watered plant is easy to spot. It will first be limp and then start to form brown, dry, and crunchy edges. The leaves will feel thin to the touch and not plump. The soil will be dry and probably have condensed and come away from the edges of the pot. Soil is similar to a sponge in that way--it shrinks when it's dry and expands when it's moist.
Over-watering is a little harder to diagnose. Here is a great article from Bloomscape about the common signs of over-watered plants. These signs are true to pretty much any plant.
Below, I'll post pictures of under, over, and correctly watered tomato plants. I feel that simply showing images is so much more helpful than trying to describe the differences.
An under-watered tomato plant. My tomato plants looked like this when I went to water today. Oops! (They got a good drink immediately.)
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| An over-watered tomato plant. |
A correctly watered tomato plant.
How much water does my plant need?
All plants have different watering and fertilizing needs. Here are a few guidelines to help you know what your plants' needs are:
- In general, larger plants need more water and smaller plants need less.
- Alliums like to be watered often! These are onions, leeks, scallions, and chives. Same with leafy greens, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
- Plants that don't like to be watered often are peppers, tomatoes, beans, corn, zucchini, and aloe vera. Wait until the soil around these plants has dried, then water deeply. These plants do better when they can send their roots deeply into the soil, searching for water.
- Don't worry if your plant shows signs of being over-watered. I still over-water my plants sometimes. Just decrease how much you water it and the plant will almost always rebound.
My Favorite Waterer:
Once my plants are outdoors, they are watered with a ColorMark Rain Wand. Before I had this one, I purchased a cheaper brand at Home Depot and it started leaking after 2 weeks. The internal parts were made of a cheap plastic, which cracked. I decided to order this one because it's so highly reviewed and have been very happy with it.
When to Water:
During the summer, it's best to water in the morning or early evening. This gives your plants enough time to absorb the water and be ready to grow when the sun is shining down.
- Watering during the heat of the day causes a lot of the water to evaporate before the plant can use it. That said, it is better to water during the heat of the day than to not water at all. If it's the only time you can get out there, go ahead. But for optimal plant conditions, try to avoid watering during the heat of the day.
- When watering during the evening, make sure to water early enough that your plants have time to fully dry before the sun goes down. Plants sitting wet overnight are more likely to get fungus and rot issues.
Other Watering Tips:
- Tomatoes are prone to something called blight. That's when fungal spores bounce up off of the soil and onto your tomato leaves. Once you've got blight, you're stuck with it. Thankfully blight doesn't mean instant plant death. Most times you will be able to continue harvesting fruit, but the plant will look increasingly unhappy as time goes on. Eventually the plant will die, but there are ways to slow that process. I can talk more about pests and diseases in a separate post but I'm mentioning this here because the way blight spores are transferred from soil to leaves is when watering. The water splashes the spores up onto the leaves. So you definitely want to avoid that!
- The #1 way to avoid tomato blight is to mulch around your tomato plants heavily. The day I transplant my tomato plants, I mulch with 4 inches of grass clippings so that no soil is visible. Then I add more mulch later in the year, as the wind and watering displace the mulch. The goal is to keep a thick carpet barrier between the soil and your tomato plant's leaves. Doing that has helped me to have healthy tomato plants all year long.
- If you use terra cotta pots, you'll need to soak them in addition to watering. The terra cotta will leach water out of the soil. This is actually a helpful thing if you're growing something that is sensitive to over-watering like aloe vera or orchids. But it can also be a problem if your plant is competing with the pot for the available water.
- This is also true with pots that have terra cotta inside and a ceramic coating outside. I'm still having a hard time figuring out the correct watering for some of my ceramic/terra cotta pots.
Okay, I think that's all I've got for watering information and tips. I really hope this is helpful to someone. In the next post I will talk about light, which is an area that took me a long time to get dialed in. Maybe you can hear about my mistakes and have great success sooner than I did!
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