Hello Tierra Anita Gardeners:
As the weather heats up, it is a good time to make sure that we are engaged in best practices for water conserving at Tierra Anita and that we are working together for the sustainability of our community garden. Use water wisdom for your plants. If your soil is too moist, plants cannot use the water; roots are robbed of oxygen. If your plants are too dry they will wilt and may not recover. Below are several suggestions to help desert gardeners give plants just the right amount of water while at the same time conserving water during the hot season. Remember, "conserve, conserve, conserve" does not mean your garden cannot grow!
As a reminder, irrigation maintenance is an ongoing activity. You can help by checking your emitters and other related irrigation system components in your plot regularly. Please report any problems or concerns to Andy.
1) Use the soil probe to test the depth of moisture in your plot. A probe works well to test how deep the water has penetrated the soil. For vegetables, 1-2 feet is perfect. Test about 1 hour after watering is completed.
2) Apply 1-3 inches of mulch in and around your plants to help maintain soil moisture and reduce surface evaporation. There is straw in the garden and mulch at Primavera.
3) Spot check your emitters; make sure that your drip lines are not plugged and they are placed close to your plants. From time to time, emitters can get plugged with dirt and particles. If this happens and you cannot unplug them, simply replace with a new emitter.
4) Shut off water to unused areas of your plot. If drip lines have become obsolete for a particular growing season, it is easy to cap them until you plant again without shutting off the water to your entire plot. The "multi-port" irrigation heads have little valves that will individually shut off water flow to each line.
5) Employ best practices. Now that the temperatures have increased, the irrigation runs for 1 hour a day. This is sufficient time to adequately water your plot. If, after using the above suggestions your plants continue to show signs of stress, consider adding additional drip lines. You are highly discouraged from watering your plot directly from the hose to resolve this problem.
There is still time to plant: the Tucson Community Foodbank complied a planting guide with June suggestions: chilies, eggplant, bell pepper, tomato, tomatillos can be planted, but seedlings often need protection from the heat during spring and summer (a little shade cloth can help). Okra can be planted directly in June.
Check other websites for more information about gardening in the desert
Tucson organic gardeners: http://www.tucsonorganicgardeners.org/
University of Arizona agricultural extension http://extension.arizona.edu/
Desert harvesters: http://www.desertharvesters.org/
Native seed search: www.nativeseeds.org/
Tucson Community Gardens: http://www.communitygardensoftucson.org/
Location:Barrio Anita
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