The best time of day to water landscape plants is early morning (Figure 1) . The second best time is late evening (Figure 2).
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[
Figure 1: Early Morning Watering] |
[
Figure 2: Late Evening Watering] |
Advantages of early morning watering
- Good water pressure
- Less wind
- Very little evaporation
It is not recommended that a lawn be watered during the middle of the day. Evaporation consumes a large part of the water, making it harder to effectively wet the soil. Evaporation losses can be as great as 40 percent when watering on sunny and windy days.
Drip irrigation can be done any time of the day since very little water is lost to evaporation.
Evening watering
Even though evening watering gives you little evaporation, there can be lower water pressure and an increased chance of disease (because plant foliage stays wet too long).
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