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| I am in the midst of s severe drought here in Iowa. I have fruit rees of various ages,,some young Paw Paw, and dwarf oak,,also some 5 yr old shade trees. How much water a week should they get? To basically just keep them alive. to compound the problem it is near 100' every day! One of my willows is dropping leaves as in fall already. I give most trees 5 gal a week. I let the hose slow run on the shade trees ,,maybe 30 gal. The future looks bleak to say the least in this drought. I know many others have the same story. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Wed, Jul 18, 12 at 18:12
| Lone, we can't quantify this. What you're after is ensuring that the soil-all the soil-into which these plants root systems are growing, is kept moist. Usually, a once-a-week soaking is the best way to accomplish this. But......there's nothing "usual" about the conditions you and a bunch of us are seeing. There's an inexpensive gadget that can be used to probe the soil to assess its moisture status-your finger! Seriously, there's just no substitute for getting in there and seeing what's going on, moisture-wise. +oM |
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| Quantity isn't the entire story, anyway. It's more a question of how well you can soak the root mass. Running a hose on top of the ground could result in most of the water running off, especially in certain soil types that become resistant to moisture uptake when dry. I used to make basins around young trees, and use a little squirt of dishwashing liquid in the first stream of water to act as a wetting agent when certain soils had dried out to the point they repelled water. Slow drip irrigation may work better than flooding for some situations, especially once you have the root mass soaked up. One thing that is cheap and easy is to take a 5 gallon bucket, drill a small hole and insert a very slow drip emitter into it, then place at the tree and fill. Even cheaper are recycled gallon jugs with a tiny pinprick in the bottom -- fill, cap so water won't come out in transport, then remove the cap after you've placed at the tree. |
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- Posted by loneranger_grow (My Page) on Wed, Jul 18, 12 at 21:46
| Sorry but here is my question again. I have clay soil; Believe me there is no problem with runoff. Water is sucked right down. My question is quantity, for bare bones survival! 5 gals a tree? 10,,,20 ft maples, 30? Just wondering how much. |
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| I thought I read that 1" of water can penetrate 6" of clay soil. If someone can confirm that then the math should be easy if you really wanted an estimate of quantity. The replies pretty much nailed it though. You're going to drive yourself nuts trying to figure out the quantity. |
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| Loneranger, Again, as +oM said, no one can give you an answer to that question without knowing MANY variable about your site and your trees. Think of it this way. What if I ask you how much I should eat right now. You don't know if I just got through eating or if I haven't eaten for days. You don't know how much I normally eat per meal. You don't know my health or if I'm on a diet. There's just no simple answer without being in my shoes or having lots more info than you currently have. The same thing goes for watering your tree. You'll need to check for soil moisture and make a judgement based on your findings. Re-read what +oM said and take it to heart. He was right on target with his answer. |
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| The basics about watering trees are that they prefer a very good, deep soaking once a week or so, with time for things to dry out somewhat in between. Like everyone else said, we really can't give you an actual amount without knowing a whole lot more; ideally you would probably just water until its obviously soaked well. |
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