Most of us water our plants moderately on a daily or bi-daily basis during the warmer months. Though this instinctively seems logical, it actually encourages plants to develop shallow root systems because they are coddled with water near the soil surface. We actually want to encourage deep rooting in our plants for a variety of reasons.
Deep roots provide:
- greater structural support of soil to prevent erosion
- better bracing from wind
- a complex root network with greater surface area that are better able to form beneficial relationships with soil microbes and fungi-
- access to the water table underground where water levels are consistently higher
How do you do it? Water heavy but infrequently. Instead of watering once a day, water once a week. Just increase the volume of water so that the water soaks down into the soil and the surface soil (down to a couple or few inches) completely dries up between watering.