People are very busy these days. As they have a lot to do and many things to take care of during the day – their jobs, their family and friends, their businesses – and this does not let them have much free time for themselves. If you are one of these people, then chances are that because of this your gardening time may be limited to the evening and night-time hours.
One of the most important chores of gardening that you have to do is watering the plants. It may be different for some plants as they might require daily irrigation for the best growth, this means that they cannot be watered at just about any convenient time. They have to be watered every now and then, sometimes even at particular times. Nevertheless, it becomes a difficult task if the only time you’re free is during the night. But does watering your plants at night actually create more problems for them than good? In this article of Elitech Drip, we are going to debunk this theory once and for all.
Even though there seems to be less evaporation at night, watering your garden at night could just bring serious harm to the plants that you are trying so hard to nurture. It is just not the best option for your plants, leaves or their overall health. After soaked for the whole night, leaves surely can stay wet for a pretty long time than we expect them to since they have no sun to dry them off. Because of this, the problem created is that the damp leaves become extra vulnerable to the development of fungus. You should try to avoid this bad habit of watering your garden this late, especially if you live in a climate with such humid nights. Wet leaves and moist weather are the perfect conditions for fungus.
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Wet Foliage
Foliage refers to either a collective canopy of leaves made up of many plants or an individual plant or tree grouping of leaves. A plant grows the majority of foliage during its vegetative state. So if you water your plants with a watering can or even a sprinkler system, it may cause the foliage, flowers, and fruits to become wet. This increases the chance of infection and rotting.
Our Automatic drip irrigation system is a better choice even if you have to water at night. That’s because only the soil becomes wet and the foilage can remain dry.
At the time of day even if there is a lot of moisture it can be absorbed by the sun but during the night time, watering allows the water that is sprinkled to stay for an extended period as there is no sun to absorb the moisture. This will surely result in fungi and bacteria. To these organisms, this is a perfect haven for replication and invasion on the plant’s surface.
If you have any plants that are already suffering from other ailments, such as damaged items or anything else, these pathogens may gain a strong foothold in your garden and may lead to a significant disease such as dieback (a condition where plants begin dying from the leaf tips all the way back to the roots). As the plant is already weak, this may not be the result of foliage or watering plants at night. But it may be the result of some other things like insects or any other kinds of diseases not in particular which will just boost up in speed because of these pathogens brought upon by the fungus.
Plant Activity
Similar to the respiration system of the human, plants exchange some gases and moisture by surrounding the air using transpiration – tiny holes called stomata open and close to release the water vapor. Most transpiration activity somehow occurs during the day when the sun is shining brightly upon those plants.
Any moisture stagnating due to water on the plants, at night, cannot be expelled by the stomata. As a result of the moisture that remains on the plant for the pathogen infiltration, which in return causes rotting and also does a lot of damage injuries to the foliage as well as the flowers. An evening with calm winds can also result or contribute to pathogen reproduction. This is because the windy nights help the plants to evaporate the standing water or even knock off the moisture to the ground.
Waterlogging
If there is a lack of ideal friable texture in your soil, then watering at night surely contributes to waterlogging. If you are wondering what waterlogging means, then it is the saturation of soil with water. Soil may be regarded as waterlogged when it is near to being saturated with water much of the time such that its air phase is restricted and anaerobic conditions prevail.
In gardening, various plants need air especially oxygen to provide greater or lesser depth in the soil. So loose soil typically provides space for water to penetrate through the ground uniformly. But there is a case in which the compacted soil prevents water from slowly moving into the topsoil. This will result in water which will remain the rest of it just keeps standing on the soil surface. Because there is no sun to evaporate the puddle, your plant’s roots become suffocated as they get a supply of reduced air and also moisture.
The pathogen may also harm your plants’ stems and crowns or there is a possibility of the plant to even rot if the water concentrates around each plant’s base. This is far worse for the plant than wet foliage or waterlogging as the plant doesn’t even receive water in a proper way. The one thing most crucial for the plants’ survival could also destroy them.
Frozen Water
There are different seasons in a year, it’s not like the whole year has the same season or weather. Climate changes every once in a while and the most dangerous climate of all, for your plants, is winter. Winter could bring ruin upon your gardens unless you have planted winter flowers (we have compiled a list of the best winter flowers you can plant, right here).
Watering at night is harmful as we have mentioned before but during winter, the damage is doubled. Even if it is possible to create an artificial frost across your garden with nighttime watering. For example, standing water on foliage does not have a chance to evaporate in the evening. As temperatures drop, the water will freeze over the garden and will harm the plants that are frost tender.
During the colder months, you have to water your plants in the morning as it is a very critical thing to do, or during early afternoon when there is at least a little bit of warmth to ensure that the moisture moves into the soil efficiently before the night arrives.
So What Can You Do?
Although the idea has been around for years, most plants don’t need extra care by watering them at night. There are a few exceptions but 99% of your plants, indoors as well as outdoors, should be watered during the day.
If you are worried that the leaves will burn in the afternoon sun, then make sure to water only the roots instead of casting a wide spray across the plants. Nighttime watering also promotes diseases and no one wants to deal with that now, do they? Try water during the early mornings or early evenings for the most absorption. The moist gets well absorbed during this time of the day because there is light provided by the sun and not too much at that particular time to destroy or even cause harm to the plants and at night this just seems impossible.
It is true that you cannot give full attention to your garden without having to be distracted from work, but a minimum amount of effort and discipline is absolutely necessary when it comes to gardening, and you can truly find the time once you commit to it. You now know what would happen if plants are watered at night. Use your best judgment and better gardening practices to make sure your beloved garden doesn’t fall prey to harmful diseases.
You should also consider Drip Irrigation System for watering your plants at the right time, Automatically. You can wake up late, or come back from office late, be assured that your plants will be watered automatically.
More Tips for Watering your Plants
Watch this video of Elitech Drip Irrigation Kit: