Watering my Trees

Anonymous Poster · Jul 21, 2002

Just finished a full day of planting some oaks and continued progress on 1800 ft of fencing. I'll pay for it tomorrow, but a first day well spent on our new property. The new tractor gets to play this coming weekend.
Now that we've started some small trees and a few oleanders I'm trying to figure out the best way to keep them watered until the well and electric power is installed. I'll have to bring water to the site for the time being.
What did you do? 55 gal drums seem feasible to put into the back of a 1/2 ton truck. I've also seen poly tanks available for this purpose, but I wanted to find out from someone who's been down this road before.
Thanks for your help.

TimSullivan · Jul 21, 2002

I was in your position last year when I planted 250 small trees on our new property. There was no well so I had to haul water from our old home. I was lucky it was only 4 miles.

I used 55 gallon plastic barrels. Hauled them on a trailer to the land and tried to fight the drought. About 200 trees survived the winter and the construction.

Planted about fifty larger trees this spring when we moved in and now I have them to water too. There has been no rain in three weeks. Now I just put a barrel in the loader and start driving to each and every tree. I have to spread it out over the day to let the well recover but the trees are doing well.

cstocks · Jul 22, 2002

I planted eight trees and bushes on my three acres back in the spring and use a 55 gallon plastic drum to water them between rain showers. I put a 50' length of water hose inside the drum (where it resides permanently) and leave the female end of the hose protruding from the bung hole. When I need to water my plants I stand the empty drum on end in the bed of my pickup, attach the water hose coming from the faucet to the end of the hose sticking out of the drum and fill the drum with water. Before I transport the drum from my house to my lot I pull the hose out of the drum about about five feet and stick the female connection back into the bung hole, leaving a loop hanging down the outside of the drum. This keeps the end of the hose from disappearing into the drum and at the same time prevents water from siphoning out into the bed of my pickup while I am driving. When I get to my lot I just pull up along side my plants, pull the hose out of the drum a little ways and start watering. And because there is 50' of hose inside the drum I can walk quite a ways without having to move the truck.

This method works for me because I only have a few plants to water. It is simple and efficient and I don't have to manhandle the drum or worry about priming the hose. Since I filled the drum through the hose it is already primed and ready to go.

RoMo · Jul 22, 2002

Just a quick note on the 55 gal. drums. they will each weigh about 450 lbs. each. How many can you carry in your truck without being overloaded?

njrqs · Jul 22, 2002

Yep I went the 44 gallon drum option (Well now they are 200 Litre and I suggest probably 55 US gallons)

I didn;t have the hose option so would fill them at the house and then drain them into buckets and water the trees with the buckets.

Only had 1 in the truck but at 200kg full, I could put 2 in the truck no worries. (Hey if it is a 1 Tonne truck - I could put 5 in !!)

But now I have taps everywhere and a maze of pipes but I don't have to cart water !!

(Tap = Faucet to you guys !!)

RobS · Jul 22, 2002

Chevdog, I went with the 55 gallon drum plan a couple of years ago. Works well, make sure you get the lids or you'll loose a lot of water on the way. The large bungs are 2"NPT for which you can find all sorts of fittings and valves. I started with garden hose but upsized as the only feed pressure is gravity. One other note, check what was in the drums you get before you use them. Wouldn't want to kill your new trees with some leftover roundup or something /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

pajoube · Jul 22, 2002

A number of years ago we owned a tree farm and planted 2000 two year old transplants a year. Like you we had no water available so we pumped water out of the lake into 55 gallon drums on the back of the pickup. With an attached hose we would drive down the lanes and water the trees. The most important factor started here. Each tree was planted with the ground cut out around the tree so that it created a hollow. Using a two-gallon coffee can that we filled from the hose each tree was watered once every 5 days.
Using a two-gallon can gave enough water without waste. Hollowing out kept the water where we wanted it. The best would have been to use wood chips to decrease the evaporation but planting 2000 trees each year made this much to much work. Out lose ratio was very low.
PJ

Anonymous Poster · Jul 22, 2002

Thanks to all of you. It's amazing how much I DON'T know /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Looks like I can put two - 55 gal containers in the truck without a problem, as I've got some coil helper springs in the back for some added capacity.

I've printed this out and will follow your advice down to adding a hollow spot around the base of the plant and I'll add some chip to retain some moisture too.

This will also keep me in good graces with the CEO.

don123 · Jul 22, 2002

look up my previous thread on the horseshoe waterer. i have a 225 gallon plastic tank from TSC and a one inch drain hose. i can fill the 18 gallon container in seconds. i carry the tank in the back of a half ton chevy ext. cab truck. i would not rec. a larger size.

TresCrows · Jul 22, 2002

I installed irrigation--drip---with timer--to my trees I planted in the "Back 4". I water the remainder with a water hose--mostly from my well but sometimes expensive rural water. This is what my nighbors did who have only a GT and could not trench to set an irrigation system--they bought a trailer and set a 200ish gallon poly tank. They then tow this to each tree with their GT and water away. Another neighbor carries a similar tank in his old farm truck pick'em up truck. He refills from his well. Another also got a trailer and even has a pump on it and he gets water from his pond and then pulls it with his riding mower -GT--to his trees. It would seem that a 55 gallon drum would not go very far.
You can get those trailer kits from Harbor Freight, Attwoods had some trailers fairly cheap. I saw a guy who converted a pick up truck bed to a huge water tank. J