Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Help with Tree Watering System

Thanks arond.

Sounds good arond, Texans are not good with frost... Wish I had them rodents here... prolly make pretty good soup.

esshup, what are you planting? Sounds like quite a project. You've probably already checked out the water requirements for your trees. If not, should be readily available on the web, or I can help with that if needed. Are these trees all that you'll have on that zone?

KDO:

Yep. Only the fruit trees and grass/clover. I keep the area under the drip line free of growing grass/clover/weeds. The trees are a mixture of apple, pear, peach and a few cherry trees. I tried a few apricot trees and never had luck with them. The soil is VERY sandy, that's one of the problems. All trees with the exception of peach and cherry are semi-dwarf. I believe the peach and cherry are standards. (going from memory)

I planted them 5 years ago, but realized that I needed to move them 2 years after I planted them. I had a guy come in with a tree spade and relocate them in 2008 - cheaper than buying new ones. I did lose 2 out of the 25 that were moved, but that's what happens when you move them in August..... I had picked all the developing fruit off of the trees to lessen the stress, but it still wasn't enough for a few of them. Moving a garden hose around was an all day affair to water them once a week.

The trees are planted on 15' centers (15' between each tree in every direction).

I never thought to look up the watering requirements.
I'm right on the edge of Zone 5a and 5b if that matters, technically in 5b.

esshup,

One inch of precipitation = .62 gal/sq ft., using Area = pi x radius squared, a 8� diameter root zone is about 50 sf. and would require .62x50 = 31 gal. of water. If you have a 25 sf root zone (about 5.6' diameter) it would require 15.5 gal, if the zone is 12.5 sf (~2' diameter)it would require 7.75 gal.

So in the 8' diameter example if you watered once a week for one hour with a combination of emitters that provides approx 31 gph to a 50 sf area, this would provide the equiv. of 1� of rain. Since most fruit and nut trees require approx 2� per week, one of the following in this scenario could provide 2� per week: double the watering time, double the emitter output or simply water 2 times per week. Note that this assumes no rainfall. Rainfall should be subtracted from the irrigation requirements. A rain gauge would be a handy tool to keep in the irrigated area.

A 38� drip line with .9 GPH emitters @ 12� spacing would provide ~34 gph. Such a drip line would make 2 loops around an 8� diameter root zone (average about 3' from the trunk) to provide the equiv of 1� of rainfall.

Note that evapotranspiration (ET) is not considered here as the 2� precipitation rate is only an approximation to begin with. For reference, ET is defined as the water lost to the atmosphere from the ground surface (evaporation) and transpiration by plants. In Georgetown, TX, in March of 2010, the ET rate ranged between .05 to .3 inches per day. In July/Aug of 2010 it ranged from .10 to .35 in.

But I digress... Hope this helps.

Hey, what will you replace the 2 dead trees with? BTW, with sandy soil, it is better to provide irrigation perhaps 3 times a week. Just water 1/3 of the time than if watering once per week to provide the same 2" of water.

KDO:

Thanks! That helps a bunch. I agree, 3x week watering would be the best for them.

I don't know what to replace them with. The few that died were duplicates of what I had, plus I don't think the apricot tree made it either. I tried apricot trees 2 or 3 times and they didn't seem to do so well. I seem to have better luck with apples/pears than stone fruit trees, although the peaches did well last year. I was spoiled living in So. Cal. Fig and persimmon trees liked the climate, and so did avocado's. I had a few citrus trees as well, plus one apricot tree that would be loaded every year.

I've got a couple of cherry trees, a 2-3 pear trees, 2-3 peach trees, and the rest are different varities of apple. Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Scarlet, Wolf River, Honey Gold, JonaGold; I don't have a Gala. There was one apple tree here by the house when I bought the place and the owners couldn't tell me what kind it was. It stays green, and is ripe by the 3rd week of August. All the fruit should be picked no later than the first week of Sept, or it goes bad. Semi-Dwarf. The trunk is about 8" diameter.

I own and run a landscaping business here in mo. and we have found that using the drip with spaghetti tubing combined with the pvc buried next to the root ball is very effective at watering the trees. We place two tubes into the 1 1/2 inch pvc so the water gets to the bottom of the ball to promote a deeper root zone. It also comes in handy for using fertilizers. take slow release granules and place in the pvc per label and every time you water your tree is getting trace amounts of fertilizers. Especially useful when trees are next to your pond due to reduction in runoff because of heavy rains..