200 trees to water

[Down2Earth]

This is the second year the trees have been planted around my yard. Watering takes up all my fishing time? I just finished digging a moat around every tree and it has cut the watering time way down. I just use the hose fromm tree to tree and fill the moat every other day. Now that's not good enough and I've been in the thinking mode for the last couple of days. I'm thinking of running a garden hose by every tree and then drilling a hole in the hose so that the hole sits over the moat in each tree so i can just turn on the water and be done in about ten minutes. Do you think this will work? Any suggestions? Not that I have to mow with all the rain we are getting but when I do I can see the problem of moving the hose and then having to line up all the holes again. Thanks in Advance.

[RobertELee]

The only problem with that is if you drill the same size hole the entire distance, the ones at the beginning of the run will get over-watered the ones at the end will get under-watered because of the pressure drop. Your going to have to start out with smaller holes (1/16" maybe?) and work your way up. It may take a little trial and error but you should be able to get it to work.

[waskawood]

A mote? Oh, oh I feel myself being fitted for a pair of cement overshoes

[Powerstroke]

You should look into the bags that wrap at the base of trees. They give a solid watering over about 72hrs. You fill them once and leave them for a few days. Its kinda the same system, but you could get more water in with less maintenance.

[311Hemi]

Try using small segments of soaker hoses near the trees (probably looping around the trees), and standard hose in between each segment running from tree to tree.

We use these in out garden and they work great.

Also: Not sure if there are limits on recommended total length of the hoses you are running if you use this...you might have to look into that. I know one brand said the complete setup should have no more that 600' of soaker hose per faucet, and nothing more that 100' of length per segment. But.....that was for one particular brand I found just doing a google earch.

[LABS4ME]

The 'tree gators' are ungoddly expensive. Buying any amount will set you back handsomely. If memory serves me correctly, they are in the neighborhood of $20.00. That'd set you back $4000 unless you planned on constantly moving them...

We ran into this problem a few years ago when a buddy planted a couple hundred seedlings. He wanted a way to water them efficiently and slowly, but had no way to get water to them except by a water tank, and wanted to speed up the watering process...

I told him to have everyone he knows save up there 1 gallon milk jugs and cut the tops off. Poke a half dozen holes in the bottom and put one decent sized rock in the bottom of each one, so they wouldn't blow away. He was able to drive down the rows with the hose in his hand and fill each jug rapidly and they'd slowly drip the water into the ground. By mid-summer, he had 2 jugs by each seedling. It made a huge difference in the survival of these young trees compared to previous attemps. After he was done with the jugs, he shook out the rocks and recycled them... (1 down fall, it took him a couple weeks to get them all gone to the recyclers, even smashed )

Back then the city was giving away free mulch from storm damaged trees... check with your city or a tree clearing company and see if you can get some free mulch... it really helps keep the moisture in the soil. Even a weighted down section of newspaper with some grass clippings on top works as mulch...

Good Luck!

Ken

[Powerstroke]

I wouldn't buy 200 bags. I would buy maybe 50 and fill them. Once they are empty move them. If they last 3 days, then you would give each tree like 20 gallons once every 2 weeks. I think that is pretty decent. $20 is cheap insurance for a $200 tree.

[LABS4ME]

Not trying to get in an argument P.S. just giving the gentleman a cheap alternative to water 200 trees...

We tested the tree gators back in '95. They work good, they are expensive. 50 of them still comes out to around $1000.00. They empty out their 15-20 gallons in about 1/2 a day. That's a lot of moving bags and filling bags.

Also I gotta believe that he doesn't have (200) $200.00 trees. If he does, I'm mad I didn't get a chance to bid his job! If he does, you're correct, he'll have to invest whatever it takes to get them through this heat. If they are small, the technique I posted works well and you can fill the 2 jugs per tree in less than a minute and you have almost zero run off. We did this on hunting land and a good majority of them made it through the summer.

Whatever way you water, mulching them will definitley be your ally. It will keep the topsoil around the young feeder roots moist, and the moist soil will absorb water instead of letting it run-off like parched soils will do.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Down2Earth]

All of the trees were seedlings and this is their second summer in my yard. I have 225ft of hose and 3 water faucets on the house. I can reach all the trees. Like I said I dug out around each tree and hole can hold about 2-2.5 gallons of water. I walk around to every tree with the hose and fill up the hole once very 2 days. It takes quite a while to get to every tree. I have 1 row (60) Lilac trees. Then a row of crab apple trees (30) and a total of 7 rows of evergreens on three sides of the house (120). I was also told by the Soil and Water guy that grass clippings are like poison to evergreen trees. The milk jug idea could have been a good one before I dug out every tree but Now I walk around an fill up the holes I dug just like I would have to walk around and fill up the milk jugs or bring each jug to the faucet to fill it up and back again. Without putting in a sprinkler system I was just wondering if someone had rigged up something where I could just turn on the faucet, get the boat ready, cooler, kid, eat supper,and go shut the faucet off because the roles where filled. By no means am I a lazy person. I'm just trying to build a better mousetrap. Thanks for the ideas so far to everyone.

[LABS4ME]

I wasn't sure if you were close to a water source. Here is another inexpensive route to go.

You can try to go to an irrigation supply company and buy a couple rolls of 3/4" poly pipe, and some drip irrigiation lines. They screw into the main line and allow a small trickle of water where you want it. Many nurserys are going this route for their trees in the tree lot. We had a similar system in our nurery. Attach a hose end adapter and you are good to go.

Make sure you blow out the lines in the fall to prevent the small drip tubes from cracking.

Good Luck!

Ken

[sparcebag]

D2E happy too see all dem trees! When I drove by I was wondering,thinkin to myself WOW no trees I should make some suggestions,but I didn't want too interfer some people like open sunny yards,ya could go a temp PVC, PEX,laid on top of ground,mow right over it move it every 10 days or so as not to kill grass,pin holes at each tree.I used that way in Cal to get my fruit trees stable. Just reread the garden hose Idea will work! its just start small holes and observe & adjust,The hose may expand and enlarge the holes,but its cheap and easy!

[sparcebag]

when I'm cruisin the country lookin for fishin holes,birds,animals,crops I seem to not look close at houses,yards,

[Powerstroke]

I do like Labs second idea. The temp irrigation is a cheap alternative to the permanent solution. I wasn't trying to argue either just clarifying my thought. I didn't realize these were seedlings. I don't have personal experience with the bags, I'd just seen them used lately and thought it was a good idea. Too bad they aren't very practical for large jobs.