MASTER GARDENER DEMONSTRATION PLOT

- INFORMATION Step Two: Water Needs at Jackson Square Garden For March
The garden water at Jackson Square comes from a deep well that draws from the Florida Aquifer. Because Florida is in a drought and the population has grown quickly, we must be careful to use this resource wisely. The University of Florida recommends micro irrigation practices which deliver small amounts of water directly to the root zone through low-flow emitters, such as micro-spray jets, bubblers, or drip tubes. The Master Gardeners are using micro-spray jets. Water Efficiently: Water early in the morning. Watering in the evening causes disease and insect problems. Watering in the heat of the day wastes water through evaporation. Drip or micro-spray fittings can clog; you need to inspect emitters regularly and clean them. Watering Vegetables: Vegetables need adequate soil moisture to grow and produce, but cannot tolerate standing water from excessive rainfall or irrigation. The amount of watering a plant needs depends on the age of the crop and your soil type. Young plants need frequent, light irrigation; maturing crops need more water but less often. Sandy soils demand more frequent irrigation than clay, muck, or amended soils. The aim in watering vegetables is to help maintain the soil moisture at a level where there is sufficient amounts of both water and air for healthy plant growth. In the sun, soil will dry out only to a depth of a few inches, only plants can remove moisture from greater depths. This means that watering vegetables whenever the soil surface looks dry will in fact be over-watering. To know if the water is needed, we must know how moist the soil is within the root zone of our plants. Of all the high-tech gismos and widgets on the market today, there is really only one instrument that can properly tell if soil is moist or dry - The Human Finger! Use a trowel to remove the top 3 or 4 inches of soil and stick your finger into the soil at the bottom of the hole. If it feels moist, then do not water yet. Its as simple as that. One group of vegetables that can fool you is the cucurbits (Pumpkin, squash, melons, etc.), which have very large leaves. On hot days, they simply cannot take up enough water to prevent wilting and so the leaves droop. This is only temporary wilting and the plants will recover when the sun goes down (as you can see in the pictures below). Use the finger test to check if you think the wilting is worse than it should be. If you have placed seeds in the ground - We suggest watering every day for 8-10 minutes. If you have seedlings (transplants), we advise irrigating every other day for 10-15 minutes depending upon the plant. Remember that tomato roots do not like really wet soil. Eggplant does best on well-drained, fertile, sandy-loam soils at a pH of 6.0-6.5. Poorly drained soils may result in slow plant growth, reduced root systems. Bell Peppers - A shortage of water at bloom time can also result in blossom drop or failure to set fruit. Usually, the plants set satisfactory crops when temperatures are between 65 and 80 degrees F and the soil is well-supplied with moisture. Avoid a soggy, water-logged soil condition when growing peppers.