Tree watering..

dougcrann

Planted 16 trees this spring. Few were dug out of a neighbors yard, the rest came from the Arbor Day Foundation. They are all small. Our soil is well drained and sandy....for the most part. Have an above ground drip line ran to them. 2 gallon@hour emitters. All with a "T" in them so the water is spread out some. In the dark about frequency and duration they should be getting watered. Right now I am skipping 3 days between waterings. They are getting 3 hours at a clip. Not sure it is enough....not sure if its to much....

GregW

That's something you will have to monitor on an almost daily basis. It varies with outdoor temp and the soil type you have.
I would go with every other day for an hour. If this is too much I would reduce the time.
Now if the trees are over 2-3 inches in trunk diameter you may need to go up on the time.
When we used to set out hundreds of apple trees in the orchard we left the soil around the tree dished out or concave to prevent the irrigation water from running off. We also kept fertilizer mixed with the irrigation water at a concentration of 200 PPM. The fertilizer and proper watering makes a huge difference in tree growth. At the end of a 5 year period you can expect to see a properly fertilized and watered tree to be 2 to 2.5 times bigger than a tree that receives no care. It is also vitally important to keep the grass back from the tree.