The Easy Way to Water Fruit Trees (or any tree)

After walking buckets of water over to our fruit trees for years, we wanted to find a better way. Meet the Smart Watering Mat. It's not cheap, but it's an investment in your trees so you don't have to do all the work.

[michaeldougfir]

I Have been an arborist since the 1980s. As your trees grow, move your water source outwards 1.5 times the width of the trees crown.
That is where the root hairs are that take in moisture and nutrients.

Mulch is a good idea. About 2" or 3" deep, and with a bare area abound the trunk 4" to prevent crown rot, and not to give cover to rodents who like to eat bark there.

[Bassslayer]

After a certain amount of time you don’t have to water the trees once they get established. Just use a super thick mulching. The mulch holds the water just like the product your showing.

[conradlobo]

This idea looks very interesting i only have concerns with the materials used, are they bio degradable and will any chemical leech into the soil. Have you tried Ollas which are self watering pots buried in the soil which lasts a long time and doesn't waste water it's an ancient technique.

[marschlosser]

I have a garden/orchard in southern Arizona. Trees get soaked each week if they need it or not. The idea is, if you have good soil and heavy mulch, you should not need to do a lot of irrigation. Watch Gabe Brown. He ranches in ND, gets 16" of moisture a year, and doesn't irrigate. Yet he gets better drops than neighbors who do.

[leyline]

I think this won't drip so much and the water is just evaporating, I think the benefit you may see is from covering the soil area like mulch to retain moisture.

[crazysquirrel]

I use a 5 gal water jug from a water dispenser.
Drill hole in the ground the size of the jug neck.
Fill jug with water (and even a little water soluble fertilizer), invert jug, shove it into the hole.
Depending on the soil, it can last from 3 days to a week. Sometimes longer.
Oh and toss in some orange ping pong balls so you can see the water level from a distance.

[Chaotic_Venture]

I love how you care for the animals perfectly and never give up And give us tips on how to care for your animals

[caitfraserpoet]

Thanks for sharing this! I'm interested in some of the other ideas from the commenters too, but something like this tree ring would be *excellent* for me and other disabled people who need to cut down on more intensive techniques.

[Digitalhunny]

_PLEASE, _ consider doing a 1 month, 6 month & 1 year update on these watering rings?? I'd love to know if they actually work all that well? THANKS!

[baconsuzy]

Good use of that sled! We use a twin set of those sleds to move hay and straw in the snow instead of getting the skiddy out. I also use them when the snow is deep to move the equipment to the barn for chores.

[michaelslade]

This would be the perfect gift for my grandpa and all his orange trees and such

[selmonofficial]

Thank you for giving us Idea 💡. I need 4 of them in my Garden. Thank you Jake

[sy]

Look into watering gators. It’s a bag that hangs on the tree and gives it water for a certain amount of time. we have used them on our newer, smaller trees and they work great

[melanieallen]

Ooohhh nice! You could also use dispisable nappies..(diapers)

[Winchester]

You can do this by burying a ceramic tank next to the tree it will then slowly release the water and let you know when it’s dry
It’s an old Mexican/native technique if you’re curious to look into it
But seems better for the environment and possibly cheaper than the bags

[katherinebonkowski]

I use a drip from the hose overnight every once in a while when it is dry for young plants.

[badgerbalti]

In Spain I've seen them using a combination of mulch and rocks at the base of olive trees to capture rain/moisture to help with watering.

[michaeltenn]

I has idea🙋‍♂️, basically what my mom did at her studio to water the plants was basically a homemade sprinkling system, like I think what you have is better but in regard to hoses, you could run hoses across the orchard and just poke holes in the hoses at the base of the trees, then you just turn it on and it'll get all of the trees, my mom had the hose on a timer at her place and it worked great over our dry seasons down here in Florida

[soxchica]

That's awesome!!!! Thank you for sharing

[UserFormelyKnownAs_hjkh]

That sure looks like orbees in a neck pillow case to me😂