Here is one article railling against the danger of overwatering.
"try to water no more than once a week"
OK, I'm sure all my summer planted trees would now be dead if I did that. By soil moisture test, I need to water the two Crepe Myrtles every 2 days, and the Oak every 2-3 days. Mind you these are newly planted container plants, and the afternoon temperatures reach 102.
Why don't they simply tell everyone to get a soil moisture gauge?
"when you do make sure you give them a good soaking"
What's a good soaking? They don't say. No way to judge.
The guy who planted my Oak gave me a suggestion I now know was wrong. Let the soaker run 2 hours he said. That might work if I had it turned down extremely low. The problem with that is you have no idea how many gallons of water are being delivered. Soaker hoses vary, water pressures vary. Did he really consider I have 25 feet of soaker hose wrapped around each plant?
What seems to work for me is a one hour soak at rather low level. This is probably too much, it could be as much as 20-30 gallons. I think 10 gallons or so would be fine. Every 2 or 3 days as requried.
The oak planter also suggested deep soaking. But since he comes from West San Antonio, he possibly has no idea how non-draining clay soils work. You don't want to over soak especially because the water just sits there until it dries out. Especially just past the root ball (within the root ball, the container soil drains well, and the plant drinks the water, so it gets dry by the second day.
For a newly planted tree, the critical part is the root ball. It MUST have enough water for the plant to survive, because roots aren't going much anywhere else.
So two hour soaking at full pressure is definitely out. Both water quantity and frequency should be controlled.
Unfortunately, short of installing a drip system (as I plan to have done tomorrow) you simply don't know how much water you are delivering. That is maddening I think. There should be water flow gauges that can show how many gallons are delivered.
"try to water no more than once a week"
OK, I'm sure all my summer planted trees would now be dead if I did that. By soil moisture test, I need to water the two Crepe Myrtles every 2 days, and the Oak every 2-3 days. Mind you these are newly planted container plants, and the afternoon temperatures reach 102.
Why don't they simply tell everyone to get a soil moisture gauge?
"when you do make sure you give them a good soaking"
What's a good soaking? They don't say. No way to judge.
The guy who planted my Oak gave me a suggestion I now know was wrong. Let the soaker run 2 hours he said. That might work if I had it turned down extremely low. The problem with that is you have no idea how many gallons of water are being delivered. Soaker hoses vary, water pressures vary. Did he really consider I have 25 feet of soaker hose wrapped around each plant?
What seems to work for me is a one hour soak at rather low level. This is probably too much, it could be as much as 20-30 gallons. I think 10 gallons or so would be fine. Every 2 or 3 days as requried.
The oak planter also suggested deep soaking. But since he comes from West San Antonio, he possibly has no idea how non-draining clay soils work. You don't want to over soak especially because the water just sits there until it dries out. Especially just past the root ball (within the root ball, the container soil drains well, and the plant drinks the water, so it gets dry by the second day.
For a newly planted tree, the critical part is the root ball. It MUST have enough water for the plant to survive, because roots aren't going much anywhere else.
So two hour soaking at full pressure is definitely out. Both water quantity and frequency should be controlled.
Unfortunately, short of installing a drip system (as I plan to have done tomorrow) you simply don't know how much water you are delivering. That is maddening I think. There should be water flow gauges that can show how many gallons are delivered.
No comments:
Post a Comment