Watering Shrubs

September 24, 2009

SOME EXPERTS CALL WATER THE MOST OVERUSED RESOURCE IN THE SUNSHINE STATE. A NEW UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA STUDY SHOWS THOSE NEW SHRUBS IN YOUR YARD DON’T NEED MUCH WATER TO ESTABLISH THEMSELVES.

Ed Gilman/UF horticulture researcher: “When you see how often irrigation systems come on in a typical landscape, you think well, maybe shrubs actually need that but when we put the study to it and looked at the numbers, it turned out that watering once or twice a week in most parts of Florida, Central and north anyway, shrubs survive and grew fairly well.”

RESEARCHERS SAY IN NORTH AND CENTRAL FLORIDA, WATERING EVERY 3 OR 4 DAYS WITH AS LITTLE AS THREE QUARTS OF WATER EACH TIME, WILL GET THE JOB DONE. IN SOUTH FLORIDA YOU HAVE TO BE A LITTLE MORE FREQUENT AND WATER YOUR SHRUBS EVERY 2 or 3 DAYS. YET MANY HOMEOWNERS CONTINUE TO OVER WATER.

Ed Gilman/UF horticulture researcher: “I think people do over water their plants and two things can happen. One is obvious, we use more water then we need and those issues are quite obvious to most people but the other issue is I think there’s evidence in poorly drain sites where if you keep adding more water, the roots are going to rot.”

GILMAN SAYS EVEN IN THOSE POOR DRAIN SITES, BY ADDING THREE QUARTS EVERY TIME YOU IRRIGATE, SHRUBS WILL DO WELL AND YOU’LL SAVE MONEY ON THAT WATER BILL.