Question about timer watering

[Mike Corazzi]

We're planning to take few weeklong jaunts this summer and fall and I was wondering about timer watering.
My timer starts at 1 minute duration. I've been doing some testing and even at 1 minute, the trees are pretty much flooded. They all run through the soil very quickly but get a bunch of water.
I use the porous lines around the trees on the larger ones and a 1GPH dripper on the smaller ones.

Question is whether a week of overwatering would cause any irreversible harm.

Thanks in advance for info.

 

[River's Edge]

We're planning to take few weeklong jaunts this summer and fall and I was wondering about timer watering.
My timer starts at 1 minute duration. I've been doing some testing and even at 1 minute, the trees are pretty much flooded. They all run through the soil very quickly but get a bunch of water.
I use the porous lines around the trees on the larger ones and a 1GPH dripper on the smaller ones.

Question is whether a week of overwatering would cause any irreversible harm.

Thanks in advance for info.

Hi Mike. the answer depends on the porosity of your soil mix and the water retention level after watering. If the soil is inorganic and free draining this method should be fine. I use inorganic mix, Akadama,Pumice,Lava and granite grit. Leave mu watering system on for 3 minutes at a time, twice a day in the summer, once a day spring and fall. The emitters are 2 gph and the system operates at 20 PSI. The particle size is 3/16 to 3/8 on average for the components.
Because the mix does not hold excess water no harm is done, plenty of oxygen reaches the roots at all times. The only adjustment i make is the ratio of akadama in the mix to provide higher moisture retention for certain species and less for others.
The exception is collected tree's where i use a higher proportion of pumice and in some cases pure pumice for the first two or three years.

 

[VAFisher]

I prefer to hand water because I feel like it does a much better job. But, my wife wants to occasionally go away for a few days and I want to stay married, so I set up a watering system last year. I always err on the side of more water is better than dead trees. Only watering the pots and not the foliage, I have not had a problem so far.

 

[Saddler]

My reasoning with timed watering when I am gone is, more is better. What happens to the trees when it rains hard for a week straight? Not much. And if it is really hot and the soil does dry out somewhat, extra time let’s the water get deeper into the substrate particles. Surface tension can really slow down the water seeping into very dry substrate. If it never dries out completely, no big deal, but if the surface gets completely dry.... and on those hot days is when you want the most water held in the substrate.

I was just in Japan for two weeks and had my trees watered 15 minutes, twice a day. 6 am and 6 pm. It saved my trees. My mother was looking after the cat coming by once a day. The hot water tank sprung a leak (why does this sort of thing happen while on vacation?) and she shut the water off to the whole house at 7 pm. My trees went a night and day in 29° C, full sun and another night (about 40 hours) without being watered, due to time change and not on roaming most days. They all survived without incident. Had I only watered in the morning like I usually do, 70+% would have died I am sure.

Upside to the hot water tank is I had all the tools to fix it and we had hot water a couple of hours after we got home.

 

[bonsaidave]

Yup better to have too much water than not enough. Dry trees are dead trees.

This is my opinion on vacation watering, especially in dry hot summer conditions.

 

[Barry]

I use shorter duration but at least two emitters as birds and squirrels occasionally knock them out of the pots

 

[JudyB]

I do 2 sessions of 15 mins. That way if it’s windy it will still be plenty. Better than too dry.

 

[choppychoppy]

We're planning to take few weeklong jaunts this summer and fall and I was wondering about timer watering.
My timer starts at 1 minute duration. I've been doing some testing and even at 1 minute, the trees are pretty much flooded. They all run through the soil very quickly but get a bunch of water.
I use the porous lines around the trees on the larger ones and a 1GPH dripper on the smaller ones.

Question is whether a week of overwatering would cause any irreversible harm.

Thanks in advance for info.

So by 'flooded' do you mean the soil is filling up and wetting to the surface or do you mean it is already dripping out of the pot. In a lot of cases with auto drippers the water will make a channel and start to drain quickly, however it actually takes a while for the tree to make a water table in the bottom of the pot and soak the entire volume. If you use micromisters that soak the surface slowly from the top down you can also combat this a bit. I run auto watering always and my zones run for 20 minutes.

 

[sorce]

1 hour at 2 pm.

I use a black dripper hose and 3 sprinklers.

Bout to go check on things after being in Indianapolis since Thursday...but a quick walkthrough proved Pimpin.

