watering trees

[High Plains Drifter 11162]

 

Bad drought. Trees dying.

 

Is watering from the surface with a hose on trickle overnight (or over multiple days) going to really help a huge 30 yr old ponderosa pine make it through a drought?

 

Also have some fruit trees I planted (peach, apple, pear), some a few years ago, some a little over a year ago. How much water do they need? Weekly, monthly, depends on the season?

 

[Catpfish 618]

The trickle absolutely will but you need to put it at the drip line and not by the trunk.  I had an outside faucet that dripped and didn't feel like fixing it because it was a perfect rate for watering the live oak in front of my house.  I ran a hose to the drip line and just moved it every once in a while.  That tree never struggled through the 2011 drought...kept growing, as a matter of fact.

[Dahobbs 18196]

On 3/19/2021 at 11:44 AM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Bad drought. Trees dying.

 

Is watering from the surface with a hose on trickle overnight (or over multiple days) going to really help a huge 30 yr old ponderosa pine make it through a drought?

 

Also have some fruit trees I planted (peach, apple, pear), some a few years ago, some a little over a year ago. How much water do they need? Weekly, monthly, depends on the season?

 

So... I originally read this thread title as "watering teens"

I don't know what I expected. 

[Guest Lobo]

For your pine, just invest in a soaker hose.  For a 30YO pine, make a half dozen or so revolutions around the base of varying circumference.  Run for a couple hours 2-3x/week from now until the Summer Solstice, after that same deal but every other day through the summer heat.  The lack of rain and fucked up February weather is really screwing with mature trees right now.  If the base of your pine and/or fruit trees is in an undulating part of your yard, you're gonna wanna dig a little "fortifying trench" on the downward part to help capture runoff.  But you'll eventually find a soaker setting on the host and your faucet that kinda soaks the tree base and the immediate area nicely.  You should start to notice results in a month or two, but keep it up over the summer.  Not sure what to tell you on the fruit trees.  Only ones I have are loquats and those fuckers laugh off everything that's ever been done to them.  

[deadshank 24654]

37 minutes ago, Lobo said:

For your pine, just invest in a soaker hose.  For a 30YO pine, make a half dozen or so revolutions around the base of varying circumference.  Run for a couple hours 2-3x/week from now until the Summer Solstice, after that same deal but every other day through the summer heat.  The lack of rain and fucked up February weather is really screwing with mature trees right now.  If the base of your pine and/or fruit trees is in an undulating part of your yard, you're gonna wanna dig a little "fortifying trench" on the downward part to help capture runoff.  But you'll eventually find a soaker setting on the host and your faucet that kinda soaks the tree base and the immediate area nicely.  You should start to notice results in a month or two, but keep it up over the summer.  Not sure what to tell you on the fruit trees.  Only ones I have are loquats and those fuckers laugh off everything that's ever been done to them.  

I see your loquat and raise you a mesquite. 

[Guest Lobo]

Well the loquat at least brings monarchs twice a year for the kids to enjoy (we've got three, all of which are well over 25' and multi-trunked).  And last spring during start of pandemic, all kinds of folks came over to help themselves to fruit to make jam.  It's a pain in the ass to prune every year, but brings lots of joy.  But you're right about Mesquites---tough and only bring draught and death it seems. One of my dipshit neighbors planted bamboo in his backyard between his pool and my backyard which just became a fucking haven for mosquitoes.  So I'm sure next year somebody will talk him into planting cedar or mesquite.  Super nice family but they have the outdoor acumen of Paris Hilton. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by Lobo

[Ignatius 4125]

Fuck cedar trees. Love the wood itself but the living beings are fucking parasites. Kind of a “I’m in favor of halfway houses but not in my neighborhood” thing...

Edited March 25, 2021 by Ignatius

[Ignatius 4125]

1 minute ago, Ignatius said:

Dp

Edited March 25, 2021 by Ignatius

[High Plains Drifter 11162]

17 hours ago, Ignatius said:

Fuck cedar trees. Love the wood itself but the living beings are fucking parasites. Kind of a “I’m in favor of halfway houses but not in my neighborhood” thing...

 

 

Even some of the cedar (juniper) trees are starting to die. Which is fine, but if the drought is killing those fucking things, you know its bad.