remote tree watering system

[imyomama]

alright, so i'm planning on putting some pecans and fruit trees on my ranch in a couple of weeks , but west texas heat can be tough on young trees, so I came up with this idea to water them when they need it... I made a prototype in my driveway and it dispersed a little over 3 gallons overnight (12 hours or so..)

so here it is in short.. 55 gallon drum, some pvc fittings and a valve .. and cut up soaker hose.. make a ring from the soaker hose.. (see pic).. the bigger the ring , the more water it will put out.. the valve can slow the flow or turn off when not needed... the plan is to plant the tree.. put this ring on , then cover with mulch .. this way, less chance for evaporation, and all the water gets to the tree

I'll have to see how the trees do from turning this on for a day or so on the weekends.. based on rainfall, heat, etc... i'm not always there.. so here's the pic.I plan on planting 5 trees at a time just to seei'll start with pecan , pear and maybe one other kind.... deer ought to love it...whatcha think ?

[homegrown]

Makes sense to me. Gonna be heavy though.

[imyomama]

tractor with front end loader will do the hard work .. got a 300 gallon on a trailer for refills just got to buy a pump...

[texan16]

Ought to work pretty good. Gonna have to build some pens around your trees or the deer will eat them and kill them. Would hate to see all that hard work go down the drain.

[huntinfool]

You could put a guzzler on top to catch the free rain water when it is there.

[yanta61]

nice.....if your 300 gallon tank in higher that the top of the barrels you shouldn't need a pump. not sure how hight your trailer is.

[project]

Several years ago i planted some fruit trees. I used 4" pvc about 3 feet long necked down to 1" for about a foot and put a cap on the small end. Then i drilled about 10 1/8 diameter holes close to the bottom on the side facing the tree. Buried the bottom 12" in the ground and filled it up with water. The ground will soak up the water as needed and being below ground level it tends to make the roots of the tree go down deeper in search of water and will help them out later on. I would bury your soaker hose at least a foot deep and would do the same thing i did with a bigger tank for the water.

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[D.A. HUNTER]

You can buy a battery operated flow switch at home depot that works on a timer.So you dont have to worry about turning it off and on. You can find it where the sprinkler stuff is at.

[imyomama]

You can buy a battery operated flow switch at home depot that works on a timer.So you dont have to worry about turning it off and on. You can find it where the sprinkler stuff is at.

I don't think so .. most of them require minimum water pressure to work properly .. I emailed a company that specializes in this and they could not find one that would work with no pressure.. someone makes it .. but they don't carry it .. the home depot ones are the same way...

on the refill part .. I just ordered a well to be drilled on my place .. so i'll have water close by with no chemicals in it like city water.. i'll just get an extra barrel filled up and go refill that way .. just laying in the front end loader of the tractor and lifted 10 feet or so should make gravity drain pretty fast ...

I'll just turn the water on a needed for 12 to 24 hours every few weeks when I go there... i'll use a shovel to see waht the moisture level is around the tree

this way the roots won't be wet all the time either ..

I also think that as the ground saturates , the flow will slow ... we'll see..

got the barrels filled and on the trailer .. taking them this weekend along with 5 new trees .. 2 pecans and 3 fruit trees.. (what ever cross polinates)

I plan on using cattle pannels to wrap around the trees .. a 16 ft panel should make a nice circle around the tree and keep the critters out ...

my cz 452 will do the rest if varmints decide to try to pass the fortifications ..

[F250DSLPWR]

Great idea! I need to do this too.

[imyomama]

update! well the trees are in the ground.. and the barrels are installed... however it seems like it poured 1/3 of the barrel overnight.. I think the barrels being in the sun all day built up some pressure... so a small pressure relief hole will be needed on top, or run less time...

well , they got a good soaking either way.. got pic on my phone.. will post it later!

[baldybarton]

Well as the barrel empty's the flow will decrease as the pressure drops. p=gdh

[Dirtymike]

Should work like a champ. basicly a huge tree gator

[Edwards]

like the ideal ,might have to use the same set up when you get all the bugs worked out.

[johnsonzl]

They will water less and less as the water level drops but I really like the idea.