Is it worth watering fruit trees ?

[nickdub]

Lets get the easy ones out of the way first. If your tree has been planted for less than a year, then watering in dry weather is only sensible - the tree might die if you don't. Similarly if you grow trees in containers you will presumably know that they need more water at this time of year when the weather is hot.

OK on to my main thought, having looked round my trees and the surrounding garden its obvious from the facts that the grass has stopped growing and that the weeds are looking droopy that its is time to make decisions re watering my established apple, plum pear etc trees. The trees will survive whatever I do, but the fruit that is developing on them now is another matter.

The plum trees are the largest say 30+ feet high and as the roots on trees are in proportion to the size above ground, I can leave them for now, as they will get water from deep down. The apples and pears are about 20' high and some of them are carrying a fair crop. I've got a lot more than I need, but I prefer to have some spare in case of problems with pests etc so what I will start doing is water a few of the trees which I definitely want good fruit from on rotation starting tomorrow and keep at it well the current dry spell continues - most of the trees will not be watered, as I don't have any outlet for tons of spare fruit.

Finally when watering a tree do not stand around spraying water about from a hose as you might on a lawn - get the hose near the base of the tree and make sure a reasonable trickle is coming out but not gushing (if you're on a slope you may need to make a trench to stop run off)- leave the hose there for about 30 mins depending on the sort of soil you're on - there's no point starting watering if you can't do it regularly until the next load of really soaking rain comes along - its an all or nothing decision.

I'm not trying to tell other people what to do here - everybody has different gardens, different priorities and different views on how water should be used. I do want to say that if you have a crop of fruit on your trees which is developing, then if your garden is as dry as mine, unless you get rain soon you won't get much of a crop unless you water.

[Runtpuppy]

After all that I've read here, that's how I've started watering my fruit tree pots. Instead of filling them with water from a gushing hose, I put it on a strongish trickle and get the soil around the stem damp.

I keep going from pot to pot, a little at a time, until the capillary action of the damp soil is ready to take over. It takes much longer for water to come out of the drainage holes this way, so I hope more is getting absorbed in the soil.

[nickdub]

Another trick you can use is to stand your pots in a deep trays or dishes filed with a sand/gravel mix then water in to that as well, and the plants will gradually take water from there too.

[Runtpuppy]

Nick, you have no idea how lazy I am. By the time I manage to get suitable-sized trays/dishes, fill them with gravel, and then put water in them, the plants would be dried twigs. I try to water them every other day, but today, I had to push myself as it was the third day they hadn't been watered.

And I know, trays will make work that much easier for me. I still won't be able to motivate myself to do it unless one day I get a burst of energy and just do it.

I've been meaning to put up pics of the fruit trees I had been panicking over some months ago as an update. They've got new growth, which I'm quite chuffed about... but have I done it? Have I?

No.

[burnie]

I have thin sandy soil that is very free draining, my 3 apple trees look fine, I have however followed on from the June drop and removed weak looking apples to assist the trees in this dry weather, I may get fewer apples than last year, but the trees should be fine without me giving them any water(the trees are nearly 15 years old by the way)

[nickdub]

No worries - I'm extremely lazy too, but I intersperse it at random with bouts of doing things obsessively, which sometimes includes gardening (possibly I'm a bit autistic). Anyway its one reason why I grow more fruit than veg, because the fruit can stand long periods of neglect better.

As for containers to make bowls out of, something like old paint pots would do if big enough, just cut down the sides to size. I tend to have long term plans for which I accumulate piles of junk and which sometimes come to fruition - so I'd be keeping an eye out for likely artifacts and odd piles of gravel around by the road, then squirreling them away for possible use next year - if I hadn't by then gone on to some other project :-)

[nickdub]

I have thin sandy soil that is very free draining, my 3 apple trees look fine, I have however followed on from the June drop and removed weak looking apples to assist the trees in this dry weather, I may get fewer apples than last year, but the trees should be fine without me giving them any water(the trees are nearly 15 years old by the way)

True enough about the trees being fine and you've definitely done a good job in thinning the crop; however its not necessarily the case that you will get any fruit, if this weather really goes on and we get a full blown drought. Sometimes the tree will save itself by dropping 99+% of the fruit, so you just end up with a few shriveled ones left in the Autumn.

Last time it happened round here was '76, so its not a frequent problem :-)

[Losos]

get the hose near the base of the tree and make sure a reasonable trickle is coming out but not gushing leave the hose there for about 30 mins depending on the sort of soil you're on - there's no point starting watering if you can't do it regularly until the next load of really soaking rain comes along - its an all or nothing decision.

Thamks for the thoughts, in this weather I think we are all concerned about plants and trees getting enough to drink. Good point about leaving the hose on 'slow' and letting the water soak in 'slowly.

