easier ideas on watering a field of many trees

15 years ago

Hi, I'm a new member and I hope someone out there can give me some pointers. We bought a 10 acre piece of land last year. It was an old farmyard, but its basicly needed most things redone. For one thing, it has no trees surrounding the property, with the exception of some on the far north side. I, without giving it enough thought ordered close to a thousand shelterbelt trees. I did get them all in the ground but we are having a bit of a dry summer and I practically live out in the tree patch[HA] We have a big dugout and we pump it out using a drip hose, but unless I use only a 50 ft. length, I don't get enough water out of it if I use a longer length. So I am constantly going back and forth moving hoses. Has anyone got a better ideas to make this somewhat easier. I sure would appreciate it, thankyou so much!

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Comments (3)

davidandkasie
15 years ago
buy a better hose. soakers, especially chealy made ones, are famous for not putting out water evenly over the full length.

i bought a 500' roll of soaker hose off ebay last year, and it water evenly the entire length, though this year i did cut it into smaller sections.

if i were you i would spend the money to put in some PVC and stick a spigot up every now and then to provide water. this way you can hook up the hoses where needed.

you may even just need to use impact sprinlers to water whole areas, instead of trying to water just the trees. it wastes water, but may be your only affordable choice for that size area.
lehua49
15 years ago
Hi Larkspur G,

You need to provide more info to get any meaningful help.
D&K have given you real good advice using soaker hoses and PVC.
I guess a dugout is an artificial pond of some sort. What is the pressure (PSI) and the flow rate (gpm or gph) of the pump. The pump will be the work horse or basis of any system you will install. Sounds like you don't have much pressure or enough flow for what you need. Only guessing until you tell us what the pump output is. Then like D&K said install a PVC pipe system that visits all the trees closely. Include a filter for protection of any soaker hoses and emitters you use. For the number of tree you said you will plant, you need a hefty system or one that is constantly cycling through zones with alot of redundant piping. How big is your dugout (gals or liters). That will also make a difference. Aloha.
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Sherwood Botsford (z3, Alberta)
15 years ago
Not sure where you are, but I have been through all of that. If you can come and visit me, I can show you my solutions.
I'm near Warburg, an hour SW of Edmonton.

Anyone else, the tree farm is always open for tours, but call for an appointment.

1. I ran a 1.5" line from my house to the tree yard 1200 feet away. I have no problem getting 5 gpm through this.
With a 1/2" line I was getting 1 gpm.

2. Around the house I put in 500' of 3/4" line with a hose
bib every 100 feet. I never have to use double hoses.

4. Before you mulch the shelterbelt trees, rototill next to them. Lightly. Just enough to cut the tops of the weeds. If the weeds are already tall, then crush the weeds. The ideal way is with a crimping roller. Think lawn roller with 3/4" angle iron welded to it every 4" all the way around. (It will roll better if you have multiple rows staggered.) This crushes the weeds, damaging them enough that they dry out, but leaves them in place as mulch.

3. Shelterbelt trees: Mulch HEAVILY. Those weeds will kill.

5. Run half inch line by each tree. Use a needle held in a vice grip and punch 3 needle holes by each tree. Take a scrap of old tarp, wrap the tarp around the pipe over the holes, and staple loosely. This keeps the holes from watering the space 5 feet from the tree. A 1/2 line will support about 3-500 needle holes at 40 psi.