Vegetable Gardening Tip #5 for 2012: Always Water From the Bottom!

Water spreads disease, washes away seeds and helps create an environment for diseases to start... like 'dampening off'. That is the white hair like fungus growth on newly sprouted seedlings. It will kill them.

However, water is necessary for you plants to grow. The solution is to water from the bottom for both your indoor and outdoor plants.

When starting seeds indoor aways fill the trays and let your seeds set in the water and drink from the bottom. This will stop 95% of all you seed starting water related problems.

It looks like this...

Always Water Seedlings From the Bottom: Gary Pilarchik

By doing this you won't wash away freshly planted seeds, you won't create an environment for disease by wetting the sprouted vegetables and you will insure equal moisture across all your plants.

Outdoor watering can be an issue to. It is good practice to water the base of you plants to prevent soaking the leaves and spreading disease. You also want to be careful not to splash dirt up on to your leaves. That is how spores spread.

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