[jonotaylor]

When I got my first allotment (6 years ago) I was talking to the resident allotment old-timer who was chuckling at the people walking back and forth to the tap with watering cans, watering their veg plants.  "You don't need to water 'em once they're planted out" he said.  So I'm thinking, 'That flies in the face of my understanding of irrigation and what everyone else on this allotment is doing!', so I duly ignored him and carried on watering everything.  Come harvest time, he was right and I was wrong.  His harvest was fine. 

In years 2-6 I have followed his advice and never bother watering anything once it has been planted outside - bar the initial soak as young plants are transplanted out.  As of yet, there have been no detrimental effects on my harvest - I still manage to keep me & my family, parents, neighbours and 1.5 freezers in veg.

As I was harvesting some parsnips, potatoes and beetroot today I was thinking about his advice and a few other things that I've read I should be doing, that I actually rarely or never do.  I've listed a few things below that I don't do and was wondering whether anyone has any other tips for activities that are commonly advised as good-practice, but in your experience have little or no effect on yield. 

So here's a few from me to start.  I don't:

1.  Water anything that is not in a pot or the poly tunnel.

2.  Do regular weeding.  I may weed between the onions once or twice a season, but generally I just leave them, harvest the crops at the end of the season, then Glycophosphate the remaining weeds.  I recognise there are aesthetic reasons to remove weeds, and removal of them before they produce seeds is good if you have close neighbours (which I now do not have), but I'm considering effect on harvest.

3.  Earth-up potatoes. 

4.  Plant potatoes in trenches (advice from same 'old-timer' who dispelled the watering myth).  Just dig a hole with a trowel and drop the seed potato in.

5.  'Chit' sweetcorn.

[Yorkie]

I don't do # 1, 4 - 5 but I do weed where it provides competition for the veggies and also because too many weeds will lead to a warning letter.

[DD.]

 2 - Hoeing is cheaper than glyphosate. Also keeps the competition down, and I respect my neighbours as far as weed seed.

3 - Green spuds give me stomach ache.

4 - I find digging a trench just as quick and I can put feed down at the same time.

[Spudman]

As from now, no digging. Been doing a lot of reading on this subject and have decided to give it a try. Everything spread on top and let the worms do their job. Potatoes on top of the ground covered with weed fabric.

Another thing is, as far as possible no animal manures, only green manures either allowed to die down or cut down and put on the compost heap or again let the worms do their job.

No watering is interesting and something I've never heard of before. I'd like to try this, but would be dead scared of everything dying. What about vegy like tomatoes, squashes, cucumbers etc.? Surely these have to be watered?

Spud

[Spana]

1. I rarely water  anything once its growing well in the ground.  I do water transplants and lettuce if its really dry and stuff in the greenhouse. But my land holds moisture, would not be possible to not water on free draining soil, would it
2.  I am a hoeing addict, I love it.  I put a radish seed every ft or so along the rows so that i can start hoeing before the main seed comes up. I am having serious withdrawal pains now as my ground is a bit wet to hoe
My dad  use to say a  hoe was as good as a water

3. I do earth-up potatoes.  I've tried not, but its better if you do. Tried earthing up with grass clippings on  a few plants this year and it worked really well.

4.  Again, have tried not digging a trench, just planting seed pots into a hole but find the trench method better for me.  Also, had a little bit of scab this year and I heard Bob Flowerdew say the if you line your trench with grass clipping when planting it helps prevent scab so will be trying that next year.

[Yorkie]

No watering is interesting and something I've never heard of before. I'd like to try this, but would be dead scared of everything dying. What about vegy like tomatoes, squashes, cucumbers etc.? Surely these have to be watered?

Spud

Anything in the greenhouse, and/or in pots, will need watering.

I've watered the tomatoes in pots but not those in the ground this summer.  The ground-grown ones have been fine.

Basically, if you water (in the ground) then the plant gets lazy and relies on you to provide its water.  If it is forced to find its own water, the roots go deeper and it is a stronger plant.

As said in the earlier post, though, you will need to water to get plants initially established / germinated.

[Spudman]

Thanks Yorkie, this is so interesting! I'm a newbie at this (my first year), and I've been paranoid all summer about watering. Next year I'll give the no watering a go.
One question: runner beans? Everything you read and hear is that they need lots of watering. Would you include these too?

Cheers

Spud

[nilsatis1964]

Let my wife see my seed order.  The reason is I now have the questions like were are the home grown cues or sweetcorn?  If the tomato seeds cost that much how come we have had 12 tomatos to eat.

[jonotaylor]

Thanks Yorkie, this is so interesting! I'm a newbie at this (my first year), and I've been paranoid all summer about watering. Next year I'll give the no watering a go.
One question: runner beans? Everything you read and hear is that they need lots of watering. Would you include these too?

Cheers

Spud

No need to water the runners spudman - no need to water anything once it's outside :-)

[rainbow1]

This is all very interesting!

1. I have very sandy free draining soil and we had no rain for a month in East Anglia - just at prime growing time - so I'd have nothing left if I hadn't watered. I'm trying hard to improve the organic matter content of my ground but a neighbour on the old plots (and nurseryman) has raised his plot six inches by annual manureing etc and still has problems!

2. I don’t have time to be totally weed free but it is a long term goal. OH is a precision weeder but I favour the hoe in the dry. I see the competition argument but have also found that the ground where there are weeds is often more moist than ground without any cover so I’m not all that worried about my chickweed blankets! Our parish council isn’t all that hot on inspections and there are plots far messier than ours so that doesn’t seem to be a concern. However, I’m going to be made redundant soon so I plan to deal with all the weeds, especially in the paths between my raised beds. I want to cover them somehow so they are less problematic next year.

3. I earth up like mad with loads of organic matter. Good chance to get loads of organic matter in and I’m told will help to reduce my scab problems – I guess on the same principle as Bob Flowerdew’s advice.

4. For two years I’ve planted my potatoes using a bulb planter and that has worked well but I’m going to trench next year as I want to plant directly into organic matter. (Feel like a broken record on that now!)

As I have raised beds I’m also minimising my digging. The plan is really just earth turning from growing potatoes and things like digging bean trenches.

I also don't let my OH see my seed order - I don't want to frighten him into thinking about how much work there is to do next year!

[DD.]

No need to water the runners spudman - no need to water anything once it's outside :-)

That is indeed a very sweeping generalisation. See the post from rainbow1.

Telling us your location in your profile would be most useful in this discussion.

As regards hoeing, everything would get choked out by docks & nettles etc. in my situation. Chickweed is not a problem.

It all depends on your circumstances and to generalise in saying not to hoe or water without explaining your own circumstances is not useful to newcomers.

[BAK]

Watering (or not watering) depends to some degree on the type of soil that you have, as rainbow1 has indicated.

The soil on our site is also sandy (geologically we are on wha is called the Bagshot Sand) ... it can ressemble a beach in hot dry conditions. Not watering at all is not really an option for us even if you use lots of manure / compost ... which I do.

[jonotaylor]

I currently have a sandy top soil (maybe 8 inches deep) that has been laid on top of hard clay.  Old allotment was mainly clay.

[DD.]

Ah.. Cheshire - going on north Wales! Much different weather then to drought struck East Anglia.

[mumofstig]

Growing here in Kent, on sandy soil, the few people who did no watering in the drought conditions earlier this year, managed to grow...................NOTHING
I'm not saying you have to water for hours with a hose, but some veg that weren't watered did die!
Soil condition and weather varies so much around the country that you have to make a personal judgement on what's best for your plot