Best of luck with your plan.

Go Mara, go Mara, go Mara!!

Omat

New plantings need the water up near the surface, where most of the plant is. And applied to the whole root system - the first problem with tubular routes of application is limitations on sideways movement of water in soils. Of course, if you put in enough pipes the zones of moistened soil will merge. But then you have the potential rooting area partly filled with pipes. And if you put the pipes at the correct shallow depth you might as well just be watering the surface of the soil.

Instead of going around from pipe to pipe, in an array of multiple pipes, pouring water in each.

Also the main need of newly planted stock with intact potting soil or field soil root-balls is for these original soil balls to be kept at the desired moisture level, at a time when the soil around them may often be interfering with this - either collecting beneath the plant during extra wet conditions or (more often) attracting water out of the soil ball. Particularly if it consists of coarse potting medium. So in the latter, frequently occurring situation it seems you might have to drive one of your pipes into the soil ball to address this.

For the benefit of 50 years of professional experience in the subject area click on Establishment of Container Grown Plants in the right hand column.

https://rootmaker.com/knowledge-center

I love it that you are experimenting. Do you have more Than one tree? If yes, why not put 6 pipes on one tree, 8 in the next, 10 in the next....to see which minimum # of pipes works best

some holes will get plugged w/settled soil.

after 2-3 years, wouldn’t trees fend for themselves? I’d remove pipes at that point and reuse on new trees.

im bookmarking this thread

I have 6 redbuds alone. 4 anacho orchid trees, 10 Beebrush, 1 Carolina buckthorn, 2 Mexican buckeye, 5 Wafer ash and 2 vitex. They are mostly small trees. Small trees do better on my land than 5 gallons.. I have one 15 gallon red oak that I dug out of one place this spring and that one will get more than one pipe. I will most likely need more pipe thingies.

After two years, they are off the tit.

Very ambitious endeavor!

Yea, I grow things from seed and then get stuff at plant swaps and I am going crazy. We will see how much I actually get in the ground. Fingers crossed. I have planted my 60 grass starts , and 5 american beaty berries, shrimp plants , 20 salvia farenaceas, sweet arroyo trees, and a HUGE passel of plants swap plants already. I try to do a bit every day. My sister says my list sounds like the 12 days of Christmas song. Moving my iris bed is a big chore that remains and I am already past the best time for it.

That's a LOT of plants to get going. I remember you telling us about the book. Using the pipes for irrigation on your type of land sounds like a good plan!

16” - 24”? Hope you know how to get your hands on some dynamite.

Lol! I was thinking the same, Eric. I wonder if there is some kind of tool that Mara could use for that task. Something like this.

Omar

I stick them in and calk up the holes that aren't in the ground and it is more of a reservoir. I think that I cut them 20" . They must have more topsoil in these deserts. LOL. An augur on a tractor would be nice.

I have been planting some of Eric's silver peso mountain laurel babies. I am now going to plant a much larger red oak and it will get more than one pipe.

The comments about the machine are not good :(

Omar

The machine did look a little light weight. I had a friend with an augur on his tractor and it had a hard time with the limestone.

Mara, my silver peso is alive but very slow. Some times of year it is green but at others it is as fuzzy and silvery as can be. Hope your babies do well. Such a good looking Plant. Looking forward to its adulthood (yours and mine)

Mara? How often do you expect to fill the tubes?

First summer , once a week. This is all new to me . I know people said to water once a week during summer before. I imagine it is the same way now. I have been planting. I have managed to get a couple of holes using the 20" length . They were where I dumped the dirt that I cut into the hill in the building of the house. AND I had dumped the dirt from the digging of the septic where thew house ended up being built. I had clay from the Adobe soil in the front of the property where the septic was transported back to where it is Brackett (limestone/caliche) soil where the house site is. It ended up leveled out in a deep level fill so there was actual dirt above the rock. I dug the 2' x 2' x20" deep hole yesterday and planted the red Oak. I was able to sink the whole pipe in.

This Rhamnus carolinians also got aa full 20 ' pipe. I t was just off the edge of the area of fill and under a area of oaks. I just peeked that one out.

I was not so lucky with the red bud hole. I cut the pipe down 4" and it still sticks out , so I had to calk some holes in the pipe. I took so much rock out of that hole , I need more dirt. (they were closed today). This whole was impossible. The spot has killed 2 or three trees already. Reb buds are tough. Fingers crossed.

The redbud is going in down hill from where the red Oak was planted , NO dirt here . You can see the plastic trash of my watering jugs beyond this tree. What a difference a few feet makes.

The silver peso mountain laurel did not get the full pipe deep either. I calked the holes. I will remove the pipes when they are established.

I finished out the day getting one of two anacho orchid trees in with a full 20" pipe under a live oak where there was soil. They are a good under story tree. No pictures yet. I have discovered that I can cut 4" off and re duck tape the bottom to shorten the pipes. So now I have a choice when things can not go any deeper.