Why watering your plants at midday won't damage their leaves

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Why watering your plants at midday won't damage their leaves

Рет қаралды 1,381

Ай бұрын

It is a long-held idea that midday watering will scorch plants' foliage and damage their health - but this isn’t supported by the evidence, says James Wong
The theory is that tiny water droplets can act like lenses, focusing the sun’s rays onto sections of leaves just like a magnifying glass would, resulting in scorched foliage and reduced plant health.
However, the sun’s intensity at these times is too low to cause any harm. Even if the intense light of the midday sun did somehow come at the most potent angle, the heat at this time of day would invariably cause the water droplets to evaporate before they had an effect.
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Пікірлер: 20

@jimmij3894 Ай бұрын

Thanks for that, I did wonder if I was torturing my plants when watering with the sun overhead but I thought what the hell.

@simonknights7526 Ай бұрын

This matches my own experience. If my plants need watering at midday when it's hot and sunny, I water them! I've always figured that it would do more harm to them if I didn't water them. I'm not a scientist. I just love plants.

@helenamcginty4920 Ай бұрын

I live in Andalucia. Currently midday (2pm by the sun as we are 2 hrs ahead ) temps are in the high 20s or low 30s.I only have a small, narrow patio so, try as I might, not all my pots can be shaded. I water them in the heat instead as I find they get too hot for the roots.

@ganesanvganesanvnr9865 Ай бұрын

Very nice

@MrSCOTTtheSCOT Ай бұрын

I always thought this was a nonsense given in Scotland we have thunder storms soak everything then the sun comes out and its scorching, what i do do though for my plants when we do have the unusual heat for scotland, is soak from the bottom so the water soaks the ground and cooling the actual pot down., especially plastic tubs the heat on them causes the water to evaporate too quickly and bakes the roots.

@morrisonmeister Ай бұрын

Confused now, are saying it's highly wasteful to water them at midday due to water evaporating.

@WideCuriosity Ай бұрын

That was my thought too. I'm fine with learning leaf damage may not result. That's great. But unless there is an overriding reason to do so, it seems hot day watering is going to be wasteful & inefficient so gardens may as well be watered during the cool of the early morning or in the evening instead.

@j.f.christ8421 Ай бұрын

He's saying if you need to water the plants at midday, for whatever reason, then do so. Sure there will be more evaporation if it's also very hot, but you won't cause burn damage to the plants.

@LostInThisGardenofLife Ай бұрын

@@WideCuriosityyeah it’s so inefficient, you should water your plant after it shrivels up and dies. 😊

@nathanlewis42 25 күн бұрын

I have no expertise but I think it's good to water midday on a hot day. I always made sure that the water went on the ground and not the leaves because of the lens myth but if the soil is dry I think the soil will absorb the water before it evaporates.

@Vile_Entity_3545 Ай бұрын

The wetness of the water would be a barrier anyway.

@NewScientist Ай бұрын

Learn more about this story and other gardening tips here: www.newscientist.com/article/mg25834380-800-why-watering-your-plants-at-midday-wont-damage-their-leaves/

@skrame01 Ай бұрын

How could a drop of water cause a burn, which requires high temperature, when the burn has to occur under A DROP OF WATER, which has to boil away in order for the substance beneath it to reach a high enough temperature to ignite?

@PearFinch Ай бұрын

Especially when the thing it’s burning is also water-based w/ cellulose…?!

@j.f.christ8421 Ай бұрын

The idea is a drop of water acts like a magnifying glass, focussing the sunlight into a point that causes burns. As he says in the video, and as it also says in the description.

@lindaj5492 Ай бұрын

Why did experiment use glass instead of real water droplets? Different shape and evaporates before any harm could result: simples.

@j.f.christ8421 Ай бұрын

Yes, he did say that in the video.

@cerita_kang_kebon_420 Ай бұрын

But if u live on tropical weather it will be hotter on mid day... When plant on small container it will be save the heat from the sunlight and could be still warm inside the soil if you watering them... So the roots will be like boiling But if you planted on the ground i think it will be okay

@nathanlewis42 25 күн бұрын

Unless it is 100 C or 212 F the water will not boil and not even highest ever recorded temperature on Earth is at the boiling point.