[veginbeds]

Hi all

I am new here and grow veg in our garden. It started 7 years ago as a thing to do with my two daughters, they grew a little older, and I now do it myself.

I bought a decent 6x6 greenhouse a couple of years ago and finally threw out the 99p ebay plastic 4x4ft thing we used for a few years! I successfully grow peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, chillis, various salad leaves, etc. in it which is really cool.


So, the problems I'm experiencing are not quite legion, but several, and I wondered if anyone can help? (only one posted here)

I planted Rocket last year in rectangular pots around 120mm wide by 400mm long. It grew to around 20mm high, then died off. I tried more and the same thing happened.

This year, I bought new seeds and planted them in the same pots, with new compost that contains john innes 3 (i think). Around half grew, but spindly and we didn't eat any of it.
I dug them out and planted more. These have grown to 20mm or so and then died off again!! (this 2nd batch was during the past month or so).

I have small bore water pipes to all pots and one line into each of the rocket pots near the middle. They are watered for around a minute every 2 or 3 days, but only really ion the middle. Now and again i water with a can too.

Any ideas? This is quite frustrating as all the other cut and come again is very successful!

[Sparkyrog]

lack of water ! a minute every 2 or 3 days is know were near enough 

[jerrynl]

lack of water ! a minute every 2 or 3 days is know were near enough 

Does Rocket need more water than other salad do you know? Normally I've got exploding lettuce and salad leaves everywhere, but two types of rocket both failed on me.

[Sparkyrog]

I can't say that rocket needs more water than other salad leaves ,but in this summer the troughs described by Veginbeds would of dried out very fast .

[veginbeds]

Thanks very much

I find it very difficult to know how often to water!

Do people tend to water potted veg and greenhouse veg every day? Or every 2? Etc.

[strider84]

Rocket likes cooler weather and lots of water.

Hot weather and lack of water at best would lead it bolting.

All four of my plants bolted a couple of weeks ago despite watering daily   

[veginbeds]

This is something I've wondered about for a while.

How often do people water veg in a  greenhouse and how much?

After years of trying, I still feel i don't really know if I'm watering enough, or too much

Can one over water easily? Is this very detrimental - less so than underwatering one would guess?

Sorry if this all seems very basic, I work long hours and often don't water for a few days and am wondering if I really need to do it more often or maybe give more water?

[JayG]

No hard and fast rules - you just need to aim to keep whatever you're growing your plants in as steadily moist as possible.

Chillies can stand a bit of drying out in between waterings, but with other plants it depends on the growing method and the size of plant - a couple of 7' tomato plants sharing a small growbag might need watering twice a day, especially in hot weather, whereas in good soil you might get away with every other day.

(Just don't ask me about the best way of watering cucumber plants in the greenhouse - PASS!    )

[devonbarmygardener]

I don't think you can overwater lettuces/salad leaves.
I water the trubs of rocket daily, unless it has rained. The lottie leaves can find their own water for a day or so.
The more mature the lettuce, the better they seem to manage with drought.