Train Your Plants To Grow Deep Roots for Water

(and let your plants train you how to water)

When plant roots grow deeply into the soil, the plant needs less irrigation during hot weather, and any other sort of weather, for that matter. Whether the plant is lettuce with shallower roots or tomato with deep roots, the roots will be deeper in the soil and have less need for water during hotter days--an inch or two for a lettuce may mean the difference between you having to water everyday in August, or every other day. You can do the math here; training the plant to send its roots deeper it going to save you time in the long run.

No, you don't have to call a plant whisperer. You can train the plant to reach down for water as you train yourself how to water your plants. You have to do some testing. No, not pen and paper exams, or a CAT scan, just some simple digging and observing.

To test how deeply your irrigation water is going, water your garden for your usual length of time. Then, push a trowel or shovel into the soil. Push the soil to one side or lift it out. Look at both the depth of the roots (you'll have to be close enough to the plant to see some of the roots, but not so close so that you damage the plant) and the water line in the soil. If the water line (the darkened, moist soil) is not past the longest visible plant roots, water some more and then test another spot. Repeat until the water line falls below the root zone.

Keep track of the total time you watered. That's how long you'll have to water each time to get your plants' roots deep down into the soil. Hint: Turn down the volume of the water and let it just trickle down, if the water begins to run off before you reach your total tested time.

Don't water again until two-thirds of the root zone is again dry. (This means you'll have to use the shovel again to inspect the soil near several plants to see how quickly the soil is drying out.)

Now, you've trained your plants to force their roots deeper into the soil, and they've trained you to know just how long and how often to water.