Water Saving Gardening Tips

water saving gardening tips

 Water Saving Gardening Tips

[quote]Happily, you don’t have to let watering restrictions dry up the dreams you cultivate through gardening, especially if you follow our 5 Water Saving Gardening Tips.[/quote]

Water is a precious commodity on the planet. While most of the earth’s surface is covered in water, the vast majority is unsuitable for direct applications to irrigate crops or grow hydroponics gardens. See the chart below (from http://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html). This growing season in 2014 water restrictions are a stark reality for farmers and gardeners. Happily, you don’t have to let watering restrictions dry up the dreams you cultivate through gardening, especially if you follow our 5 Water Saving Gardening Tips.

earths water distribution hydroponics

  1. CAPTURE as much fresh water as you can for your gardens from rainfall. If you look through your classifieds you can find used food grade plastic drums for cheap if you don’t mind scrubbing them clean and fitting up to the downspout from your roof. This is a good incentive to keep your roof eaves troughs, etc clean and functioning. Your local garden center or maybe even hydroponics shop may have some more decorative choices-and already outfitted with an overflow diverter.
  2. KEEP the water where it needs to be: at the roots of the crop. Re-circulating hydroponics systems conserve water over traditional gardening methods. If you like to garden in soil outdoors, you can conserve moisture and keep weeds down by using mulches or landscaping fabrics. *TIP*weeds ROB moisture from the plants you cultivate, so show no mercy and weed often.
  3. APPLY water carefully. Overhead sprinklers are wasteful and create other problems like moulds and mildews and invite slugs. Drip irrigation systems are inexpensive to assemble and place water where it is needed very precisely. As a bonus it’s cheap to install a timer on the system, so watering can be automatic in case you aren’t always there on hot days. Drip irrigation systems are also perfect for hanging baskets which tend to dry out quickly and can be tricky to keep watered.
  4. TIME your waterings carefully. Check the local forecasts for rain-no sense in watering all afternoon to have it rain two days straight afterwards, for example. On the other hand just because it spits for a few moments doesn’t mean your garden won’t need a thorough watering afterwards-be especially watchful when container gardening.
  5. AVOID low grade acrylic polymer “moisture crystals” that are not intended for food crops. They will ruin the taste of what you grow or worse. ESC Treatment is a product that is 100% Food Grade and has been proven by University Level Studies to prevent water stress in plants. As a bonus, it can be applied by irrigation—so it’s effective anytime you are finding yourself challenged keeping your crops healthy and well watered. Recommended.

ESCbottles water saving hydroponics supplements

water savings greenhouse gardening

There are lots of other great water conservation techniques and management practices you can follow and develop, for example like using shade cloth or planting shelter crops.

 

You will save the most water when you practice several water saving tips through the season, rather than relying on any one to get you through. It all adds up to a more productive and sustainable gardening experience when harvest time comes-and it will when following water saving gardening tips.

water savings garden tips

 

 

About Erik Biksa 246 Articles
Erik Biksa has been writing about and discussing hydroponics growing, related technologies and cropping methods since 1999 in a variety of professional publications and platforms globally Erik has travelled the world learning and teaching modern growing techniques and technologies and is appreciated by many growers for his informative yet hands on approaches. Presently, he is the Editor at Grozine Hydroponics Mag.