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Heat and extra watering?

#1

I know there is a IFTT recipe that has you water extra if it gets hot. When is it appropriate to water again during the day? My shrubs during these 110+ days tend to look pretty thirsty by the end of the day. I have all my settings dialed in correctly to water them on a normal basis. Should I be giving them a little extra water at the end the day on these very hot days? Is there any benefit to watering multiple times on the same day?

This Is How You Need To Water Your Lawn
#2

See this thread. Dante’s Garden

#3

I’m aware of that thread. But I was just curious from more of a general shrub maintenance area. Do shrubs need a second watering during the day? I knock down water capacity to help increase the frequency

#4

I have a similar problem with hydrangeas. I’ve been debating whether it is better to put down more water at once during the day (get those roots to keep reaching down?) or add water again later in the day (if I do this, aren’t I just refilling the top part of the soil where the ground is drying up? Are the roots down deeper just sucking the water up and if the second watering isn’t the full amount, is it going deep enough?). And is there a good way to automate this so I don’t have to monitor on a daily basis?

I’m sure there is some research out on the web if I can just find it, and then understand it.

What have you been thinking?

#5

@Modawg2k. Good question. When I was watering my garden extra I went with about a 12 hr interval between the daily flex watering, but it’s much different for shrubs. I have only one shrub showing distress at the end of my day cycle, so I bumped up the crop coefficient such that I water every 5. For a manual watering through the Rachio with a Fixed Schedule, you’d essentially add water to the “bucket” so you’d end up pulling in the next cycle that way too.

The weakest shrub I mentioned is in an opening surrounded by concrete. This weekend I’ve just been using a hose to too water that guy. I know I’m not getting deep with those waterings but I’m not sure how else to go about it. If you’re seeing it on a lot of your shrubs at the end of every cycle I would consider bumping up you crop coefficient a couple of notches. For me going from 0.5 to 0.52 pulled it in from 6 days to 5 days. If they’re looking bad today I would kick off a full run. As you know the forecast is now at a brutal 123F for today.

#6

@Modawg2k. By the way, if you go this route make sure that you are using a schedule that was created after the 2.6 release as that’s even the added the capability to tweak the crop coefficient. I delete and recreated mine on Friday before tweaking the coefficient.