I'm brand new to gardening this year as well, so welcome to the club. I also wonder about how often to water.

One thing that I do know is that some say it is better to water in the evening (probably after 6pm for you), so you avoid any issues with the water burning onto the plants.

Hopefully someone with more experience can answer the question about how much to water in raised beds!

Hey centralnc, thanks for the advice. You having any luck so far?

I posted some pics of my garden on the my blog in case you or others are interested:

http://beangrowing.blogspot.com/

Nice blog!

I'll try to snap some pictures to post in this thread on my progress today. I'm getting a few tomatoes growing (still green), and the cucumber plants are going crazy but no cucs on it yet. The corn isn't looking too hot, but then again I only get around 4 hours of full sun so everything is an experiment this year.

Don't believe any of that nonsense about water droplets in the sun burning the plants in the sun. It's much worse to have your plants wet all night long. Your plants prefer their leaves to be dry as much as possible. Fungus and mildew prefer them moist.
I'll water anytime that there's enough warmth left in the day to dry the plants off. Alternatively, I'll water any time at all if I avoid getting the leaves wet, which is better still. Whenever practical, water the roots, not the leaves. If you must water the leaves, do it when they'll dry off expediently. Some would say early morning is best cuz it's cool enough that the water will soak in nicely before evaporating, and they have a point. I kinda like watering just before dusk, soil only, so the roots have all night long to leisurely soak up what they need. And evaporation is minimized.
And if the weather is quite warm and dry, plants will dry off quickly no matter what time you water, so in that case it doesn't matter much about getting the leaves wet. But avoiding watering in the hot sun in those conditions will help prevent excess evaporation.

I am an extreme newbie...but I did burn my string bean plant. I was watering on top as opposed to the bottom soil while the sun was still working its magic.

Another newbie here but learning A LOT! I killed my cucumber seedlings, and almost finished off one tomato by watering at night so be careful! I have another batch coming up looking healthier than ever, watering in the morning from the bottom. All my tomato plants perked up too!
My advice: get books, lots of them, read! Search online. Ask questions.

I like to water in the morning so the plants can take up the water and not droop in the heat of the day. Always water at the soil level, never on the leaves. Yes, I know, rain wets the leaves. But when it rains, it cools down a little first, and clouds shadow the sun.

Watering deeply in the morning is preferred here. If you overhead water, each drop can act as a prism and burn a leaf. Also, you want the roots to get the moisture, not the leaves. Soaker hoses are great, but if not practicable, a half-buried coffee can (or anything comparable) that has holes punched in the bottom and lower half and filled with water acts pretty much the same. We use one large coffee can for two plants, and one big gallon plastic container in the middle of the pole beans' teepee. Rain water is preferred, of course!

use soaker hoses or drip irrigation and you can water whenever you want AND use less water to do it since it only goes where needed.

i switched to 100% soakers in my garden. no idea how much water i am saving since i am on a well, but i can tell you that my plants like it better.

Watering in the morning is much better, and only at the stems/roots.BTW, you have a very nice city to live in - I visited in April, and drove to the university football stadium for a photo opportunity - If I wouldn't have known which street it was on , i'd never have found it!OMG, it's hidden behind trees and foliage.Anyway - very nice place to visit.

A helpful rule I once heard was that it is best to water when temperatures are rising. That said, though, in California during the summer, I think evening is fine (though early morning may be a bit preferable). If you have warm evening/night temperatures and you water by 8 or so, it isn't very likely the plants will stay wet during the night!

It's pretty hard to kill most veggies via water alone unless you way overdo it (swamp!) or way underdo it (desert!) Seeds and seedlings have to be kept moist and this might mean multiple short periods of light spinkles per day.

Once plants are established, think in terms of water conservation and plant vigor. If you water too much, your plants will not develop the vigor they need to be extremely productive, among other things. And conservation means deep root watering during the coolest times of the day to prevent evaporation. Early morning is considered the optimum time to make the most of your water with a mind towards conservation.

Agreeing with what most people have already posted. I like early morning or later in the day when it cools off. This way the plants get more water since less is evaporating during our hot summers. Plus it's nice to spend time out in the garden when it's not so hot out and you can observe for disease and insects.

