Don't water your beetroot or anything???

[Andy Hamilton]

Last year I had one of the worst crops of beetroot I have ever had as its my favorite vegetable I always over plant but with about 2 or 3 packets going on, only about 3 got over the size of a 10p. I thought it either a problem with the soil or the fact that it was near fennel.

This year I am still weeding out the fennel although the soil is improved but I have a great crop, the secret? No water. In this recent hot weather I have watered once but that has been it all summer. There is no need for the root to develop it it is getting the water from another source other than below ground and last year it rain from April to September so rubbish beetroots!

I wondered if anyone has descovered the same with any other root crops?

[MINESAPINT]

OH's uncle was/is a keen gardener and never reckoned to water anything in his life.

[Peggy Sue]

I'd heard carrots just grow more leaves and smaller roots if you water them, having said that I had brilliant crop of both carrots and beetroot last year It may be I have very well drained soil on the allotment- which the turnios hate

[Andy Hamilton]

OH's uncle was/is a keen gardener and never reckoned to water anything in his life.

Interesting, did he grow any courgettes or sweetcorn? I wonder if as we have sharper rainfall and more intense heat that indeed the climate has changed so we can no longer do that.

[Mrs Moustoir]

The Bretons don't water much either but tend to do a lot of hoeing so the dew settles somehow...

[Ellendra]

I don't think I could get away with not watering my beets, given that they're growing in a container in my bedroom, but I'll try just watering them from the bottom. Thanks for the tip.

[MrsD'ville mkII]

No experience with beetroot (packet of seeds still unopened, whoops), but I have been wondering about watering. Having followed my parents' example and been a diligent waterer, I was shocked when neighbours who grew tons of veg said they never watered anything. So now I water newly planted seeds and the very tiniest seedlings, and of course the polytunnel is like the sahara, but I don't water the veg patch or the fruit, it takes its chance with rain.

[Andy Hamilton]

No experience with beetroot (packet of seeds still unopened, whoops),

I just planted another 2 packets out yesterday. I figure that they will get a good start and I will just leave them in the ground over winter picking them as I go. I am hoping for a change, that I have some stuff to pick for Christmas!

[red]

We dont water - apart from newly planted things.. water them in.. then they have to take their chances. I grow sweetcorn and courgettes and never water.
I think my celeriac would like me to water them.. but I have enough going on watering the greenhouses and things in pots.

[JR]

I water everything! My beets have been between the size of golf balls & tennis balls. I think you can over water but in the dry weather I give them a good soak every 2-3 days. Funny how things differ, I shared onions sets with the couple on the plot next to ours. Ours were like cricket balls and hers were very small. They were no more than 10 yards apart, how do you work that one out?

[Millymollymandy]

Whether to water or not really depends hugely on the kind of soil you have and how much muck or compost you've got in your soil.

According to a French gardening magazine it has a saying something like 'une binage vaut deux arrosages' (apologies for the spelling ) which basically means a good hoeing is worth more than several waterings. What happens is that you break the surface pan so the moisture under the surface can't evaporate upwards. Or something.

I have to water when we haven't had any rain for 3 weeks, like in June, because after that I just can't rewet the soil very easily.

We had 10mm of rain the other day and it only soaked in by 2 inches. If I hadn't had the hosepipe on the parsnips before then it wouldn't have helped them any. They are very small so far this year because I have not been watering them up to just recently but the soil was bone dry all the way down so they weren't growing and the leaves were going yellow, and of course that bed did not have muck added last winter which doesn't help.

When your trees start turning yellow because the soil is so dry, do you who don't water your veg, still not water them?????

[MINESAPINT]

To reply to Andy's question.

We don't think OH's would grow Sweet Corn or Courgettes. He would be a potatoes, carrots, swede, cabbage, cauliflower sort of a fellow.

[Peggy Sue]

Talking of swede, thats the one thing that seems to be wilting in this dry spell. The corgettes don't seem to mind too much (no in fact a dry spell keeps them under control!), even the tomatoes don't look sad, but the swede have yellow leaves and look pretty unhappy

[Rosendula]

I only water when it's been dry for quite a long time and there are big cracks appearing in the ground. I then give it a good soaking. It's my first year on the allotment and I think I've watered it 3 times in total, plus individual plants at planting time. Perhaps when I have improved my soil a bit more I won't need to water them at all (that's the plan), but it's rather clay-ish at the moment and bakes hard if it's not kept moist.

I intend to use heirloom seeds in the future and I think it is important that as we breed new generations of plants for the future, we need to take into account our erratic weather. We need plants that will tolerate a couple of weeks without any water followed a week or two of downpours.

[Peggy Sue]

You live in Yorkshire- when have you been 2 weeks without water??!!