Soakaway

I think i'd turn down the watering and keep an eye on the plants in the raised beds.

Take a look at

Could you not attack the problem at source by reducing the amount of water dispensed into the beds?

Sounds like a waste of a lot of water. Why do the beds need so much? what have you got growing in them?

Sorry but like everyone else I also say cut down on the water, why every evening? Once every 2 or 3 days should be enough, though the plants probably have a poor root system as they haven't had to develop in order to find water.

Perhaps she's growing wasabi, watercress and water spinach :-)

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Anything really that has lots of voids and is bigger than sand.

Would a soaker hose be more appropriate?

We have the watering coming on twice during the night - for 15 mins each time - six hours apart. I did this last year - and the raised beds did not get "soggy" at all. All the produce from them was fantastic. So I don't think the watering is the problem

- it is the getting rid of that water once it has left the raised beds.

Good site: thanks

I think the amount of water the plants get is "good for them". I'd rather just make sure it soaks away.

Why a waste? - the plants thrived last year: I have onions, courgettes, leeks, radishes,lettuces, parsley, strawberries

Yes - I agree that it is not necessary to water every night: BUT my electronic timer does not have the option for selecting specific days of the week. I would rather water a little and often: two fifteen minutes during the night. The plants did well last year. I am pretty confident that the soak-away trench is the answer.

Thanks

Possible: but I have now have installed half-inch pipes in the raised beds and have various drippers and sprays running off them. I can vary the amount of water that each bed (and each different veg.) gets.

That change is significant. Two 15 min periods are hardly enough to saturate raised beds to the point of running off. I'd suggest your timer may have gone faulty.

All the

That amount of water shouldn't have left the beds.

We have a large soakaway we constructed 12 years ago following the instructions of the pavingexpert, it's collecting and dispersing all the land drainage water we installed on a half acre garden (high rainfall here). It's still working perfectly, no soggy areas.

Janet.

Thought you said the beds drained "very very well". Or are you really referring to the ground around? The fact that there is excess water some where shows that there is excess watering.

Meh, I and several others seem to think it is on the information provided.

There should only be enough water entering the beds to keep them damp enough for the plants, if water is running out there is too much of it. Not to menation it'll be leaching out nutrients.

Has it been a wet year so far for you ? Perhaps the water table is higher than last year if last year was very dry. If the water table was lower last year the 'excess' water would have gone down further and not affected the top layer of soil.

In the mean time I'd try turning off the system for at least one night and checking what effect this has on the raised beds. Do they get too dry ?

Years ago we spent money installing your type of system but found the upkeep too onerous. We now use sprinklers. The type similar to those used commercially, not those plastic surface mounted ones.

We have a crude timer on the tap.

There are sophisticated monitors available which will control your watering system, turning it on and off as necessary.

I have said that the raised beds did not get "soggy" at all: and: The grass at the side of the beds has become very, very wet - and really never dries out: it is particularly noticeable in the morning after the night watering session. The raised beds drain very, very well.

Which information do you and others think was a problem? I cannot see anything conflicting.

I think that that may be half of the problem: the water table being higher than last year.

I have had it turned off for a couple of nights the other week: - they did not get dry. They are filled with a mix of newly bought (last year) top soil - mixed with good quality peat compost.

It comes on twice a day, every day, at the same times - not at different times on specific days