Best Way to Water Seedlings

[Nyboy]

I just tried to water some week old seedling with a water can. Half of them got flattened, will they stand back up? What is the best way to water them? What happens outside to seedling in the rain?

 

[Smart Red]

It is best to water new seedlings from the bottom. That said, of course seedlings started in the garden will be watered (or rained on) overhead. Many of them will fall over for a short time and then right themselves. If they are already leggy, they might stay on the ground, turn, and sent just the top of the plant upright.

Out in the garden seedlings can be bent over in heavy rains, but growing in the outside also seems to strengthen the stems so they withstand tipping over a bit more. That is another reason we "harden" them off before direct planting in the ground. It isn't just to prevent sunburn, but to build sturdy stems by exposing them to the breezes (or wind) in the yard.

I wouldn't worry overmuch about week old seedlings. They should straighten up just fine. Check for a finer spray on the water can or water from below.

 

[digitS']

Just give them a little while to see if they can regain their feet, NyBoy. If not, you might need to get a pin under them, lift and free them from the soil if they are still down there after a couple hours.

As Red suggests, some folks mist their seedlings. I don't know how that works.

Bottom water . . . The cookie boxes work well for that since I can use the lids. They will have to be cut off the boxes, anyway. A basin is available for me once they are out in the greenhouse and I use that thing right up until I just do not have the time to run all the flats thru it.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Once my seedlings are up I use a squirt bottle with the nozzle turned to a fine spray, and use warm water in it. It takes a lot of pumping to get enough water delivered to the soil to reach down and through.

That said, bottom watering is the best way to do it. But I'm not real good with volumes of liquid indoors.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My worry indoors is getting them too wet, not knocking them over. If it gets too wet and won’t dry out, damping off can be a problem. I use small yogurt cups with the bottoms cut out to hold the seedlings but those bottomless cups are pushed down in a bin full of starting mix. I water between the yogurt cups. With my set-up I can’t just pick it up and set it down in a basin of water like Steve does.


If I do knock one down, and that happens, it normally uprights itself well enough. But if mud gets on the leaves, that might hold the plant down. That’s when I carefully help them up and try to gently clean them off. It’s practically always outside in the garden with new transplants when that happens. After freeing them, I usually rinse the mud off by pouring some water on the muddy leaves.

 

[NwMtGardener]

I use a sports bottle to carefully spray a light stream of water. I only have "big" watering cans and they just seemed too unwieldy and it was hard to get the water right where I wanted it to go. I have starts in pop up Jiffy pots that are easy to water from the bottom, as well as starts in plastic lettuce containers from the grocery store - look like Steve's cookie trays - the dirt and seeds are just dumped in there, so no way to water from underneath. The sports bottle seems to work pretty good even for that.

 

[catjac1975]

I only do bottom watering until the plants are quite large. It is the most efficient watering even when they are big.

 

[Nyboy]

Thanks guys almost all have sprung back up.

 

[baymule]

I use a measuring cup with the pour spout. Then I don't hit the seedling with a water blast. It takes a little longer, but I hover over them anyway, so I might as well be doing something.

 

[so lucky]

Does anyone know where I could get a screw-on sprinkler head for a milk jug? If they don't make one, they should.