Watering newly planted seeds

I was given the advice (thanks camprn) to water twice a day. I watered yesterday in a.m. and late afternoon. Is that correct? Or do the seeds (and presumably new seedlings when they emerge) need that second watering more in the early afternoon (height of the heat)?

What do you do?

Thanks.

You are doing it just right! You want to avoid watering in the high heat of the day. It can scald the plants and more water eveporates in the heat! Happy gardening!

keep an eye on soil settling when you are watering...add more soil as appropriate as the plants age so the roots aren't exposed.

I will do that. Not sure how many times the soil can settle though. I didn't have enough mix when I started the box so I did what I had and watered it in. It settled. A day later I filled the box, mounding it up a bit higher than the box and watered it in. It settled about 1.25 inch and then I planted. Hopefully it has settled all it is going to settle but we shall see!

Thanks for the tip.

hopefully...I've been seeing settling since March...some boxes are down around 50%...and they were rained on heavily in the spring multiple times....maybe the peat and purchased compost are still breaking down. I'm about to top-off empty squares for fall planting.

Oh my gosh, 50%!! That is terrible. I've spent hundreds filling the box already! I hope mine do not do that.

Do we have to regularly top off the soil every season or year? From reading the book it seemed like it was fill it once and you were set for years except for adding the trowel of compost at each planting!

cpl100 wrote:Oh my gosh, 50%!! That is terrible. I've spent hundreds filling the box already! I hope mine do not do that.

Do we have to regularly top off the soil every season or year? From reading the book it seemed like it was fill it once and you were set for years except for adding the trowel of compost at each planting!

Settling is normal and mine settled a couple inches and everything is still growing nicely! Is there any place near you that you could get your hands on some rabbit or llama poo? A lot of the times if you ask they will give it to you free if you haul it away (you don't need a pick up you could bring some 5 gal buckets) and you can put those directly in your beds without being composted. Also if you start your own compost pile you will have free compost to top those beds off with for years to come. Good luck!

I can't imagine where I would get those as I live in a suburb outside a big city...really not much agriculture going on here (that I know of) aside from some small localized farms.

I want to start a compost bin but right now that seems very daunting. I am picking up a town bin next week for $30. I have contacted a friend who stables a horse and she is willing to collect some of that for me. I know there is a turkey farm in the next town but I have not seen turkey poo mentioned anywhere in these forums yet so am afraid that may be some kind of no-no.

I have to find some source of these 5 gal. buckets that everyone talks about. They have them for sale at HD but I just can't imagine that everyone is buying them all at that price and with the frequency they are mentioned here.

I only have one 4 x 4 and I am already getting exhausted (mentally and physically), frustrated and discouraged. Thank God I followed the advice to start small.

Turkey poo is fine as long as it is aged/composted. You can't put it your garden fresh or it will burn your plants. Llama, alpaca, and rabbit poo can be used fresh without burning plants. You may be able to find someone in town who has rabbits as pets who would be willing to give you rabbit poo.

GG

All poo is not created equal!

LOL, just could not resist.

cpl100 wrote:All poo is not created equal!

So true!
GG

You can get 5 gallon buckets from restaurants (pickle buckets) and I have heard someone hear mention they get lots of different sized buckets from bakeries!

CPL, I got to thinking and with this hot weather we have been having, during the heat of the day you may want to just check the Mel's mix where you have just sown your seed. If it is dry, go ahead and give it a little sprinkle of water to tide the wee seedlings over until evening. Water the soil, not the plants if you can.

Goosegirl wrote:

cpl100 wrote:All poo is not created equal!

So true!
GG

This website claims these percentages :http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm

Manure N-P-K
Llama 1.7 .69 .66 (this from a different site)
Chicken 1.1 .80 .50
Dairy cow.25 .15 .25
Rabbit 2.4 1.4 .60
Sheep .70.30 .90
Horse .70 .30 .60
Steer .70 .30 .40
Remember, this is cannot be etched in stone since animals will be pastured or fed hay and grain at different levels in a year, depending on the farm operation and amount of time on pasture, the weather, etc.