Does water diffuse horizontally in the soil after watering? I just put out some seedlings under cloches, and am wondering whether I have to lift them for watering, or whether soaking the ground around cloches is good enough. I would expect that watering in one spot would result in some sort of a wet cone in the ground, but have no idea how wide such a cone could be and whether even surface soil under the cloche might eventually get wet by some sort of diffusion.

Anyone have an idea on how water travels horizontally in the ground after watering?