Orchard Diary 2010: 5/31/2010 Drip irrigation system (Part 1)

First, my apologies for the poor camera work. I cracked the display on my camera and I'm never sure what I'm aiming it at...

I deal with flood and drought in my small orchard, so I'm installing a small drip irrigation system to tend the trees with. I was bucket watering the trees, but that simply took too much time.

I chose to raise the drip line off of the ground to make tending the trees easier. Each trees has a 1 gallon/hour emitter on either side of its trunk so ensure good watering, and to draw the roots out away from the trunk.

I'm currently using a portable pump and a garden hose to supply each line individually, but I'll be adding a buried water line/manifold and 3/4 horsepower pump so that I can run all of the rows at the same time.

The time I would have spent watering will now be used for checking and spraying the trees!

Praying for peace on Memorial Day, 2010.

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• orchard
• irrigation
• cider
• apple
• drip irrigation

[ayelvington]

I regret that I have no science that led me to the amount of water. Our soil and drainage require almost daily watering to support the fully dwarfing rootstock (B.9 and others). I lost six or more trees due to not watering them enough, and I have very shallow topsoil above clay, so the topsoil tends to dry out quickly. The holes are 24" deep, so there is ample drainage below the roots to prevent drowning the tree...

[stephenhayesuk]

Opps! sorry, I just looked at teh second video in this series and see you have used a polythene mulch on most of the trees

[stephenhayesuk]

Thanks for this useful video. I am considering irrigation after the drought we have in England this year. In the past it would have been unthinkable, but more orchaardists here are doing it.

Do you have any science for the gallon a day figure? it sounds high. And also your young trees would benefit from weed control, if you prefer to avoid glyphosate then polythene or other mulch might help

I'm with you on your final comment about swords and ploughshares. kind regards