How much water do you use?

[billyo]

Morning all,

Ive decided to start a veg patch to be watered, hopefully with rain water, the problem is that I live near Montpellier where rain water in summer is a bit scarce, so my quetion is, as a rule of thumb how much water is needed to keep a veg patch growing during the summer months?

Hope there is an easy answer!

Billyo

[Tony F Dordogne]

It depends on so many factors, what your soil type is, what the exposure is (south, north etc), what you're growing etc it's impossible to give you a quick or easy answer.

In April, when it was unseasonably hot here, I used about 4/500 litres on my 9 raised beds, fruit cage and stuff still in pots but that was whilst the beds were still being organised for the summer.  I have a clay soil supplemented by loads of  terreau horticole/universal, supplemented by my own compost so soil is lighter.

Rule of thumb for me is get as many water butts as you can, rig them to the downpipes of the house and ensure that your gutters are clear so you get maximum water storage when it's available.  I have to pump water from close to the house to the butts right at the back of the potager to save lugging it in cans but can also pump the water directly onto the beds.

Huge storm last night filled all 8 x 300 or 500 litre butts tho so probably have enough for another 8 weeks in all.

 

[billyo]

Cheers Tony, i realise that its a how long is a piece of string question, but it gives e a rough idea.

Billyo