Sorce

 

[WNC Bonsai]

My setup sounds very similar to Rivers Edge. I use a combination of 1GPH drippers and tubing with .5GPH emitters embedded every 6” set up in rings. Some trees have two drippers some have 4-6 emitters. It all depends on the size of the pot and type of tree. At 25 PSI I run the system once a day for 5 minutes. Worked fine last year and so far this year. I use a very porous mix of 40-50% pumice, 30-40% haydite, and 10-20% pine bark. My soil mix is based on Walter Pall’s recommendations and he says it would be virtually impossible to overwater. I also do some hand misting on very hot days. I am actually thinking of going to a twice daily schedule for about 3 minutes each, at 8am and 3pm now that it is staying so hot. I am about to order some spitters from Drip Depot to get a little better coverage in my big grow boxes.

 

[coltranem]

What is the difference between a dripper and emitter? Right now I just run a sprinkler when on vacation but was looking at drip emitters on the smaller mister sold in those types of kits to just get the water where I need it.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

I am using this sprinkler:

https://www.amazon.com/Melnor-20261...ing+sprinkler&qid=1562244547&s=gateway&sr=8-6

and this timer:

https://www.amazon.com/Orbit-62061Z...s=orbit+timer&qid=1562244557&s=gateway&sr=8-3

When i am away, I run the sprinkler for 25 minutes per day around 10:30am and it sways over my bonsai bench and vegetable garden. My trees in nursery pots are being over-watered, but like others above I also prefer that to the other extreme! It would be very difficult to over-water my trees in bonsai pots, because of the substrate itself, and also because their roots have yet to fill-up and make dense that substrate.

Recently shared details here, about previous and current set-up:

My Maples in Montreal

What species do you have available as natives there? I only have one in my area Acer glabrum. I have a couple, one has enough going for it as raw material that it may work out but also has enough against it that it may not. There is good material out there in the hills but very rare. Hope...

www.bonsainut.com

As others have mentioned, make sure that your components are secure and stable - that sprinklers cannot be moved by animals or wind, that tubing or hoses cannot become disconnected, etc.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

What is the difference between a dripper and emitter? Right now I just run a sprinkler when on vacation but was looking at drip emitters on the smaller mister sold in those types of kits to just get the water where I need it.

It’s picture time. First the drippers. These are 1gal/hr and as you can see they can be used individually or in multiples using various connectors. They also come in a variety of ratings that are color coded. The ones with red edges are 0.5gal/hr. I have some of those but find it easier to just use the 1gal/hr ones.

Now the tubing with emitters, which is also called dripline. The tubing is standard 1/4” dia with dripper emitters embedded in it every 6”. In the tubing I have these are rated at 0.5gal/hr. So with a ring of four emitters you get 2gal/hr. I make up both 4 and 6 emitters circles. The trouble with these is any time you need to take them off it is a pain unless ou make the ring big enough to slip over the end of the pot. For several small pots like these with larch in them I just run a straight line with one emitter in each pot.

As I said it can be a paint to take these apart when you need to work on a plant so I found these shutoff valves at Drip Depot and these quick nylon disconnects on ebay or Amazon. I can shut off the water flow and disconnect the plant easily.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

YIKES !!!! I think ...(KNOW).... I just got lucky.
I was diligently planning the gawdawful labor to set up the drippers when.... BAM !!!...

Suddenly my brain engaged.

It was gonna have about 25 feet of black line running across concrete against a white wall !!

But only from about 10 AM to 4:30-5:00

Betcha that would have made really really really HOT water. A load of 25 feet of scalding water might be something the trees would dislike.

Rethunk it today and got it okay now.



Whew.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

YIKES !!!! I think ...(KNOW).... I just got lucky.
I was diligently planning the gawdawful labor to set up the drippers when.... BAM !!!...

Suddenly my brain engaged.

It was gonna have about 25 feet of black line running across concrete against a white wall !!

But only from about 10 AM to 4:30-5:00

Betcha that would have made really really really HOT water. A load of 25 feet of scalding water might be something the trees would dislike.

Rethunk it today and got it okay now.



Whew.

Yep, it can get hot. Even my garden hose heats up laying in the sun. I buried most of my 1/2” main lines except one that goes up the back of a bench and it is in the shade. That said, I have been to nurseries where they have long runs of black poly out in full sun, maybe they only water at night or early morning.