Keep plants healthy and growing by watering well

Plants need water. Everybody knows it; but we all water differently " some efficiently and some not.

Most of our plants, whether flowers, shrubs, trees or veggies, sit out in full hot sun each day, blasted by drying winds. They evaporate water through their leaves to reduce leaf surface temperatures, similar to how an evaporative cooler cools a house or how humans perspire to cool down. In the plant kingdom, this process is called "evapotranspiration."

As a plant sweats water away through pores in its leaves, it signals the roots to send up more water to meet the cooling demand. This pumping mechanism is an amazing process and works well if there is available soil moisture for the roots to draw on.

Unfortunately, in Nevada during the spring and summer, water is available in most soils only if we put it there through irrigation. Many times, we do not irrigate sufficiently or deeply to have a ready reserve of water for plant use. As our state horticulture specialist, Dr. Wayne Johnson, used to say, "roots grow where there is water and air."

Deep watering, less often, is the optimum way to water plants. This encourages roots to grow deep into the soil where they will be less likely to dry out easily. Deep roots help a plant resist drought stress. Too often, homeowners set their sprinkler timers in April or May and leave them set for the rest of the growing season. This means a homeowner is either over-watering in April or May, or under-watering during the heat of summer. Both are bad for plant health.

Some people water by hand, carefully setting sprinklers around the yard, moving them place to place. This gets quite old after a few weeks of monitoring sprinklers for hours and a homeowner become less likely to water deeply enough.

Others stand with a hose, spraying down plants thinking they are watering enough. If they were to dig down 10-12 inches into the soil, they most likely would find a dry soil underneath, with only a few inches moist at the top. Where did Dr. Johnson say roots grow? Where the water is. Shallowly watered plants will have shallow roots. These plants will have very little water reserve and will be under constant stress. They will rarely thrive or produce good flowers or fruit. They will be prone to disease and insects. For a successful landscape and garden, water your plants efficiently.

JoAnne Skelly is the Carson City/Storey County Extension educator for University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.