# Best way to water these trees?



## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

Ok so yesterday I planted 70 Thuja Green Giants with the hope of someday having a nice privacy hedge. I already have sprinklers throughout the lawn for the existing grass that the builder put in. I want to add a zone or two for the trees. Also as you see in the pictures i have a large area of just dirt on a hill. My cheap builder didnt put sod there. I am planning on putting sod there soon and that will need to be watered as well.

I was thinking about running a new pex line along the property where i have no sod now and installing sprinkler heads to spray up to the trees and the future sod. Is this a good plan? Any better recommendations?


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## Babaganoosh (Apr 21, 2019)

70 is a lot. I did 16 of them two years ago and used a rainbird drip irrigation system. You run a 1/2 inch poly hose and tap into it with a barb and 1/4 inch hose. Then a spike and a dripper. I did 2 per tree. It hooks up to a hose bib. I used a timer. They really took off and rooted very well the first year. They put on a lot of growth the first year considering they usually spend the first year rooting. This year they have been planted 1 season and are starting to take off.

I would say that you should immediately get some soaker hoses and mulch. Lay the mulch like 3 inches deep and get those hoses going. Water makes all the difference here. Don't wait until you get another scenario figured out.


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## Babaganoosh (Apr 21, 2019)

Quick question. How far apart do you have those planted?


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## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

I gave them a good amount of water yesterday after planting and will continue to make sure they are well watered until i get some sort of irrigation in next weekend. I planted them 6 ft apart.


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## Babaganoosh (Apr 21, 2019)

Jimefam said:


> I gave them a good amount of water yesterday after planting and will continue to make sure they are well watered until i get some sort of irrigation in next weekend. I planted them 6 ft apart.


6 foot is good. I did 5 feet. I heard not to go closer than 4.


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## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

Lets see how they do. Was a little concerned because i took a 20' trailer to pick them up and thought that would be enough space. Man they were packed in 2 high to get them all in. Got pretty smushed. Lady at the farm said they would be ok we will see.



They are about 5' tall. Lady said to expect another 1.5 ft this year and maybe 2 to 3 next with good water sun and fertilizer. Hoping to begin to see them form some sort of screen over the next 4 to 5 years.


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## Babaganoosh (Apr 21, 2019)

I think you will see a decent screen in 3 seasons. If you want to promote bushiness down low you will want to clip the central leader in the spring next year. It shoots up pretty quickly but if you let it go naturally it won't promote a thicker lower section. If you keep the water on it this year you will be trimming here and there this year. I use a nice pair of shears.. Definitely no reciprocating hedge trimmers. You will see some of the branches start to send up some growth straight up. Clip it off. It's trying to grow another leader. You probably won't see any at the moment but it will make sense in a few months when you do. No fertilizer this year either. You don't want it to spend energy growing up. Let those roots grow down and out. I used a few fertilizer spikes that are for evergreens this year. I only did half the recommended amount because I've read a few times that they don't require fertilizer. Oh and trim off any secondary leaders. The ones with more than one tend to split in the snow. Water up until a few weeks before the ground freezes and don't worry when the tips start turning gold in late fall.

I think that's all the information I've accumulated over a year. I did a lot of reading. Lol I'll post some pics when I get a chance. These things really do grow fast. I obsessed for a few months but man do they grow.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

Hose and soaker for rare occasion of need. Once established, I'd question the value of watering. Sure you could; and spray with fert, micros, fungicides.....


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## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

Babaganoosh said:


> I think you will see a decent screen in 3 seasons. If you want to promote bushiness down low you will want to clip the central leader in the spring next year. It shoots up pretty quickly but if you let it go naturally it won't promote a thicker lower section. If you keep the water on it this year you will be trimming here and there this year. I use a nice pair of shears.. Definitely no reciprocating hedge trimmers. You will see some of the branches start to send up some growth straight up. Clip it off. It's trying to grow another leader. You probably won't see any at the moment but it will make sense in a few months when you do. No fertilizer this year either. You don't want it to spend energy growing up. Let those roots grow down and out. I used a few fertilizer spikes that are for evergreens this year. I only did half the recommended amount because I've read a few times that they don't require fertilizer. Oh and trim off any secondary leaders. The ones with more than one tend to split in the snow. Water up until a few weeks before the ground freezes and don't worry when the tips start turning gold in late fall.
> 
> I think that's all the information I've accumulated over a year. I did a lot of reading. Lol I'll post some pics when I get a chance. These things really do grow fast. I obsessed for a few months but man do they grow.


Thank you for the detailed response. Been watering them pretty good in the evening as these last few days have been insanely hot and sunny. On maybe 10 of the 70 trees the very top of the leader turned a gold color. I am thinking it was from being in a scorching hot trailer for almost 7 hours. Not sure if i should give it a chance to green up or should i trim that off. Farm where i got them from recommended i use a slow release fertilizer about 6 weeks from now as they had just used a liquid fertilizer a week ago. Then again she said she would fully expect 1.5-2ft more growth this year with good watering and trimming.


