Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Thuja Green Giant

I've planted a TON of Thuja Green Giants. They're super quick growers and would work really well around a pond. I highly recommend them. You could also check out Leyland Cypress Trees or Murray Cypress Trees . Depending on your area those may work better.

Here are a few that I planted July 2012 as a wind break/sound break from the highway on the left of photo and the pond on the right. the creek runs under the highway. A dang beaver ate one of them.. but 1/40 isn't too bad.

they are not pond poss advertisers, but if you google fast-growing-trees there will be a website with an eerily similar name. they have exceptional shipment, prices and customer service.


drp

Dustin looking good. At what size were they planted? How far apart did you decide to plant - looks like 5-8'? If they reach 20' spread you are going to have a living green wall of China! Would you endulge me and provide some insight on your process of planting, how often you irrigated, etc?

I bought 3-4 foot size trees, the medium size at the website i mentioned earlier.

I planted then 10 foot apart per instructions at the nursery, i dug the first 8 holes by hand, then went and bought the auger for my tractor and did the following 32 holes;


I was wrong.. i did this back in early MAY of last summer.

The watering was a very complicated and trial and error filled process; I have no electricity in the area. I have the water from the pond. I bought a 12 volt pump to pump water and did a drop irrigation to the trees. I tried 4 different pump setups. I started with 2 different bilge pump type pumps,




but they couldn't provide the pressure i needed to get up the hill, i finally used Jabsco 18660-0121 Marine Water Puppy Bilge/Sump Flexible Impeller Pump (380-GPH, 12-Volt, 15-Amp Non-CE, 1/2" NPT Ports) and this worked great... until i somehow burned out the little motor,



then i switched to Flojet On-Demand Pump - 4.9 GPM, 12 Volt, 3/4in., Model# 04300143A
I used this for the late summer into fall when i stopped watering as frequently.



I bought a small cheap 12 volt timer off of ebay that allwed me to schedule the timing, and i changed the deep cycle marine battery weekly.

this actually worked very well. I can get you more pictures of actual setup if you need!

I live in hot west Texas. We had 2 months of 100+ temps this summer. I was watering three times weekly for 1.5 hours. I have no idea if this was right, but the plants haven't died!

The grew about 1 foot this summer, but i anticipate great growth after the roots are established and they tap down to the wet soil that is a few feet deep.


drp

Dustin,

Thanks for the info on pumps. What did you use for the water line to the trees? What does drop irrigation mean?

Chris

I think he meant Drip irrigation..

Interesting...good report Dustin. I need trees, and have electricity for pumps, but haven't been able to throw my head around how to set things up. Those Thujas are good looking trees - I'll bet you have a nice screen in a few years.

TJ, I have a pretty good book on irrigation if you want to use it to learn the basics of it.. Also I could dig up some good sites and contacts just let me know..

Dustin, when I first saw this thread, I wondered how in the dickens you watered those things in Childress. I have also burnt up a pump or 3.

I bought some fruit trees from them, Dustin, and was very happy with the delivered product. Pricing isn't bad on small trees but does go up substantially as you go up in sizes, but you'd see that at your local nursery as well.

ill try to get exact details on my DRIP irrigation tonight when i get home.. basically i bought little plastic nipples that drip the water and a black plastic line from tractor supply. i bought connections to switch it to the black plastic from the water hose out of the pump. the little timer was from ebay direct from china for 10 dollars. ill get you links to all the parts. it took some time, trial and error to get it working, but it did a very good job after i got the kinks worked out.

drp

SO for the details, I used the pumps as described above, and I placed the pump, battery and timer in a 15 dollar large Tupperware storage container from walmart.

for the output, it ran a water hose to a regular water-hose "Y".

From here, I used 1/2 black poly hose from Tractor Supply. I also bought the little blue drip-irrigation nipples. These nipples are adjustable, so i can have the closer ones with less flow, allowing the further trees to still get water.


Hope this helps

DRP

We purchased and transplanted 200+ eastern white pines between 8 an 15 foot tall three years ago or so. Deer work several of them over pretty badly if don't use deer spray on them; but that can get pretty expensive too. We've lost several with the weather and some due to deer. In some ways, I wish we had set up an irrigation system of some sort; but...

I was told that Thuja's just don't handle heat well, so I opted for the Leyland Cypress. Heck, I lost two of them this past summer.

Did you end up caging them or is some more beavers going to move in and chomp away down that line???? Looks very tempting.

I have worked very diligently to take care of my beaver problem. As far as I know, as of last month, i have no more beaver problem. After posting in this thread, I went and reevaluated my trees. They haven't tolerated my winter very well. I am fearful that I didnt water them enough during the winter months. I wasnt very good about checking then during the winter. I didnt water for a while... They have some green left, but have some brown as well. I hope they perk up in the spring, otherwise, i will have to try round two...... i hope not! it is getting expensive to build a living fence!

If you fail, might have to try something like red cedar, they are more tolerant of the abusive weather than most evergreens. Maybe they are the trees in the background?

Due to the heat and drought of 2011, cedars are dying throughout Texas. Some are large and others small. I've lost some that are old and huge.

It is continuing, The first sign is a dying branch. It spreads through the tree. No idea how long it will last.

It is estimated that post oaks will be dying for the next 10 years due to the 2011 drought. If we don't get significant rain soon, ponds throughout Texas and Oklahoma( including mine) will be toast this year.

If Red Cedars can't make it, forget about it - should be planting palms or cacti.

True that, that is a major problem if the red cedars are dying. Though near a pond in the photo, looks like they are doing good because of moisture there, if indeed they are red cedars in that photo. Probably should have planted a fast growing deciduous row there too like bigfoot willow trees, so would already have a screen while the green giants are establishing and growing a little slower.
The thing about the Green Giant, is that it is a cross between west coast Thuja and Japanese Thuja, so is going to be a lot less tolerant to extremes than say red cedars. People have had some good growth with them, in certain areas of the country. In my local area, I keep trying and killing them, they seem to need winter protection here, rather than out in open.