Does it matter if you use a sprayer or slowly pour from a watering can?

[Growth]

My brother and I are arguing.

I am the one that waters the plants and using the sprayer takes foreverrrrr. Like 15 minutes per plant * 6 plants.

I told him I would rather use a watering can and pour slowly and in a spiral around the base of the plant. He said there's a reason big farms use sprayers, because it saturates all the soil and doesn't all fall to the bottom.

Is he right?

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

I think you're both right. Spraying the surface helps the water spread evenly and avoid channeling. That can be followed by pouring the water in slowly. After spraying the surface, I pour one spiral pattern around the pot and then do something else for a while. Then I'll come back and finish, but I still allow a few minutes between adding water.

 

[orggrwr]

I just pour slowly around the plant with a gallon jug. Osmosis will even out the moisture in the entire pot. That's one of the cool things about H2O. Water travels to where water ain't.

 

[Asmodeus]

15 mins per plant holy smokes.. I use a sprayer but dont spend nearly that amount of time. I just rotate from plant to plant, about 10 seconds per pot untill I get a tiny bit of run off on all of them. 6 plants in 4 gallon pots usually takes me between 5 and 10 mins.

 

[Growth]

15 mins per plant holy smokes.. I use a sprayer but dont spend nearly that amount of time. I just rotate from plant to plant, about 10 seconds per pot untill I get a tiny bit of run off on all of them. 6 plants in 4 gallon pots usually takes me between 5 and 10 mins.

Maybe you have a better sprayer. I don't know. Ours is a 3 gallon electric sprayer we bought at some store.

My issue is they just spray so slowly and the plants need like a gallon of water near the end.

 

[Asmodeus]

Maybe you have a better sprayer. I don't know. Ours is a 3 gallon electric sprayer we bought at some store.

My issue is they just spray so slowly and the plants need like a gallon of water near the end.

Heres the one I got. I took the little screen thing out of the tip, its super easy to control the flow

 

[Newty]

When I hand water, I don't water 1 plant fully and go to the next but instead give the first plant a little water then go to the next and keep moving until all plants got a little water and then start over and do the same thing until they all have the water they need. This way the water has time to soak in while the other plants are getting their doses and I'm not wasting time waiting for it to do so and not flooding it bc I'm in a hurry, just keep moving to the next plant until your done and start over. Sometimes it takes 2 trips around, other times 4 trips around.

 

[phillyguy]

Wow I just hand water slowly. How do you get enough water from it? Doesn't mess up the top soil?

 

[2Water]

I think you're both right. Spraying the surface helps the water spread evenly and avoid channeling. That can be followed by pouring the water in slowly. After spraying the surface, I pour one spiral pattern around the pot and then do something else for a while. Then I'll come back and finish, but I still allow a few minutes between adding water.

I do about the same too!

 

[Natep]

I use a 5 gallon bucket with a pump. It’s connected to small drip system 4.1/4 sprays and 4 360 sprays. It works ok. I think there is something to the slow watering of a sprayer.

 

[2Water]

Science sucked in high school, but you would have learned that water has both the properties of cohesion and adhesion. In dry soil, the media is less adhesive so the water flows through the pot. As you water more, cohesion then pulls the water through this newly created channel straight out of your pot.

Using a sprayer allows for the soil to saturate in step with the volume of water, creating more adhesion and allowing you to fill more water into your pot.

Full saturation of soil (so I've read), is 1/5 the of the total volume of soil used.

 

[Newty]

You have 6 plants so have your brother water and take care of 3 how he wants and you can take care of the other 3 how you want and see what happens in the end.

You can never win when arguing with a brother or sister, you could bring a Nobel Prize winner to your house to talk to him but you would still be wrong lol.

 

[Asmodeus]

When I hand water, I don't water 1 plant fully and go to the next but instead give the first plant a little water then go to the next and keep moving until all plants got a little water and then start over and do the same thing until they all have the water they need. This way the water has time to soak in while the other plants are getting their doses and I'm not wasting time waiting for it to do so and not flooding it bc I'm in a hurry, just keep moving to the next plant until your done and start over. Sometimes it takes 2 trips around, other times 4 trips around.

Exactly how I do it

 

[Putthataway]

I hand water. I have used sprayers to kill weeds. How are able to calculate the water added to the pot with a sprayer?

 

[2Water]

I hand water. I have used sprayers to kill weeds. How are able to calculate the water added to the pot with a sprayer?

When I use the sprayer, I keep spraying til I see the first drops come out of the pot.

 

[Growth]

This was a dead thread y'all brought it back haha

 

[Oldchucky]

Did you get it figured out, Popeye?

 

[cannafarmer420]

I have done both, if a plants roots get too big i just slowly water with the can otherwise I slowly spray, but I only have 2 plants typically so it's easy. Outdoors is the watering can and in the ground these days