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Watering Your Greenhouse
Find out how to keep your greenhouse plants well watered
Watering Your Greenhouse
greenhouse | grow your ownThe two most important things to consider when using a greenhouse are Greenhouse Ventilation, and Watering. If you plants are not kept well watered in the heat of your greenhouse then they will provide low yields at best, and will die at worst. Therefore attention must be paid to how you will water your greenhouse plants regularly, even if you are not at home for example when you are away on holiday.
Crops in the greenhouse will always need more water than those outside the greenhouse. Apart from the fact that rain does not fall in the greenhouse, the atmosphere is usually much hotter inside the greenhouse and soil will dry out much faster.
Many of the Irrigation options used outside in the garden are also valid inside the greenhouse, for example, using a watering can or spraying the plants with a hosepipe. However if water is left sitting on leaves rather than down on the soil and near the roots, it does not do the plants any good and can lead to the proliferation of mould and mildew.
Therefore here are some other options to consider:
Capillary Matting / Watering - Here plants are sat on top of a thin mat made of cotton or polyester which holds a few litres of water per square metre. Water is sucked up from the mat by the soil which then results in the roots getting wet as required. You can water the mat by hand (rather than watering the plants themselves) or the mat can be hung into a water reservoir a few inches below, and it will suck up water until it is saturated or the reservoir runs dry.
Water Timer - A Garden water timer can be used with any drip irrigation system to water the plants in your greenhouse at specific times of day and for set durations. It is connected directly to the hosepipe which is in turn connected to your mains supply (or to a water butt). This can also be used to refill the reservoir of water used by capillary matting systems leaving you able to leave your greenhouse unchecked for many days safe in the knowledge that everything should be fine. Very simple and very complex timers are available from £10 to many hundreds of pounds.
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Article Published: 12:29, 9th Jul 2008
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