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.

A Fairly Normal Saturday

Several have asked about what a typical workday on our mini-farm might look like. First, in the spirit of full disclosure, there aren’t very many typical, or normal days. While we do have routines and schedules, life the way God created it has its variables, particularly in regard to when things need to happen.

Our goats need to be milked everyday, and so are central to scheduling whatever else might happen on a given day. The goats and all the other animals must be fed and watered, their shelters and bedding tended to, and whatever other husbandry needs to happen--like the daily egg collecting from chickens and ducks, daily watering and weeding in the garden, daily checks and adjustments in the fish farm.

Then there are the additional chores for Saturday: harvesting poultry and fish, making soap, making soda pop.

There are also chores related to the garden harvest which we like to be continual, but usually come in waves. Harvesting and preserving the harvest is the most labor intensive aspect of the farm. For example, when the Roma tomatoes are ripe, we have just about a week to get them all picked at their peak, and then comes the processing for canning or drying. It is a good thing for us when this work can happen on a Saturday, but it doesn’t always.

When possible, we plan for the “extra” work to occur on Saturday. Our weekdays are pretty well used up with the daily farm chores, school, work, and a few extracurricular activities. Sunday is the Lord’s Day, and we try to devote ourselves and our energy more completely to Him and His work and worship on His day. So that leaves Saturday.

Saturday is the day we can all work on projects together that take more than an hour to accomplish. On weekdays we set aside an hour in the morning and an hour at midday to do our farm chores. Each takes his or her turn to feed and milk the goats, weed and water the garden, tend the poultry, feed the dog, sweep the porches, mind the baby, and so forth. If we need to put up a fence, or to build raised beds,  do some plumbing, or harvest some poultry, Saturday is the day.

So far with today about half over, we have harvested four chickens, made 5 pounds each of Italian and breakfast pork sausage, picked snap peas and cauliflower, changed a wheelbarrow flat, took down the last of the Christmas lights, and started work on some new raised beds. After a break for some refreshments, we'll see what else we can get into: possibly haircuts, making soap, and/or making toothpaste.