I just started to grow 5 plants out in the wild, found a great spot next to a meadow, nobody goes there and 5 minutes away from my house.
My Question is, how often and how many litres per plant on average?
They are fairly big, almost a meter tall, ‘’'topped and spread out. I had them in 30 litres fabric pots and replanted them in double the size holes filled with good soil.
Weather is pretty hot these days, between 32-37*C.
In your experiences, how many times per week do I need to water?
You will do much better if the soil has great organic matter mixed in and top dressed with it IIRCC compost holds some insane amount of water to the tune of 25x the weight of compost ! If the soil is decent you might get away with watering once every week to a week and a half? How’s rainfall at your location ? Is there clay ? Clay can hold water for awhile also but comes with its down falls as well. If it’s been untouched soil for a long time and deciduous trees around you are probably looking at good soil to begin with!
Thanks for replying @Tinytuttle, sorry I don’t know what that is - IIRCC compost. I probably would do much better IF…but in the country you don’t have the luxury of quality soil…
Anyway, it’s done, I replanted from 7 gallons pots to basically double the size with quality garden soil, ph6.8.
My garden is bordering a pasture, and it’s an area full of ferns that I had to partially clear. The soil is dry, Mediterranean with small rocks and pebbles, definitely not clay based. Typical wine growin soil, somewhat poor, but I feed my girls quality stuff, no Mc Donald for my babies .
My question was how much water per plant ? 2 gallons/8 litres per plant? I think I have to water maybe every 4-5 days considering the heat. It barely rains here during this time of year. (Had no rain for a month
Anybody else grow guerilla style that cares to chime in?
the only problem with watering that way is how much actually makes it down to the bottom of the roots.iv’e checked after watering what i thought was plenty and found it only penetrated a couple of inches.an old trick is to take a smooth rod and poke holes in the soil so the water can get a little deeper. also doing it in stages works well.water a little go on to the next and so on. then repeat until they are good and wet. it’s hard to tell if they are properly watered if they are ground plants i found.
@BadSeed… Just watch them and learn what they want, when they want it. You don’t have a huge number of plants to look after, and it’s close to your house, so you should be fine.
@Tinytuttle … I have to also ask , if planting a ground cover may also save them from wilting, if you can’t get there one day to water? I wish I had have known about it when I grew all my outdoor as a youngin… My ground cover in my No-Till bed, keeps everything even, all the time. Very nice change. I also experimented with gel crystals mixed in the soil, in case of emergency’s. But, careful if you are going to use any fish ferts…Especially if your plants are not right in the ground…Bears HATE it when they can smell fish, but can’t find them.
@trippyhippy, yes, slow watering is definitely a must, as the water slowly penetrates down, learned that with fabric pots where I could see the water running out third way down…now I water more carefully.
@Kobracom420, totally logical, I got it down with my fabric pots, but this is my first time growing in ground (fabric pots outside outdoor my last year grow)
This is just typing jargon and is short for (IF I recall Correctly ) that’s all . Rocks and pebbles? Water would percolate through really fast then and probably won’t hold around the roots then , still compost ( old decayed material ) leaves , grass , wiody material decomposed with help that soil and help hold water more efficiently .
Yes it will help if the soil is barren anything on top to help shade the ground will also help in water evaporation loss that’s why top dressing with compost is also good covered ground can be up to 20-30 degrees cooler than soil that is bare when it’s innthe sun . Some cover crops can go very deep in helping break up soils also.
That all kinda of depends I’d try doing a fractional analysis of you soil but what your saying from what you’ve described it sounds pretty void of good soil but I can be built up over time!
What I kind of did is i made a big hole in poor soil and filled it with good soil and put my plant in the middle.
I was thinking that my plant is protected inside the good soil and I give it nutrients and the roots will first go through the added soil and then out.
I water slowly so it penetrates in the ground. Maybe my question is too general and really can’t be answered, and very much depends on quality of soil, s composition etc.
True dat,
we have a mild heat wave here, didn’t see rain for weeks now, a small thunderstorm we had while back brought maybe a 1/4”, if that…kind of like living in Mojave Desert, north of LA, if you know what I mean
if it’s hot and you don’t get much rain use pvc pipe and dig it down about a foot and a half and water into the pvc. I recommend pvc so it won’t dissolve anything into the soil or whatnot but use what you have access to. The water will be directly at the root zone and not as prone to evaporation. Fill the pipe up and let it drain a few times. Don’t put it right next to the stem because you might damage the root system. Id say a foot away would be fine if you just planted it. If it’s a bigger plant you can go further away from the stem. The roots will find the water. My dad used this when we had planted trees (not mj lol) in our yard in Arizona. Hope this helps
Thanks @_randomguyinthewoods, that sounds excellent, I could probably drill some 1/4” holes in the lower half so it distributes water in a wider spectrum.
I’m also gardening (veggies), using hay, which keeps the soil cool and uses very little water. I still got a small bale left so I think I will add that as well.
Thanks for your idea, I’m gonna do that, I think we have similar type of climate.
Whatever you can do to prolong evaporation is good. I moved to a different state a while ago that actually gets rain on occasion so now i use a little bit if crystals and lose leaves from around the spot now. I typically only water if I’m planting or adding dry nutes. But i learned to grow in the desert lol. I always wanted to have big guerrilla plots but never had the chance to do it out there. Plus it was scary where i lived cuz everyone has big guns and the spots that are open “where no-one goes” make perfect shooting ranges,oh and also there are mountain lions so yeah wasn’t in the cards lol
Well I definitely have some watering problems and maybe a bit of nutrients lockout.
I’m talking about my 5 plant guerilla patch. This morning I went there with water and check on them and one Durban poison was a bit wilted, definitely a lack of water and lots of yellow leaves on bottom on most plants that look like nutrients lockout. I’ll go back later and take some pictures.
I watered them each with 2.5 gallons/10L with nutrients. Where does that water go? The ground around is so dry water sits on top. I water slowly around stem, water seeps down and afterward checked with humidity tester and it showed between dry and moist?
I didn’t make it yet (bit far) vto hardware store to get the pipe as @randomguy suggested.
This is a real bummer, I thought in the soil outside is easier than in fabric pots, (which I got pretty much under control now, plants look great there) but so far I’m not too happy.
What else can I do? Water even slower? 2.5gallons is plenty of water isn’t it?
You could try some wetting agent in the water too to help it soak in faster. A quick squirt of dish soap per bucket once and should sort that out for the season.
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so now i use a little bit if crystals and lose leaves from around the spot now. I typically only water if I’m planting or adding dry nutes. But i learned to grow in the desert lol. I always wanted to have big guerrilla plots but never had the chance to do it out there. Plus it was scary where i lived cuz everyone has big guns and the spots that are open “where no-one goes” make perfect shooting ranges,oh and also there are mountain lions 
so yeah wasn’t in the cards lol