A little tree planting journey

[ducks4you]

If you are like ME (with livestock, for those who don't know), you probably have several leaky water buckets (Again, for those who don't know we use 5 gallon painters buckets to carry water for livestock) not yet thrown away.
Take a Sharpie, write "leaky" on it, fill it with water and put the bottom on top of the tree roots, wherever you figure they are. VERY good drip irrigation!
Use those mosquito donuts to keep down their population.
You could also use the tree's plastic pot. Line it with a garbage bag and use scissors to stab 1/2 a dozen holes, then fill with water. Tie it to a stake away from the tree.
Keep checking them.
I am currently using a 100 gallon Rubbermaid water tank for drip irrigation on my older cherry tree. We have had droughts for several years now. Right NOW, our drought has lasted a month. Last year and 2020 we went to drought middle of the summer after a VERY WET Spring.
Last year this tree lost almost all of it's leaves. Watering this way with the draining hole slightly open saved it, and it grew back leaves, AND, surPrisingly, it jumped a season and grew flowers. Go figure!
I would ALWAYS assume your tree needs MUCH more water than you think. UNLESS it is sitting is a low spot and you have a rainy season, it really needs a lot of water to establish roots and to grow limbs.]
Hope this helps! Good luck!!

 

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Tree update.

 

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Moved over and planting my 8 willows this weekend. Then gotta find spots for the 5 pawpaw trees.
Gotta pull up the old water system from the trees by the barn.

The girls supervising spacing.

This side of fence until I can fence the trees. Everything eats willow!

 

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Looks like there's more than enough tubing! Just need a few tees and drip ends. Garden hose with fittings also going to be brought over and reused. Yay!
Hidden under a light layer of dirt and grass, zero damage!

 

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Lost my shovel....wtf...
Anywho. Mostly planted. Got the tubing laid out part way. Need to trim ends and reconfigure to reach all the way down.

 

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Dang....just a few feet short!



I have leftover tubing somewhere....

 

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Found the excess I had saved, and then the new box I had bought.
Gonna use it for the garden, too, so I don't need to hand water!

 

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Got the trees fenced off and Moos back out.

 

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One of the pawpaws is finally starting to leaf out!
Still need to plant, cage and run irrigation to them.

 

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Gotta plant them...
Should they go between the willows, just offset?? Adding drips to them would be super easy then.
They like shade when young, but being on a drip should make it fine. Just need to figure out spacing from the willows. They're smaller and slower growing than willows.


Left side of yellow line, pasture. Right side of yellow line, horse track.
Bright green dots, willows.
Dark reen dots, pawpaw placement?
Brown & red, gate.
Twal lines, current drip line.
Dark blue line, new drip line.