Watering with warm water?

Hi all,

Ive got some basil growing in the window sil but its still quite cool and doesnt get alot of sun this time of year.

So i was wondering could i use luke warm water to help it grow?

 

Hi there,
It's a nice idea, but studies (mainly by the RHS) have revealed that it makes no difference.

However, you could still try for yourself - I'm sure it will cause no harm!

TTFN

 

I am afraid I agree with Oktarine - it won't make any difference. Any heating effect will be lost very quickly. But I think you have already identified the problem - temperature and sunlight, both of which are in short supply at this time of year.

 

haha thought as much, oh well i'll see how it goes

 

I've always beleived... but i might be wrong... that you should water with slightly warmed water rather than straight from the tap, especially for more tender stuff... I always have a filled water butt in the greenhouse.

I 'd assumed that keeping things like tomatoes at a relatively high air temperature, and then watering with cold water would do some harm!

 

Yes. Quercus is quite right to mention a different aspect of watering with warm water.

Whilst using warm water won't really do any good, using cold water in the summer on plants that are comfortably warm, can actually do them some harm. Cold water can stress a plant in the same way that it can shock a human. So it is a good idea to use water that has been stored in the warm and is consequently at the same temperature of the plant.

The same sort of thing can happen with cold air. If you take a house plant out of a warm room and carry it to a car, when the weather is bitterly cold and blowing hard, the shock can set the plant back significantly, if not actually kill it. I have seen this happen.

 

Actually its better to drink cold water for a human, the body has to use up calories to heat it up.
But for the plants, don't think they care. Not a thought that has entered my mind over all the years of gardening anyway.

 

The way I look at it is the water should be the same temperature as the plant roots, warmer wont hurt but colder will.

 

I always try to fill my watering cans and leave them in the greenhouse or polytunnel for several hours to warm up before watering. Apart from heating the water, I think, but could be wrong, that it helps reduce the levels of chlorine.
However if as oktarine states the RHS has done trials and seen no difference I'll accept the science.
But I'll continue to warm the watering cans :D

And ss a 'Human Bean' I definately prefer swimming in water that isn't chilly!

 

I was always told not to water tomato plants with anything other than water which has been standing in the greenhouse and reached the ambient temperature.

As for the basil plant - here in deepest, darkest Kent, mine sits happily on a north facing window sill in my kitchen; it gets watered 'if and when', alternately drowned and 'droughted' (depending on who thinks about it!) and if, as now, it gets sufficiently large and starts to block out the light, I just nip off a few bits, stick them in a pot and grow new plants from the cuttings. A bit like the old broom that's had 4 new heads and 2 new handles, it's been going in this fashion for 5 years - a classic case of less (care) is more, I suspect. Although everything will grow more slowly at this time of year, I'll still pot up some shoots soon, stick them in a pot with a poly bag over the top and, standing them on some gravel which I keep damp, will put them on a windowsill over a radiator where I expect them to root fairly quickly.