I have been watering my plants twice a day , early in the morning and late in the evening when the sun is down . The soil has a few inches of compost and is moist . In spite of this during the day when the sun is shining the plants look droopy . They pick up on their own late afternoon without watering and they look healthy . Question is whether this is normal or they are a bit thirsty during the day and if I am doing them some damage when they look droopy during the day .
Arv, The best time to water most plants is in the morning. This is so they have time to dry before evening, and this cuts down on disease. If your plants are in the ground (not in pots) one deep watering in the a.m. should be more than enough. As to the 'droopiness'...Are the plants in the correct place in your garden? i.e. Are they sun lovers and are in the shade? Or shade lovers, and you have them in the sun? Not enough, or too much sun can make plants unhappy. I hope this helps a bit. I'm sure there are other people with some ideas as well.
Thanks , I will try deep watering once in the morning . As for the plants being unsuited to the amount of sun , these are cucumbers , radish and tomatoes , they all like long hours of sun , right ??
Yep, they have to have full sun for at least 6 hours, preferrably all day. Sounds like the deep watering once in the morning should take care of the drooping. Deep watering of any plant (works on lawns too) encourages the roots to grow deeper into the soil to find nutrients they need and they stay healthier. Shallow watering, say from using a hose-end sprayer encourages the roots to stay in the top inch or so of soil where they dry out quicker.
I find that some plants in my gardens droop on days when the UV index is high no matter how much water they got. They always perk up when the sun starts to set. Just me or has anyone else noticed this??
I find the same thing Netty and they all were drooping today as it was hotter than blazes while I was mowing on my little tractor.Then it clouded up and they started perking up .We got a good heavy rain for about 30 mins so they really looked good before dark.