Talking Green: Starting at the beginning. Part 4

Hi again,
Today I want to cover watering your plants. After planting the seeds, it is important to use a mister bottle or a spray bottle so you don't wash the seeds away. When the seeds sprout it is important to use the spray bottle so that you don't damage the delicate seedlings. New seedlings can be super delicate unless they are something like a sunflower which is pretty strong. Larger seeds have larger sprouts which are tougher and also require more water so it is safer to use a watering can. when the seedlings get to a point that they don't bend over so much when you mist them then it is safe to go to a watering can.  One common mistake people make that I want to point out is over watering plants and actually drowning them. You can kill them with too much of a good thing I suppose. Plants need water but the roots also need to breath a bit unless they are supposed to grow under water. When you over water a plant, the roots sort of suffocate I guess you could say. So the next question you may have is how to know how much is too much or too little. This was something I had difficulty explaining to my sister without showing her but I will give it a shot. First clue to over watering is that the dirt goes mouldy. lol Also if it is mud then it is too wet. I like to see the top dry out a bit before watering again. But something else to point out is that the top dries out first so just because the top is dry does not mean it is dry lower down. With young seedlings it can be tough to put your finger in the soil to see how wet it is but when they are older there is a neat gadget that I love to use that is very handy. It is called a moisture meter and it is something inexpensive and it has a probe you stick in the dirt and it has a meter at the top that tells you how wet the soil is. This is so handy for me! One tip I can give is if you have one of these, you can stick it in dirt that you don't have seeds into and water the soil and check it to see how wet the soil is. Then you can get a visual idea of what soil looks like when it is too wet or too dry. That way it is easier to know if the seedlings need water or not because sticking a probe into the soil where there are seeds is tough. It is tough because you don't always know where unsprouted seeds are that you might disturb and push down and the probe can damage the delicate roots of the seedlings. Once the seedlings are older then it isn't such a big deal. That is the best way I can describe how to know how wet to make the soil. I hope this helps. :) Happy gardening!

I would like to mention that I am not saying it is necessary to get a moisture meter and I am not trying to sell them or anything. I just find that they are very useful to me and that other people may benefit from them.