Keeping plants well-hydrated can be a bit of a slog, but over the years I’ve learned a few tricks that should help you to slash time spent watering. Let’s start with some quick-fire tips.
When planting a thirsty crop, like say squash, aim to create a depression in the soil and then plant into that. Alternatively, bank up the soil like I am doing to create a ring around the plant and then water into that so the water is contained and can sink in rather than just running off over the surface.
When planting rows, the same principle applies. Plant along the bottom of a shallow trench made with a hoe that is 2 inches or 5 centimeters deep. When you water, the trench will help keep moisture in, utilizing every precious drop.
When planting rows, the same principle applies. Plant along the bottom of a shallow trench made with a hoe that is 2 inches or 5 centimeters deep. When you water, the trench will help keep moisture in, utilizing every precious drop.
When sowing into seed drills like this in dry weather, you can trap moisture around the seeds to make things easier. Water into your marked-out drill, then let it all drain through, and then repeat it again just to make sure it’s really moist in there. Then go ahead and sow along the bottom before covering your seeds over. What we’re doing here is creating a lovely, cool, moist environment directly around the seeds. You won’t have to water again for at least a few days, and you’ll avoid that risk of creating a hard crust which can sometimes happen when you water over the surface and it dries off again.
And do stick around to the end because I will be sharing what has to be the most water-efficient, time-saving, and quite frankly, genius method of all, and you can do it too.
Water can run out of the bottom of containers way too quickly, especially if the potting mix has been allowed to contract because it’s dry. So one simple solution to that is to pop your containers onto a saucer or some sort of reservoir to catch excess water that drains out of the bottom, and then just leave your container there to soak it all up in its own time. But whatever you do, remove the container from the saucer after 2 hours so that it’s not sitting in water.
Planting something bigger, like for example a fruit bush? Well, puddle it in. Dig out your hole, then pop your plant in and then fill it all the way to the top with water, let it all drain through and then repeat the process again before filling it in with more soil. What I’ve just done here is create a beautifully cool, moist environment around the root ball, and this shouldn’t need watering for quite some time.
Now, watering by hose pipe is undoubtedly convenient, but watering by watering can is often a lot quicker. You can just dunk them straight into the water to fill them like this, then make sure you cover the water once you’re done to keep the local wildlife and mosquitoes out. Water pours out a lot quicker from a watering can than from a hose pipe, especially on hot days when high water demand can lead to low water pressure. And if you’ve got two watering cans, well, that’s double the speed again. Nice.
Some plants need more water than others, so spot water the thirstiest crops and leave the others. Unless you’re in a really warm climate, most mature plants are quite capable of finding their own moisture, so concentrate your efforts on either smaller plants or thirsty crops like these celery here. It may seem obvious, but it’s easy to get into a trance-like, mindless state just slavishly watering each bed, moving on to the next without really concentrating your thoughts on what needs prioritizing.
One thing I like to do when it’s really hot and my water barrels have run dry is to redeploy one of them up here in the vegetable garden. With the water barrel in place, I can then fill it up with water from the hose pipe and keep the levels in here topped up. So while water delivery from the hose pipe is a lot slower, I can still get the speed of the watering can by dunking it in as usual and delivering that water that much quicker. Now, of course, one thing you want to be careful about is not letting this water overflow; you don’t want to waste any precious drops. And if you don’t have a water barrel, well, any large container like this would do fine.
Ollas, ollas, ollas, oi oi oi! Now, I haven’t lost the plot; I’m talking about these ollas, the very best way to save water and, crucially, your time. Ollas are a centuries-old, probably millennia-old, passive watering technique that saves a lot of water, up to 70%, as well as a lot of your time.
So how do they work? Well, this here is a traditional olla. It’s made from unglazed terracotta, and that is important. It mustn’t be glazed or sealed in any way because we want the pores in the terracotta to become saturated with water. Then, once the water reaches the outside wall of the olla, it passes out into the soil. Traditional ollas have a wide body like this but a narrow neck, and that’s because the olla is buried underground, right up to the neck. This means that less of it is exposed above ground, so you’re losing less through evaporation out of the top.
So, let me show you how this works. I’ve dug a hole for the olla here, and pop it in, and then, of course, we’re going to backfill with the soil here, leaving just the neck exposed like that. And now it’s just a question of filling it up with our water. Use this filter here; it’s a touch easier that way. There we are. And then just pop the little lid back on to keep the water in. Now here’s the clever part: the olla works because of soil moisture tension. The water wants to move from the wetter area to the drier area, so it’s wet inside the olla, and it’s going to move to the relatively dry soil on the outside. Now, if the soil is really quite wet already, that transfer isn’t going to happen, so the soil won’t get over-saturated. That’s pretty handy, right!
Purpose-sold ollas like this aren’t cheap, so let’s look at a cheaper alternative before we make our own. These terracotta watering spikes work in a very similar way to ollas. Just bury them right up to the neck into the soil next to your plants, and this time we’re going to put long-necked bottles of water into them like this here. Now, the bottles are acting as our reservoir of water. So, whereas the olla contains the water within it, here the bottles themselves are the reservoirs, and the spike is what’s delivering the water into the soil.
