This week's topic comes from CassHigh.

Casshigh said:I would like to know more about watering daylilies. How do you water? How much? What time of the day? How often during the growing season? When do you start watering? Do you water the same amount throughout the spring, summer, and fall? I know all this depends on how much rain is received. Some of us get an oversupply while some of us get very little with the rest somewhere in between. Most growers water in the spring and when the daylilies are blooming, but what about when the daylilies are finished blooming in the summer and fall.
Doris

I have a well. I only water when I put in new plants, have small seedlings or we have little or no rain for 3-4 weeks. Plus, I don't have an irrigation "system" so I stand with hose in hand, watering individually. But I think I use less water that way.

Curt Hanson waters nearly every night during the summer. He made this large pond for irrigation. I envy that he can water so much! Daylilies here have to be a little tougher than they do for other people.

I have seen the difference from those who water and those who think that our current daylilies are carefree like the old outhouse species and just let them grow 'however'.

Same as those who plant in their local dirt compared to those that amend their soil.

Same as greenhouse grown in optimum conditions compared to garden conditions.

Sandy soil here. I need to water more than the recommended 1 inch per week. But dragging the darn hoses around sometimes gets me down.

Pay money for a new hybrid? Pay money to water the darn things!

1 Daylilies need a good water supply before and aft bloom season.

2 Don't water if you can help it when buds are starting to burst - water drop spots will appear

3 However, water whenever a plant needs it, even if you have to sacrifice a days worth of blooms

4 Water deeply so that the roots grow DOWN not upwards towards the 2 inches that get wet in a one hours watering

5 Water with a drip hose when you can rather than wasting water in the air with oscillators (that I often have to use)

6 Watering will help with increase, repeat bloom, better looking foliage etc.

7 Warm water will help increase bloom season

8 Cold water will help delay blooms (geo doorakian advice - I know not first hand)

9 Water hot black pots everyday around noon to help cool the black pots from roasting the roots

10 Water the soil, not the foliage nor flowers, whenever possible

This is a quote from Dan Trimmer...

Number one is WATER, WATER, and WATER. If you do
nothing else to your flower beds, which hopefully are filled
with many daylilies, provide at least 1-1.5 inches of water
per week. This is more important than any feeding program.

I forgot to mention living in and arid region I use more water than Dan recommends

I bought 2 - 250 gallon tanks to catch rain water, otherwise they would only get water at planting and from Mother Nature. We are on a well. All my watering is hand carried via 5 gallon buckets. Seedlings get first dibs, then any newly planted ones. Then any that I'm hybridizing with. If there is any water/ time left the others get watered. I wish I could do more watering, but it is cheaper to buy more daylilies than have a new well dug. I try to water every other day if possible. They got to be tough here or they will not survive.

Lyle, what a pretty venue!

As mentioned above, I do not think that 1 inch a week is more than hanging on to them, but nothing to have great plants and blooms.

Isn't Dan great? Nice guy, beautiful plants (not hardy here though)

We are on a well and right now the daylilies get watered every other day with overhead sprinklers for about 20-30 minutes in the late afternoon. These are misting type sprinklers and some are 1.5 gal per minute and I think others are 3 gal per minute. During the summer will be the same unless it gets super dry then it will be every day. During the winter, since it's usually mild, once or twice a week waterings.

I have tried the soaker hoses, but most don't last a whole season here without them getting holes in them. They were under mulch so the sun didn't effect them but they wore out quickly anyway. I tried 2 kinds made out of different materials but they both wear out fast. I also used to hand water, but I know I didn't water them deep enough that way.

At my old place I wasn't on a well so what I did was make a sprinkler system that hooked to the water hose. I could only do certain areas at one time or there wouldn't be enough pressure for them all.

Since the daylilies are dug and divided every year and get potted up the overhead sprinklers are the best for the situation. If they were going to stay in place for a long period of time then I would use a drip system for mine.

I have my entire garden on a drip system, which has 10 zones. The daylilies have inline drippers snaked around them. The emitters are built into the tubing every six inches. It works pretty well and uses less water than overhead watering, especially when it's windy. But sometimes I give them some overhead watering as a bonus.

In a typical season here, July and August are the only really dry months. Mother nature takes care of most of the watering until then. We are on city water and our average water bill for July and August is over $300.00. At present, all my daylilies are in pots, so that means they have to be watered daily when it's dry. I mostly use sprinklers and have to move them from one area to another. My in ground plantings get it when they look like they need it. I'll be glad to get my daylilies planted in the ground. It should really help to save on the water bill.

We have had an unusually wet spring for the last 2 years so hopefully this year will be no different. There is nothing like good old rain to perk the daylilies up. We are on city water and honestly it seems to do absolutely nothing for the daylilies. In fact when I do water a lot, the foilage actually yellows because there is so much chlorine in our water. I tried the soaker hoses but the neighbors law service whacked them with their weed wacker and put a hole in them. I can't afford to replace them every year. I usually just water by hand most of the time and when I don't feel like watering, I put the sprinkler on. I water mostly in early morning or evening, although I have been told evening is not the best time because it can promote rot. Has anyone else been told that because I would like to know if that's true???

I've heard that too Cindy. But it rains overnight sometimes, so I water when I can and sometimes that's at night. I haven't had much rot here and when I have it's been in the spring, not in the summer when I'm doing the watering.

Yes it does Joy, so I kind of wonder if that statement is true or not. Sometimes we have all night rains in the summer. I have gotten rot mainly from new acquisitions that just don't seem to want to settle in. Maybe shock sets in and weakens the plant from being dug and shipped?? I really don't know.

That's when I've gotten it too. I do know that some of my other perennials (malva's, Bee balm etc.) will tend to get mold or rust on their leaves if they get overhead watering during the summer. Even if that watering comes from rain. Just haven't had a problem with the daylilies.

Did water regularly last summer or I would have lost everything in the second hottest, driest summer on record (bleck!). Usually don't water much, though. If I were hybridizing or had a display garden that might be different; but around here, it is generally sink or swim.

I would love to be able to water every day or every other day etc... just can't do it.

I still get reasonable branching and bud count, as well as increase.

They would love to have more water, but one reason I love daylilies is that they will put up with abuse.

It would be interesting to note the difference in the need for watering to whether you have clay soil or sandy.

I have sandy so water just drains right through.

I have heard that clay soil cakes into hard soil if not watered, yet to me, clay soil seems like it would 'hold' water better and not need watering as often.

I'd love to hear comments on that.

Clay here turns stone-rock-brick-impenetrable-without-a-thousand-gallons-of-water hard when it dries out. Except when it gets huge cracks and fissures. These are little ones, but you get the idea. That characteristic is why we have a booming foundation repair industry.

When wet, the clay soil here holds water better than sand, but when dry and hard, the water just runs right off like it does cement. That;s another reason I like drip systems since it just slowly soaks in, although most of my garden is extremely amended soil, mostly rotted horse manure.

I certainly don't need to worry about watering now. It rained hard overnight and everything is soaking. Usually we get a lot of spring rain so the only time daylilies might need watering is some summers if we get dry spells. In that case I just get the sprinklers going. Not in ground, just the kind I attach to the hose and move around the yard as needed.

The clay here doesn't get dry like that, could be our humidity, but it will not drain. It is so dense that there are places that the water just sits for hours because it won't soak in. I was tilling the ground one day after it had rained the day before and it was like walking through quick sand; I have a walk behind tiller. I kept sinking down and getting stuck in the soupy muck. That's one reason we have raised beds here. If we didn't the daylilies would sit in this muck and rot.