Watering the leaves during hot weather can burn them, and watering them late at night can lead to fungus and mold problems as already mentioned. I also find it better to water deeply and for longer periods of time, and mulching to conserve water and keep the roots cooler. The plants seem to do better this way in the heat, and less watering is required. I usually don't have to water plants much this way (my cherry tomatoes do fine with watering once a week or less). Soaker hoses would be the best, since you avoid almost all these problems and conserve water in the process :)

Thank you everyone for your input! I think the consensus here is to water in the morning and water the roots rather than the leaves.

I'll post updates here:

www.beangrowing.blogspot.com

And mulch! Here in the Midwest, we have high temps in the summer and very unpredictable levels of moisture. Since I started growing my veggies seriously (last year was my first concerted effort) I have discovered the virtues of mulching my raised beds and large pots. For the beds, I use a simple, non-chemically treated wood mulch (ground relatively fine). I have heard that dead leaves, straw, and grass clippings (dried, not fresh) work as well. This creates more consistent levels of moisture and temperature. It also helps reduce pest issues and soil-bourne diseases (when you water, dirt doesn't splash up onto the leaves). Looks nice, too.

I have been experimenting with a very cheap drip irrigation system this year, and it seems to work really well. All you do is bury an 8'' clay pot in the ground right next to your plant so that about 1/2 inch is sticking up out of the ground. You'll have to plug up the hole in the bottom with something, caulk works fine for that or some kind of stopper (I used rubber stoppers from a home brewery shop). Then you fill the pot up with water and cover it with a disposable pie plate weighted down by a rock (to keep out bugs and dirt). The water seeps out gradually through the clay when the soil becomes dry, and keeps your plant roots evenly moist. When the soil is wet, no water seeps out. This is a great technique during very hot weather, or if you have to go away for the weekend or something! I learned this from a book I read called "The 15 Minute Vegetable Gardener", which was a great book I would definitely recommend to other newbie gardeners.

One concern with mulch, especially bark mulch, is that it can acidify soil and also drain the soil of nitrogen, which bark uses during the process of breaking down.

For that reason I use well-aged compost instead...

The garden center where I bought my plants said that I should water tomatoes and bell peppers 2x a week in the morning. I would water at 8 AM for 40 min with a super soaker hose turned on all the way, and I would discover some of my plants wilting in the sun by noon the following day. So I would water the plants again even though I was told not to water in the middle of the day.

Also, my bell pepperÂs leaves were curling which I read is a sign of under watering. It developed 3 little bell peppers, but they were badly twisted and one fell off today.

I just went back to the garden center today and they sold me a neat little gadget called a "Moisture meter" for $8. My bell pepper was an 8 out of 10 in terms of moisture or borderline "wet". My potted plants were 10+ or "wet". My avocado tree was 5 out of 10 or "moist". I had been watering my avocado tree and blueberry bush every 4 days and they were due for watering today. My blueberry bush was an 8 and I decided to water it according to schedule too.

The man I talked to at the garden center said that it would be ok to water my plants every day if they are dry because it is very hot and dry right now. But I wonder if I should bump up the time from 40 min to say 60 min with the soaker hose.

By the way, I donÂt have a lot of run off or any standing water after using the soaker hose. And my garden is heavily mulched. I am in Orange County California.

Any advice?

I'm wondering if you are overwatering, especially given the readings on the moisture meter. Does the soil seem damp? Wilting leaves don't necessarily mean underwatering--they can be a sign of overwatering or simply that the plant can't take up enough water in hot weather (though there is water available in the soil).

I'm just outside Sacramento--and our temps have been in the high 90s and even over 100 the past couple of days. I'm watering my tomatoes (in raised beds) about every ten days for about an hour and a half with a soaker hose (they are heavily mulched with newspaper and straw). It takes that long for the top inch or two of soil to dry out, even in this heat (and low humidity).

You can buy pH neutral bark mulch. However, I've read that even the more "acidic" mulches (pine, etc.) have a minimal effect on soil pH. The nitrogen deficiency could be more of an issue, but I've never had a problem; I use an organic granular fertilizer upon planting and follow with liquid fertilization as needed. I have two dogs and the only way I can keep the little buggers out of my beds is to mulch...they don't like the way that it feels on their paws! Compost? They love it! They'd be rolling in it every day, if I let them.

That would help with acidity, but not so much the nitrogen issue.

I'm learning to mulch with gravel, which is gaining quite a following.