Autumn Water-charging Irrigation

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Autumn water-charging irrigation makes it possible to completely replenish the deficiency of life-giving moisture in the soil that has been pretty dry over the summer. Even regular summer watering is not able to fully save the soil from drying out. And the lack of water in it has an extremely negative effect not only on the preparation of horticultural crops for winter, but also on their successful wintering. It is moisture-charging autumn watering that will help to thoroughly wet the root-inhabited soil layer

What is it for

Replenishment of the water deficit in the soil that dries up during the summer is far from the only justification for the need for autumn water-charging irrigation. The lack of moisture in the soil provokes its lack not only in the aboveground, but also in the root parts of the crops grown. And water is very important for any plants, since it takes an active part not only in biochemical, but also in the most important physiological processes of growing crops, being a universal valuable solvent and conductor for all kinds of nutritious compounds. If the moisture deficit in the soil is too great, the autumn growth of the root system may completely stop, and some of its sections may even die. Such plants tolerate hardening very poorly, respectively, there is no need to talk about their frost resistance either.

Another most important criterion for the need for water-charging irrigation is considered to be the need for a forced stop of the continuous growth of the aboveground parts of cultivated crops. Most often, such an increase is observed in September with the establishment of humid warm weather. The autumn watering carried out on time will perfectly help to cope with this problem.

And also the autumn water-charging irrigation allows to provide a much more stable and stable water regime on the site in the first half of the next growing season. And even if there is no precipitation at all in the spring, the summer residents will no longer need to carry out a whole series of additional watering. In addition, this agrotechnical measure contributes to the early formation of a deeper root system in the planted crops. In addition to everything, irrigation carried out with the onset of autumn delays the start of spring growth of crops by five to six days, and this often helps them avoid destructive frosts during the flowering period.

How to conduct

It is better to start the autumn water-charging watering as late as possible, when the trees enter the resting phase. However, in seasons with a serious moisture deficit, such watering often begins as early as mid-September.

During the saving autumn watering, water should penetrate into the soil under the trees by an average of about seventy to ninety centimeters, and under the bushes - by fifty to sixty centimeters. Of course, ordinary watering is not able to wet the soil to such a depth. Therefore, in order to make the fulfillment of this condition real, small grooves must be dug under each tree. And the depth of the grooves, depending on the depth of the roots, can vary from ten to twenty centimeters. It is also important to take into account that water must penetrate into the soil to the entire depth of the root system and even to a slightly greater depth.

Basically, the depth of moisture during the autumn water-charging irrigation depends on the hydrological and soil conditions in the garden or in the vegetable garden. On sufficiently deep and well-drained soils with a very low level of groundwater, the depth of moistening in order to create large reserves of moisture must sometimes reach one and a half to two meters. That is, for each square meter of the site, about ten to fifteen buckets of water are consumed. So the depth of hydration is a very individual concept.

As a rule, the average watering rate for adult fruiting apple trees is about forty to sixty liters of water per square meter, thirty five to fifty liters for young apple trees and plums with cherries will be enough, and about twenty five to forty liters are considered the norm for berry bushes. …

As soon as the water is completely absorbed into the soil, all grooves must be thoroughly covered with earth and leveled with a hoe. And before you do this, it will be a good idea to apply good phosphorus-potassium fertilizers to the soil.