Now, I think this looks pretty cool, but if you’re not that keen on bottles sticking up here, there, and everywhere, well, maybe concentrate on the green bottles, which will be better camouflaged, and secure them among leafier crops. That’s not a bad idea. Now, these guys are quite delicate, so make sure they’re thoroughly pushed down into the soil and make sure they’re nice and upright too. Glass bottles are good because they’re heavier and will weigh down more, so they won’t rock about in the wind and potentially crack these guys. Keep them nicely topped up, and because of the tight nature of these spikes, they’re great for smaller spaces or for use within containers. Long-necked glass bottles… I’d say that’s the perfect excuse to have a party!
Those watering spikes cost about a tenth of the price of that olla, so they’re quite cost-effective, but there’s a way to get the same benefits for even less, by making your own, of course. Now, for this, I’m using an unglazed terracotta pot which has got quite a thin wall so the water can easily pass from the inside to the out as it saturates the pores within it. The first job to convert this into our own olla is to seal up the hole in the bottom because we don’t want the water to rush out; we want it to saturate the pores and pass out through the sides. Now, I’ve found that the best way to do that is to use a waterproof mounting putty or plumber’s putty, and we’re going to kind of massage it all together and then cover the drainage holes here. So take half the putty and then seal the hole from the inside.
Now, we need to squash it down nicely to make really good contact with the terracotta so there are no gaps left where the water can escape, and then with that done, we can flip it over like this and, supporting it from the inside, do the same on the outside of the pot like this, squashing it down nicely, making sure that the drainage hole’s properly filled and we’ve got good contact with the terracotta. Now, this particular putty needs to be left for at least 4 hours to create a watertight, hard seal. Here’s one I prepared earlier and it’s already set and got a really good seal, but we need to test it. Now, it’s important to do this before using your olla to make sure that it’s going to do the job we want it to and that’s dispense its water slowly. Okay, fingers crossed. I would say that’s watertight. Let’s get on and bury it.
Okay, so I’m digging a hole that’s almost as deep as our olla here, and then pop it in. Look at that, perfect, and we want it so that the neck of it is ever so slightly proud of the soil so that soil doesn’t roll back into it and clog up the water. And now, just fill it up. Okay, I’ve got my olla all filled up with water; the next job is to cover them. Now, I love these pot saucers. Terracotta really looks handsome, but bear in mind that because it’s porous like the pot, it’s going to lead to more water loss from the top, so these will need topping up more often. The alternative is a glazed saucer or something like this. This is a plastic saucer, but
it’s got a kind of terracotta look to it, so it’s kind of the best of both worlds. Now, covering over the olla not only stops beneficial bugs like ground beetles from falling in and drowning, it will also stop the water from becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
You can also make double-sized ollas by joining together two pots. Now, this one’s been sealed at the bottom there, so it’s watertight, and I’ve got my second pot to go on top here, but I’ve got to seal them together. Now, you can use something like a caulking gun to put silicon sealant or something like this really powerful adhesive too, which is suitable for use with a terracotta pot like this. And then on goes our pot like this, trying to match it up perfectly like that. Now, of course, don’t forget to keep the top drainage hole open because that’s where the water is going to go. The advantage of a double-headed olla like this is that it’s got twice the capacity, of course, and because you’re burying it right up to here, there’s a lot less exposed area versus the reservoir that sits under the soil like this, so this is going to last a lot longer.
I’d say these double-headed ollas are a little bit fiddlier than the single ones that we’ve just done. I’ll need to put a funnel in the top here to add the water, but for me, the single ones really are fantastic. They still hold a good amount of water and need topping up maybe once every two days to once every week, depending on how warm it is, the stage of growth of the plants around it, how many there are, and of course the soil conditions. Now, these ollas are great for plants with fibrous root systems like tomatoes and squash family plants. How far apart to space your ollas depends on a number of factors. As a very general rule of thumb, the water will penetrate out from the olla about the same distance as the actual diameter of the olla, but at the edges, the water won’t be quite as intense as closer towards the olla, so maybe plant at half that distance. I think I got the spacing right here because these tomatoes have got really searching roots that will find that moisture around the pot and hug it.
Now, please do keep your ollas topped up with water regularly. I wouldn’t let them drop to less than half full because then the walls might start to dry out and then you’ve got to re-wet them again. I would also avoid putting any liquid feeds or fertilizers in the ollas because they might have the potential to clog up the pores, so add that around onto the soil. For the same reason, I would maybe, if you can, use rainwater in here instead of mains water.
You’ll need to keep young plants well-watered as they establish, but once they’ve established more of a root system, they’ll be able to rely more on the olla itself, and you may find that the roots hug the olla and grow around it, forming a tight mass as they draw in all that lovely moisture. As terracotta ollas are, of course, porous, they may crack in winter with any hard frost, so if you do get good, decent frosts where you are, lift them up before that stage, let them fully air dry, and then store them away safely until next season.
Please do let me know how you get on with these homemade ollas. I am sure you will be impressed. Happy Gardening!
