Understanding Spray Patterns When Watering

If you're still watering your lawn and beds with a one-setting nozzle on your hose, it's time for an upgrade. A nozzle that can adjust to several different spray patterns will help you water each area of the garden a little better. Your vegetable garden, for instance, shouldn't be watered the same way that flower beds are or the grass. Make watering less of a chore and more efficient with a good quality, complex nozzle. Use a Finer Pattern for Delicate Plants - Just transplanted small seedlings outside? You don't want to blast them with the hose. Some flowers are delicate too and can be damaged by a spray pattern that is too strong and harsh. You can even blow the petals off flowers or break and ruin little seedlings. With an adjustable nozzle on the hose, you can select a fine mist or a light spray pattern, sometimes called flower pattern, to water certain plants more gently. Mist Your Tropical Plants - The mist setting on a hose nozzle is also a great setting for plants that need to have a lot of moisture and humidity. Orchids and other air plants, for example, take their water from the air. With a mist setting, you can keep the roots moist. Other tropical plants do best when there is moisture in the air and on their leaves, so use the mist pattern to keep them happy. Set the Gusher for Trees and Shrubs - Most hose nozzles have a gusher setting, sometimes called the shrub pattern. The water gushes out instead of spraying a long distance. This is a good spray pattern for new, young trees and shrubs that need a good root soaking to get established. You can lay the hose down and let the water soak into the ground for several minutes. Use a Medium Setting for Large Beds - When you need to cover a large area, like a big flower bed, a grouping of perennials or rows of vegetables, you need a spray pattern that is not too harsh but that covers more ground. The medium setting or soft wash spray pattern is wide but not too hard or too soft. You can sweep over a large area with it and get a lot watered in less time. Save the Jet Spray for Cleaning - A full or jet setting on a hose nozzle is a narrow, powerful spray pattern and it's hard to imagine what kind of plants should be watered with that setting. Most would suffer damage from the intense stream of water, but the setting is ideal for cleaning. Need to hose off dirt from your workspace after working on transplants or get those stubborn bird droppings off your concrete sidewalk? This setting is ideal for that. It's well worth the cost to get an adjustable nozzle with multiple spray patterns. You'll save time and water your garden more effectively. Check out the Crenova Superior Lightweight Adjustable Garden Hose Nozzle, for example, which has multiple spray patterns. It also has a trigger lock so you can water without maintaining pressure on the handle. Make the most of the chore of watering to help your plants thrive by choosing the right setting and spray pattern.