How much water should I store?

[The Doc.]

I live in a very dry area.... very little to no rain until october, unless we get a tropical system come ashore. I am going to be growing 10-15 plants outdoors, mostly sativa-ish, how much water should I store away in jugs? How much water could I reasonably expect to use during a normal week of 90F+ temps and no rain. Humidity is usually pretty high here.... 75-80%, but it's only like 45% today, so it's not super humid EVERY day... lol


edit- I plan on keeping them pretty short and bushy throughout the growing season, so I'm not dealing with monsters

 

[The Doc.]

I'm looking at different ways to conserve water. Water crystals, peat moss, and some plastic tarps on the ground should help out.

 

[sm0kateer4204]

my plant's are smaller now not needing much water but when they get big and season get's dry im estimating a couple gallons per plant a week. here's a photos describing what jj was talking about when creating good outdoor hole's.


good luck on your season.

 

[Deft]

Yea black plastic works well to keep the moisture in, used them for years with vegitables in direct sun and it always kept the soil moist.

 

[slyfoxberg]

add some perlite and vermaculite to your mix. also i have heard of people using old newspaper shredded up on the bottoms of their holes to keep moisture in. although i haven't used them, a lot people talk about the water crystals that are available too.
oh hey, if you look around, i think back country has a thread on here about building an outdoor water resevoir. check it out, might be something that will work for you.

here's a link for you, but would also suggest doing a general search on backcountry's posts, he knows a hell of a lot about guerilla growing. good luck.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=23910

here's another one
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=21195

 

[pipeline]

Using shreded newspaper in your soil mix will cause nitrogen to be used up. Newspaper has a high carbon:nitrogen ratio, so when it is broken down by microbes, nitrogen is taken out of the soil to break down the newspaper. So the microbes will be competeing with your plants for N in the soil.

Polyacrylamide water crystals are one of the best ways to keep soil moisture besides mulching. You have to be sure to mix them evenly with the soil and not all in the bottom of the hole. If they are all in the bottom it can push up your soil when they get wet and swell.

 

[The Doc.]

were setting up a drip system. A couple 5 gallon water jugs with 2 drip emmiters ran to each planting hole. It'll be gravity fed, so it's maintenence free other than refilling every week or so.