Light Frequent Watering vs Spaced Out Heavy Watering

[GET MO]

Indoors my coco gets watered twice a day. Outdoor my plants is in the ground, so the water lasts uh little longer. My beds have been built up over the years with truckloads of dirt off the mountain where it was clear cut n put in piles to decompose. That mixed with all types of chicken umu alpaca turkey steer manures and perlite n other stuff. They were originally dug out in clay too. Ive always watered bout 2 times a week, sometimes 3, and given them pretty heavy dose. Id like to take less trips tho, not more, so thinkin bout getting an automatic watering system thats fully automated. Trying to decide the best program between on every day for 10-15 minutes or every other day or 3 days for longer peeiods. Ill jus have to set it up n watch it n go from there. Good hearing everyones opinions and experince, its lookin about how i thought it would but good to have this info up on the mag.

 

[Shcrews]

every day watering is the best. you have to be careful when they are small / still growing in to their home. but after that, usually about 10% of container volume daily although i do less than that in my big mounds. some days get more or less than the average amount depending on various factors like weather and how things look

 

[plantingplants]

Here's something I found that's relevant. SOM = soil organic matter, and mineralization is the microbial conversion of N to a plant-usable form.

It has been observed that repeated drying and rewetting of the soil promote strong increases in SOM mineralization after rewetting (Jager and Bruins, 1975; Orchard and Cook, 1983; Cabrera, 1993). According to Magid et al, (1999)

They go on to say that there is some controversy and that the decreased amount of mineralization during dry periods may cancel out the large increase upon rewetting.

 

[usually]

Letting it dry out makes the cec spike.