What is the Best Time to Irrigate?

For a lot of people, irrigating is a daily chore, and there are various convenient times during the day when it can be done. All logic dictates that you irrigate during the night to minimize water usage. There are many reasons:

• The temperature and wind speed are lower during the night.
• Humidity levels are higher at night.
• Solar radiation is absent without the sun.

Do you need to irrigate your lawn, plants, or crops during the night? Absolutely Not!

The perfect conditions for fungus to grow are created by keeping your plants wet overnight. The foliage, flowers, and fruit will become wet unless you use drip irrigation or subsurface irrigation. The water would evaporate during the day, but it would evaporate at night. When the water stays on the plant for a long time, it creates the ideal environment for fungi and bacteria to reproduce. Is it the best option to irrigate during the daytime if you have unlimited water?

In most cases, a clear answer will be given to the average gardener or horticulturist when asked this question. Absolutely Not!

The answer is based on the fact that water drops on leaves form lenses that can cause the leaves to burn from concentrated sunlight.

There has been little knowledge about whether there is a correlation to this until recently. This subject was researched by Gabor Horvath at Eotvos University in Budapest. He concluded that the water droplets on a leaf weren’t able to concentrate the sun’s energy enough to cause damage to the leaves before they evaporated. Despite being able to irrigate during the daytime. Irrigation during the early mornings is the best recommendation. It provides most of the advantages, but it decreases the chance of optimizing fungal growth. During the hottest parts of the day, the soil will be kept cool by the moisture.