John, this is a great way to water your garden; it uses less water than other methods and conserves moisture. They only way to tell if this is the right timing for your garden is to do a little investigation and calibration. And whether you water by hand, low-volume drip system or automatic sprinklers, these steps are a good way to manage irrigation.

As to the frequency, it’s hard to decide that without knowing what kind of soil and plants are involved. Some plants will perform poorly if allowed to wilt, other take a little water stress in-stride. I would watch the plants for signs of water stress such as leaf folding, leaves turn gray-green or slight wilting of the new growth and water at that time. Next time there is no rain, you can water 1 day earlier that wilt symptoms occurred before. This type of calibration, that is the number of days between water application, is generally done time 4 times a year at the change of season.

How much water is needed is determined by soil type. The goal is to wet the soil through the root zone, generally 10 to 12 inches deep and then not again until the plants need it. Here in Florida our sandy soils usually need ½ to ¾ of an inch of water to wet the soil that deep, others types may need more or less for the same results. You can measure your soaker hoses output but putting straight sided cans under an area where water leaves the hose to collect it. Run the system for 30 minutes or an hour and measure how much accumulates in the cans. Do this several places along the hose and average the output.

Now you know how much water your hoses put out in a given time. If it was ¼ of an inch in 1 hour, then you know you need to run the irrigation for 4 hours to apply an inch of water. Next task is to determine how much water is needed to wet the root zone.

Once the soil is fairly dry, put out an inch of water, wait 30 minutes to an hour and use a sharp shovel to open a slit in the soil. You should be able to see how far the water has penetrated and how wet the soil is. If the soil is very soggy – free water dribbles out when you squeeze the soil in your hand then too much water has been applied. If the soil is moist and holds together without cracking and no free water escapes when squeezed then the water is just right. If the soil doesn’t hold together and cracks when squeezed then not enough water has been applied. Adjust the run time to apply more or less water based on your observations of the depth the water penetrated and how much is in the soil.

Once the run time of a system is determined based on output and soil conditions it rarely changes. Irrigation frequency varies with the season, type of plants and amount of rain.

ty Carol.