After investing time, money and effort into growing your own fruit and vegetables, it seems a waste to dilute their home-grown flavour by making a small yet grave error.
Watering your crops at specific windows throughout the day can prove detrimental to your harvest’s tastiness, so it’s essential to line up your routine accordingly.
Rhiannon, who goes by @rhiannonsgarden on TikTok, said that "the best time" to water the garden is the early evening.
She warned followers: "If you water your plants when it’s very warm, a lot of the water will evaporate before it can do any good or even get down into the roots.
Watering your crops at specific windows throughout the day can prove detrimental to your harvest’s tastiness
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"But if you wait until it’s cooler, the water has time to go further. It has time to sink in. You'll lose less water this way. It’s much more sustainable.
She suggested that watering fruits like strawberries and tomatoes close to the time they are picked will cause them to lose flavour as the sugars won’t be as concentrated.
"Better to water them the night before you pick them," she urged. Additionally, it’s best to water the ground, rather than the plant itself.
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Another user concurred with the guidance, saying that her advice was "absolutely right".
But other comments disagreed. One said: "You should really water in the early morning as they will absorb the water better and have reserves when it gets warmer" while another recommended cooler times such as 5.30am or 6am.
When watering strawberries, the RHS urged gardeners to avoid dampening the centre of the fruit since this can cause fungal problems such as grey mould.
"It’s best to water in the mornings rather than the evenings, so if the plants or fruit do get splashed, they have plenty of time to dry out," the gardening experts said, although this guidance contradicts with Rhiannon's advice.
The RHS advises watering new strawberry plants frequently as they establish themselves
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One beginner gardener asked whether it was essential to water plants outside every day.
And, in response, Rhiannon said that it "very much depends on the weather", adding: "When it’s hot, you may need water every other day."
For fruits, the RHS advises watering new plants frequently as they establish themselves and water "all strawberry plants during dry periods in the growing season".
The experts further warned that plants in containers, particularly hanging baskets, require regular watering no matter the weather forecast as the small amount of compost "dries out very quickly".
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