Hanging Basket - how much and often to water?

purplepatch

I bought a hanging basket from my local garden centre yesterday. It says water regularly.

My question (being a total gardening ignoramus) is how much water does it need at a time and how long should I be leaving between watering. My husband reckons I'll kill it within a few weeks, so I'd like to prove him wrong!

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

System

Any annuals bought from wherever, in whatever type of container, are really tender and in my opinion should not yet be out. Just because market stalls etc have these in flower, it must be remembered that they didn't get that way outside. They were forced fed warmth and light and because of that, how they are currently being sold, is how they should be growing naturally in one months time.

BlondeHeadOn

During hot periods we water our hanging baskets once or twice a day, depending if they are in full sun or not. It depends on the weather, but also on the plants - for example, geraniums can cope with less water than bizzie lizzies. What are the plants it contains, and how big are they? And where are you going to hang it? (shade, full sun, partial shade?)

Try the 'Rule of Finger' - stick your finger into the compost and see how dry it is, if dry, then water! In hot weather it's a good idea to water in the evening so it doesn't all evaporate, and give the compost a good soaking. Then the plants can have a good drink overnight.

Tell us more about your baskets though - even better, post a picture!

BlondeHeadOn

" My husband reckons I'll kill it within a few weeks, so I'd like to prove him wrong!"

PS Sounds like a good challenge to me !!

Poppycat

I tend to put them out around this time of year and they are fine. I water once a day in Summer especially those in full sun. I tend to do it late afternoon or early evening

Once a week I add liquid feed from Wilkos with water from my water butt when its got water in, if not water from tap

I am due to make some hanging baskets this week weather permitting

I got the baskets and mating I reuse old baskets and have to get some plants and compost next. Aldi have some plants of Thursday on offer for hanging baskets

Oh I sometimes find bought baskets dont have holes to allow water to drain. I have had some that have plastic lining and water just sits there, so I drilled some holes in to allow water to drain

purplepatch

Thanks for the advice. Like I said, I'm very ignorant with these things, but as far as I can see, it is mainly pansies but with trailing ivy and also there is some sort of shrubby type thing in the middle to add height that looks a bit like the same foliage family as the horrible leylandii that we've got in our garden, whatever that might be. There aren't many flowers at the moment so it's hard to see exactly what's what yet, lots of buds though. Don't think any geraniums though, they've got quite distinctive leaves if I'm not mistaken - nothing like that in there.

I live in the southeast and I feel fairly confident that we won't get any weather conditions that are too extreme now. Fingers crossed anyway.

I gave it a water earlier, just using an empty 2 litre coke bottle as my hose pipe doesn't reach round the house that far:rolleyes:. I must have done about half the bottle and the water was just draining straight through - is that the sort of amount of water it needs or should it be more/less? I guess it's hard to overwater when the water can drain away easily.

Oh and it's pretty much in full sun depending on the time of day. Assuming the sun ever comes out of course!

olly300

Just water it everyday. Ideally you should be able to feel if the soil is dry but as you can't the best thing is to water it everyday even if it's raining as it's unlikely to get any water from the rain. If it's really hot you may need to water it twice a day.

I did that with my hanging basket I had up from February to the end of October. (It was still flowering when I took it down but I was fed up of watering it everyday.)

First it had winter flowering pansies in it, and when they died I replaced them with fuchsias and busy lizzies. I did change the soil and put in slow releasing fertilizer. Even then I eventually used weekly plant food.

As you are unlikely to have slow releasing fertilizer in the basket you need to feed it with plant food every week as the soil won't contain enough nutrients for the the amount of plants in the basket.

Aries

Also if you keep removing the dead flower heads it will keep flowering longer.
Good luck with it.

quickstepqueen

purple patch sounds like you're doing OK.

When I water my plants I try to water slowly until the water pours out the bottom and despite having moisture retaining compost etc in my baskets I still need to water every evening (when the sun has moved round so as not to burn the leaves.) Keep up the good work...looks like you could be winning the challenge your OH set!

purplepatch

olly300 wrote: »

As you are unlikely to have slow releasing fertilizer in the basket you need to feed it with plant food every week as the soil won't contain enough nutrients for the the amount of plants in the basket.

Hi - can somebody please give me a pointer as to which plant food I need to buy. I've seen slow release tablets while googling. Are they any good?

Thanks.

ps it's still alive!!

Becles

I use the slow release tablets or sticks. You can just put them in now, and they'll keep the plants fed all through the spring and summer, so you don't have to remember to do it!