Is It Better To Water Plants In The Morning Or At Night?

As soon as I’ve finished potting up plants, the question “is it better to water plants in the morning or at night?” soon follows.

The best time to water plants is early in the morning. This allows all that lovely fresh water to run down the stems of the plant directly to the root. The water will then eventually saturate the soil and have a lesser risk of being evaporated by the sun.

So the main reason why plants should be watered in the morning is because its cooler.

Trying to water plants later in the day when the sun is out will not give the the plants long enough to soak up the water before its evaporated by the suns heat.

Why We Should Not Water Plants At Night?

The popular belief that watering plants at night is best, is (i’m afraid) wrong.

Yes, the cool temperatures at night will stop the water from becoming evaporated quickly.

But the cool temperature at night plus the water are the catalyst for fungi to develop.

These damp conditions can also be worsened if you live in a climate that has humid nights.

So if you are watering your plants at night, please stop and instead water them in the morning.

Watering the plants in the morning will give the leaves enough time to dry out before the evening.

Which will stop any chance of powdery mildew and sooty mold from developing on the plants leaves, which is really harmful to (if you have) vegetable plants.

How Many Minutes Should I Water My Plants Outside?

It’s not really about how many minutes you need to water a plant, its more about how much you saturate the root area of a plant.

When watering a plant it has to be watered sufficiently so that the water soaks deep down into the soil at a depth of 6 to 12 inches.

You can check this by using a shovel to lift 6 inches of watered soil to see if it is saturated enough, but using a soil moisture meter is so much easier.

Switch it on, push it in to the ground and it will instantly give you a reading.

The soil moisture meter will let you know if you have under watered or over watered your plants.

Is Misting bad For Plants?

For those of you that don’t know what misting a plant is, it is the process of using a spray bottle on the misting setting, to spray the top and bottom of each plant leaf.

Misting is suppose to help raise the humidity around a plant, but in my experience it depends on the plant.

Most plants that do benefit from misting are those plants from high humidity countries.

Without misting, those plants will develop yellowing of the leaves, browning at the tip of the leaf, and also leaf curling.

One of the best benefits of misting a plant is that it also helps stop infestations of spider mites.

Spider mites love dry air! So if you have an infestation, get spraying!

Just make sure if you do mist, do it early in the morning to allow the leaves to dry out before the evening.

We don’t want to encourage any fungi to grow!

Does Watering In The Sun Burn Plants?

It was proven at ABC Science that watering plants and flowers in direct sunlight DOES NOT scorch them!

If you do water a plant or a flower in direct sunlight it will result in quick evaporation, which will not provide your plants with enough water.

The only time you may need to water in direct sunlight is if your bedding plants are limp and the soil is looking dry.

I would suggest investing in a water irrigation system, especially if you have hanging baskets.

The classic water irrigation system runs off your outside tape, once turned on the water will run through a system of pipes and steadily drip feed your plants and hanging baskets with water.

Irrigation systems don’t always have to depend on you turning the tap on or off, which can be a chore.

Automatic irrigation systems are also available.

These automatic irrigation systems give you the ability to set watering times, Which means the tap can stay on all the time!

The system will then water the plants when the timer says so, fully automatically!

Can You Water a Plant With Coffee?

Brewed coffee and ground coffee contains nitrogen, a nutrient that promotes healthy strong stems and green growth in plants.

Coffee is naturally acidic but as long as the coffee has been brewed in water to dilute it, it shouldn’t cause any problems to the plants your feeding it too.

Unless its the same plant you water day in day out, I would personally space out the watering of coffee to once or twice a week to stop any acidic build up which could potential harm your plant.

Can you water plants with tea?

Watering plants with tea is a method passed down from generation to generation, but I’m afraid it can be waste of time.

Tea leaves contain more nitrogen than most liquid plant feeds but there is good evidence that tea’s nitrogen may not be absorbed by plants very well.

Tea also contains other minerals and elements that can actually harm your plants.

Those elements are Manganese, aluminium and fluorine which are harmless to us but can give your plants a bad time.

To be honest your better off using a really good liquid feed, and toss your teabags into the compost heap instead.

Did This Post Help?

Hopefully you want have to be asking “is it better to water plants in the morning or at night?” anymore.

Now that you know that it is better to water your plants first thing in the morning, put it to work and you will see alot more growth and a much healthy look to all your plants, I promise! 😉

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