Watering Trees

[dsfbrit]

We planted quite a few trees in the garden 4 years ago, about 100 in total.

We have always watered them every 3-4 days. This takes about 2 hours and is a real chore.

Now that they are established, does this still need to be done, or can they find their own water via their roots.

I don't know much about this type of thing at all, so any advice would be appreciated.

[sbk]

Unless its really hot and dry you can cut right back on the watering schedule. How big are they now?

[ignis]

Appears you did it a bit wrong in planting the trees without a thought to watering…

Ideal you should have buried/put a ½ or ¾ pipe all around connected to a tap/ automatic water timer, and drilled a small hole in the pipe by all the trees the added a small tube so they all got watered at the same time.. very simple….

Now the question is have you shade by the trees? [re- pipe above ground = the water gets hot in the sun…….. or water before the sun comes up…… buy hose pipe/pipes and lay on top of the ground, again drill/punch holes by each tree, add the fixing and small pipe, job done.

You can buy the small black tube + the fixings from Home Pro, or any Fish/Pond/Aquarium suppliers….. if you go into a Fish suppliers with Tanks you will see what I am talking about with there AIR Supply. Same system but you need to connect to the water and not a air pump..

I have put in the same system before planting, therefore all my trees and plants are watered every day now 4 years old and much bigger and greener than others in the Village + use the same type of system for the Ponds.

As for do they need water ?? well where I live all the 'wild' trees appear to be near water/canel, all planted trees get watered by the water truck or Fire Truck.... no mater where I drive will always see a few water trucks, watering on big roads and small roads

Edited April 13, 2008 by ignis

[dsfbrit]

Unless its really hot and dry you can cut right back on the watering schedule. How big are they now?

Thanks for the fedback. They range from about 12 feet - 20 feet. They are different types, but they are all fairly mature now.

I have wondered whether all the watering is really necessary as when we have forgoten to water them for over a week, they dont look any different - seem Ok to me.

I was thinking of not watering just a few of them for a month as a test to see if they die off or not.

[dsfbrit]

Appears you did it a bit wrong in planting the trees without a thought to watering…

Ideal you should have buried/put a ½ or ¾ pipe all around connected to a tap/ automatic water timer, and drilled a small hole in the pipe by all the trees the added a small tube so they all got watered at the same time.. very simple….

Now the question is have you shade by the trees? [re- pipe above ground = the water gets hot in the sun…….. or water before the sun comes up…… buy hose pipe/pipes and lay on top of the ground, again drill/punch holes by each tree, add the fixing and small pipe, job done.

You can buy the small black tube + the fixings from Home Pro, or any Fish/Pond/Aquarium suppliers….. if you go into a Fish suppliers with Tanks you will see what I am talking about with there AIR Supply. Same system but you need to connect to the water and not a air pump..

I have put in the same system before planting, therefore all my trees and plants are watered every day now 4 years old and much bigger and greener than others in the Village + use the same type of system for the Ponds.

As for do they need water ?? well where I live all the 'wild' trees appear to be near water/canel, all planted trees get watered by the water truck or Fire Truck.... no mater where I drive will always see a few water trucks, watering on big roads and small roads

You are right, it wasn't planned at all. My wife took over the handling of the garden and she said she wanted some trees 'to produce some fruit'. She told me the fruit would be free in a few years time and she would look after everything.

She was quite happy to water the trees - so I left her to it.

That was 4 years ago and we now seem to live in a small forest.

Most of the trees seem fairly mature and quite a few of them do produce fruit.

I like the trees we have, it just seems to me unnecessary to water them so much.

After all, as you say the 'wild' trees around here dont need watering and they seem OK. In fact, to my untrained eye, some of the fruit trees seem the same as the 'wild' trees.

Its not about cost or anything, we have a well so get free water, it just seems to take up a lot of time each week.

If we dont water the trees and they start to look a bit sick, if we start watering again will they recover or is it too late then. I

suppose it depends on the type of tree does it???

[ignis]

I am sure there are people that know about this much better than me..

In the .Algarve. Portugal we had about 600 fruit trees, some were watered and some were not.. it goes like this…

Orange Trees, had to be watered

Lemon Trees, had to be watered

Plum Trees, made little different [had 3 types]

Fig Trees, watering = best figs = top resale price, but with care or the figs would split.

Olive Trees, same as figs with care for top price

Almond Trees, it appeared to make no difference

Carob Trees, [large trees looks like runner beans hanging, pick when black, used for diabetic chocolate and cattle foods] made no difference.

We also had a well, so water was not a problem…

[sbk]

Yes, its true, some trees need more, some less.

That said, a mature tree does better with regular deep watering, than with frequent light waterings. So, instead of watering 2-3 times a week, try watering every two weeks. Don't flood the trees, but give them alot of water.

Fruit trees do need water to produce fruit, if you don't water them the trees won't die but you won't get as much fruit. Mature trees need less water than developing trees as their root systems should be fairly deep.

[Gary A]

My wife planted a variety of fruit trees several years ago and still plants new ones occasionally. She waters them regularly until the get a good start. After that she keeps an eye on any that the leaves start to shrivel. She then waters them until they look healthy again.