I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

On 03/06/2014 22:32, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?

I used 20 minutes at 0700 and 1900. I also started off with a single
time, but found that it often led to a lot of waste, and sometimes the
pots were almost dry if they were small and it had been a particularly
hot day.

--

Jeff

On Tue, 3 Jun 2014 22:32:25 +0100, Roger Tonkin wrote:

I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?


I have tomatoes and cucumbers in the green house and raised beds with various
things in.

I have mine come on for half an hour during the night: drippers in greenhouse
and sprays/sprinklers on raised beds.

The raised beds are well drained - and I find for my purposes the half-hour is
just right - things do not get water-logged but are adequately watered.

On 03/06/2014 22:32, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?


I presume it is linked to some form of drip/trickle irrigation system.
I'd have thought that the thing you really want to know isn't how long
to leave it on for but how much water each plant is getting.
If you have individual pipes to each plant/pot then put one into a
bucket and see how much water you get in half an hour.
The problem with this sort of system comes when you grow a range of
plants with different requirements.

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 15:27:10 +0100, David Hill
wrote:

On 03/06/2014 22:32, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?


I presume it is linked to some form of drip/trickle irrigation system.
I'd have thought that the thing you really want to know isn't how long
to leave it on for but how much water each plant is getting.
If you have individual pipes to each plant/pot then put one into a
bucket and see how much water you get in half an hour.
The problem with this sort of system comes when you grow a range of
plants with different requirements.


Not really, as you adjust the individual drippers accordingly.

On 04/06/2014 17:49, Judith in England wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 15:27:10 +0100, David Hill
wrote:

On 03/06/2014 22:32, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?


I presume it is linked to some form of drip/trickle irrigation system.
I'd have thought that the thing you really want to know isn't how long
to leave it on for but how much water each plant is getting.
If you have individual pipes to each plant/pot then put one into a
bucket and see how much water you get in half an hour.
The problem with this sort of system comes when you grow a range of
plants with different requirements.


Not really, as you adjust the individual drippers accordingly.

But the OP did say he had a "fairly basic"

On 03/06/2014 22:32, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?

There is some advantage to some morning watering and some evening as
well. The plants have more chance to absorb it at night.

OTOH a few things that are prone to rot dislike being wet overnight.

Be sure to tune your automatic watering regime well ahead of a two week
holiday or you will come back to some very wet pots.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article , david@abacus-
nurseries.co.uk says...

On 03/06/2014 22:32, Roger Tonkin wrote:
I have an automatic watering system for the greenhouse. It is
fairly basic and allows me to water once or twice a day at two
different times.

Last year I watered for an hour in the evening (7.00pm), this
year I'm doing half an hour am (6.00am) and half an hour in the
evening (6.00pm).

What do others do? Which is best?


I presume it is linked to some form of drip/trickle irrigation system.
I'd have thought that the thing you really want to know isn't how long
to leave it on for but how much water each plant is getting.
If you have individual pipes to each plant/pot then put one into a
bucket and see how much water you get in half an hour.
The problem with this sort of system comes when you grow a range of
plants with different requirements.

As it is watering just tomatoes, and they are in the soil, not
pots or grow bags, I think that it is probably impossible to
over water (famous last words?).

I was interested in the timing because of the possibility of
occasionally not being able to open the greenhouse so that it
might get very hot and dry out the soil. Would a morning
soaking last 24 hrs in that situation, or would an evening
soaking give the plants an opportunity to recover for the next
day?

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales