Here’s how your should water your plants
Last week I talked about watering plants according to their needs. Let me elaborate it a bit more. Water is the life, but it can take life too if we don’t know how much and when to water the plants.
Many gardeners ask me which is the best time to water the plants is. Well, evening is the best time to water your plants. Watering late in the daytime, like in the noon, can adversely affect the roots. Do not water just for the sake of wetting the surface of the soil. By doing that, you will encourage the plant to sprout surface roots, which is not in harmony with the harsh summer nature of this region.
We have talked about judicious use of water depending upon the species. But we need to stop watering some plants altogether. Because, some of our traditional green friends from the hills, like the peach, plum, pear, apple and almonds are much clever compared to the gullible evergreens like mango, chickoo, litchi etc. The hill species cleverly tide over adverse atmospheric conditions. As the winter sets in, these trees shed leaves and go to the 'sleep' mode because putting up new growth during this time can be dangerous. We may have tamed the hill trees to give fruit even in the harsh planes of Punjab and Haryana by introducing low chilling varieties, their deciduous habit is still intact. Watering for should be stopped altogether. Saplings of such species should be provided shelter with an opening towards South-East. In severe winters, the terminal growth in such cases can get damaged.
When it comes to winter vegetables, we normally grow these by allotting random beds available in the kitchen garden. Do not do that. Segregate those based on their water needs. Provide adjacent beds to those with identical nature. Leafy vegetables like methi, palak etc are good guzzlers, but peas and carrot do not like water. So much so that you can water them just twice or thrice during their entire lifecycle. Do you know now why your carrot keeps on sprouting green growth above the ground rather than developing underground roots? Tomatoes too protest by rupturing when overwatered, more so when the gap between two water cycle is long and staggering. The plants too reflect the anomaly by putting forth yellow and spotted leaves. Even when the leaves are green, they show sagging or wilting when overwatered. The root development too is scant in such cases.
One thing more, every application of fertilizer, whether in fruit, vegetables, in pots or a lawn, should always be followed with watering. Otherwise too, as a general rule that is applicable to most of the garden plants is that apply water when the soil is dry and not powder dry.
(Narula is Chandigarh-based horticulturist)