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## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

jayhawk said:


> Hose and soaker for rare occasion of need. Once established, I'd question the value of watering. Sure you could; and spray with fert, micros, fungicides.....


Would making sure they have adequate water not help encourage more growth? I would definitely like to help these things along and push for some lateral growth if I could.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Don't overwater either since it will rot the roots.


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## jayhawk (Apr 18, 2017)

I think regular fertilizer would be a more cost effective for motivating growth. Not a spike 1 year but a feeding 1 a month during the season? I get it, I have some magnolias I adore. If it doesn't rain for 2 -3 weeks, I might supplement.


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## Babaganoosh (Apr 21, 2019)

Jimefam said:


> jayhawk said:
> 
> 
> > Hose and soaker for rare occasion of need. Once established, I'd question the value of watering. Sure you could; and spray with fert, micros, fungicides.....
> ...


Push lateral growth by trimming the top leader.

Seriously do some research about fertilizer. A basic site will tell you you can feed them but when you read from some real deal people and they don't recommend feeding them for a year or two I'll tend to agree. I didn't feed at all and I not only got growth but got nice established roots. That was from planting them correctly and water right around the drip line. If you push top growth with nitrogen you will get a less established, weak (comparatively) tree.

These things will take off year 2. Be patient and let them establish.


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## JoeyDonatelli (Apr 4, 2018)

Awesome project man! You are going to have a sanctuary back there in a few years.

I would highly recommend these watering spikes.

https://www.dripdepot.com/item/new-deep-drip-watering-stakes-length-8-inch?gdffi=cf83ccffd3ab412e9fd6fb117dbb26c9&gdfms=1356090F92C748E797418F345903C9FE&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1f_18trO4gIVBNbACh0U1gKMEAQYASABEgK5zfD_BwE

These are designed to get water down to the root ball and promote the roots to go deeper for water. When only surface watering the tree sends out surface hunter roots for water and prevents it from rooting deep. If you water the trees deep though they go down and grow strong. You can set up a pretty basic drip system and put the pipes down into these spikes. Another benefit is you can dump some fert in these too.

Good luck. Keep us posted on what you decide.


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## ZachUA (Dec 28, 2018)

I second running the poly drip line. That is what I did for a row of green giants at my house and then I put a cheap timer on the hose bib so that it would turn on for an hour every other day. I planted mine two years ago @ 10 feet apart, and today they are about 14' tall (they were 3' tall when planted) and now about 3' from touching each other at the base. They grow really fast!

There are two near my dads house that were planted 10 years ago 7.5' apart. They are now about 35-40 ft and grown together to make a wall about 60% of the way up the trees.


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## Babaganoosh (Apr 21, 2019)

JoeyDonatelli said:


> Awesome project man! You are going to have a sanctuary back there in a few years.
> 
> I would highly recommend these watering spikes.
> 
> ...


Those are pretty cool. I'm not sure if they are needed but they might give a jump start to the roots growing down. In nature the rain comes from the top just like drip irrigation and mother nature usually knows best. I'd like to see an experiment with these though.


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## ZachUA (Dec 28, 2018)

Babaganoosh said:


> JoeyDonatelli said:
> 
> 
> > Awesome project man! You are going to have a sanctuary back there in a few years.
> ...


seems like you could make them fairly cheap buy drilling holes in a stick of pvc. Of course it wouldn't have the closed spike on one end, or the screen to keep dirt out.


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## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Here is what i ended up doing. Found in the back i had a 1" pvc pipe that fed my existing 3 zones in the back so i put a tee on that and ran 1" line across the grass to where i put a new valve box and added 3 new zones. Two with 1" valves that come with a built in pressure regulator and filter made specially for drip line and a 1" regular valve for 5 new sprinkler heads to water the new sod I put on the hill. From the two drip line valves i ran 3/4" poly tubing to the trees and on each tree i put a 1/4" barb to a 1/4 tee barb and ran a ring around each tree with 1/4" emitter tube with 6" spacing. At 40psi every tree should get more or less 4 gals an hour.


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## Babaganoosh (Apr 21, 2019)

Those trees are going to love that water. Especially being on a hill where rainfall most likely runs off. Those areas will probably stay dryer than the lower areas so it's good that you irrigation run to them.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

Fantastic!


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## JoeyDonatelli (Apr 4, 2018)

@Jimefam what did you use to dig that trench? Thats the neatest trenching I have every seen!


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## Jimefam (Jun 22, 2018)

JoeyDonatelli said:


> @Jimefam what did you use to dig that trench? Thats the neatest trenching I have every seen!


Rented a 24" trencher from sunbelt. Well worth the rental fee as it made it super simple to do.


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## nichord (Jul 9, 2020)

@Jimefam It been a couple years since you put this in. How has this watering worked out for you? I did something similar but used soaker hose cut up and put around the trees. Each tree has buried PVC ran up to each tree and attached to my sprinkler system after a pressure regulator. This is the second year and I already have splits in the soaker hose that was buried under mulch since it was installed. Are there any changes you have made to this setup or has it worked as intended? Any updated pictures of the trees you planted as well?


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