Watering my Trees

[Anonymous Poster]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I bought a 100 gal tank today - it's a poly tank with a molded in base so it won't roll around back there. Comes with a 3/4" FPT fitting at the bottom to which I added the adapters that let me attach a cut-off valve and a garden hose.
For the time being we'll go around with the truck - might get a small trailer to carry the tank a little later after we see if we have any budget left.
Thanks again.

 

[TCowner]

I bought an old manure spreader at a salvage yard for $50.00. I removed the beaters and apron and installed a treated floor and sides. I found an old 300 gallon fuel barrel that had not been used for several years and set it on the spreader chassis. I purchased a pto roller pump kit from Northern Tool. I ran 1" hose from the barrel to the pump and 5/8" hose from the pump to a spray nossel. I am able to water trees under pressure rather than rely on a gravity system. It works slick. I can sit on the tractor seat and drive up next to the trees with water or I can walk with the hose and water several trees before I have to move. Adequate water is the difference in getting transplanted trees to survive. Even if a tree survives the dry conditions it's growth next year is affected because some of the roots die in drought conditions. I have around $400.00 invested including the treated wood I used for the spreader.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I like it- just what I need though - another cool project to do /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif.
Didn't know I could run a pump to pressurize the barrel - very slick idea. Thanks.

 

[billbobtlh]

When I planted a long row of cedar trees , I used a 55 gal. can to transport water. But most of the water is not going where it is needed(the roots). Get a couple of 5 gal. buckets and drill a very small hole in the bottom side to let the water trickle out.
That way you can water five or six buckets fast and go on to something else until that water goes where it is needed. Then move the buckets and fill them up again. This works great on any new shrubs or trees because of the trickle of water.

 

[Henry]

I've got 65 newly planted trees to water. I fill 4 5-gallon buckets that are placed in the loader. This allows me to easily transport the water across the property. I made a cheap water-scoop by cutting the top off of a 1-gallon milk jug. It's very simple, but it works!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Well, the tank arrived and I'm pretty pleased with it - this is so simple even I can do it.
I bought it from www.usplastic.com - it's a one piece spun molded 70 gal tank and they install a 1" fitting in the bottom. It also has leg/stands and gallon markings molded in so it stays put and you can also see how much water you've used. I bought some adapters and a cut-off valve for a garden hose connection.
We just pull up in the truck and fill up the perforated cans we've got at each tree to let the water trickle into the ground as suggested above. Beats the heck out of lugging all those water coolers and cans around.

Now maybe a small utility trailer to put this on so I can use the tractor ..... hehe