While on the subject what do you think about a 'brainwave' I had recently, get some old pipes that I have around (They are 1 or 1.5 inch diameter, steel) drill some holes in the bottom 30 inches, and drive them about three to four foot into the ground around the base of the apple and pear trees. Then put the hose pipe end into the top of the pipe (where it sticks out of the ground) and slowly fill the pipe, then when the water has drained down repeat.

Crazy idea or what

As you said there is quite a lot of fruit forming on the apples and pear and if we don't get any rain soon I think they will suffer and even dry up and fall off.

[Cadalot]

My solution is two coke bottles and watering at depth



One has pin holes in the caps and all around the top and it then has the bottom cut off and is put in the ground and then the other bottle is filled with sand and used as a plug





I soon found out that you needed the sand otherwise the bottle uses as a plug gets blown away in high winds

[nickdub]

Thamks for the thoughts, in this weather I think we are all concerned about plants and trees getting enough to drink. Good point about leaving the hose on 'slow' and letting the water soak in 'slowly.

While on the subject what do you think about a 'brainwave' I had recently, get some old pipes that I have around (They are 1 or 1.5 inch diameter, steel) drill some holes in the bottom 30 inches, and drive them about three to four foot into the ground around the base of the apple and pear trees. Then put the hose pipe end into the top of the pipe (where it sticks out of the ground) and slowly fill the pipe, then when the water has drained down repeat.

Crazy idea or what

As you said there is quite a lot of fruit forming on the apples and pear and if we don't get any rain soon I think they will suffer and even dry up and fall off.

Perfectly sensible plan to put pipes in and get the water down in to a place where the roots can use it more quickly, though I haven't done it myself that's more through laziness than not thinking it will work. I have seen it written about before in an old book - can't quite remember who the author was, possibly Raymond Bush.

[nickdub]

My solution is two coke bottles and watering at depth


One has pin holes in the caps and all around the top and it then has the bottom cut off and is put in the ground and then the other bottle is filled with sand and used as a plug


I soon found out that you needed the sand otherwise the bottle uses as a plug gets blown away in high winds

Very interesting, do you plan on putting in a larger scale system when the trees get bigger ?

BTW I daresay you know that we have Coke to thank for the colours Father Christmas wears being red and white :-)

[Guest]

Nick, you have no idea how lazy I am. By the time I manage to get suitable-sized trays/dishes, fill them with gravel, and then put water in them, the plants would be dried twigs. I try to water them every other day, but today, I had to push myself as it was the third day they hadn't been watered.

And I know, trays will make work that much easier for me. I still won't be able to motivate myself to do it unless one day I get a burst of energy and just do it.

I've been meaning to put up pics of the fruit trees I had been panicking over some months ago as an update. They've got new growth, which I'm quite chuffed about... but have I done it? Have I?

No.

One option I use for pots is a tub trug full of water that I shove the whole pot in and let them have a soak and once they have sunk and are saturated I move on to the next pot. Just don't leave them days on end as the roots may start to rot.

[Lardman]

The established trees on M26 here started to struggle at the end of last week and I've had to water, whilst the fruit is still on it's not swelling at all. This morning I noticed my trees on mm106 were looking sorry for themselves and some fruit has dropped. They'll need a soak if the promised showers don't appear this evening.

What I have noticed is an increase in what I think is mole (or rat) activity around the watered area of the trees, presumably looking for worms/grubs in the wetter cooler soil. The soil around the trunks on my egremont russet and christmas pippin has collapsed when I've left the hose on them, which i assume are the tunnels caving in. Not ideal for the the stability of the trees and I expect they didn't appreciate the root pruning either.

[Cadalot]

Very interesting, do you plan on putting in a larger scale system when the trees get bigger ?

The trees are dwarf patio pot stock I put the whole bucket in the ground so that roots can get out when water is tight but the idea is to restrict the roots as much as possible so they become a problem in the beds. The ones out of the ground have not found their forever home yet as I'm still working on the new plot where they will finally live. I will just have to water and feed via the small coke bottle a little more frequently of for longer that's all, I have three largish apples on the wall and they still have their coke bottle watering points for getting water at depth to the roots

[nickdub]

My guess would be moles - bloody things have a habit of turning over newly watered ground, looking for food I suppose.

Back to the topic though, a lot of my trees are on 106 and are over 30 years old so have extensive root runs. Even so there comes a point where if you want the crop to continue to grow then watering is a necessity and I judge things to be about at that stage in my garden. Obviously you don't want to leave it to the last minute, as when the trees start showing signs of distress its usually too late for the fruit, and also watering slowly with an ordinary garden hose it takes a week or so to cover a few trees - by which time you have to go back to the first one again.

Still I'm not grumbling as I prefer the sunny dry weather, and don't mind a bit of watering duty.