How often do you irrigate your palms ( in a dry Summer climate )

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Hi everyone

i Got a Hunter irrigation controller that will give me a lot more free time over the coming Summer months . I have 3 zones on this controller and a few more round the other side of the house that are controlled by a Hunter Node controller , After breaking so many tap timers that can't stand up to the water pressure and invariably leak the Hunter system will enable me to program a watering schedule that will give the garden maximum growth and give me a lot more free time with the Wifey !

I have very well draining sandy loam soil that has been amended over the last 5 yrs with large amounts of compost and mulch .

all my palms are on Variable flow bubblers and i was wondering how long other left their drip system on for ?

[Alicehunter2000]

2x per week if plants are established. A good soaking each time.

[KennyRE317]

I always love irrigation threads since I'm just starting and just finished running all my tubes. Right now I'm giving all my plants 2 gallons spread over an hour for small 5gal plants and smaller, larger plants get 3 gallons

[joe_OC]

I have conventional over head sprinklers. I have them run for 15 min every other day during the summer. Do you know what your bubblers are set for? (gal or litres per hr)

[Tassie_Troy1971]

in usa terms they are set for 13 gallons / hr or 49 Liters / hr they are opened up fully so might need them on for only 20 minutes !

Antelco Shrubbler 360° Adjustable Spiked Drippers

[KennyRE317]

I learned to turn down the gallons per hour and run them longer so it soaks deep. Deeper you get the roots the less often you'll have to water even in the summer

[_Keith]

After they are established, I don't. Sustainability rules here.

[Bennz]

Dry summer here, but not enough water available to make watering a viable option. Anything that cant make it on rain doesn't make it.

[Justin]

Troy, I water most of my stuff once a week, but in two cycles (e.g., Saturday morning at midnight and again at 4am). The reason for the two cycles is to prevent runoff and puddling. I water in the night to prevent evaporation. Some stuff that happens to be on the same zone as my wife's vegetable garden gets twice a week, but that's on drip as opposed to sprinkler heads. I've had much better luck with once a week, as I get less weeds and my water bill goes down.

This comes with a big caveat, however. Almost all of my stuff is now established, and it got established when I was watering more often. Depending on weather, humidity, soil, etc. it may be very difficult to water only once a week with a newly planted palm. In your neck of the woods, it's my understanding that your high temperatures are not as extreme as in SoCal, and I think your humidity is pretty decent year-round, so I think you would likely be fine with once a week. But 13 gallons an hour seems really high - if there's anyway you could turn that down to 3-5, I think that would be better.

[mjff]

After they are established, I don't. Sustainability rules here.

I'm with Keith. Unless it hasn't rained in at least a month, I don't water anything that is established. The cold hardy palms I'm growing are a lot more likely to die from overwatering, then underwatering. If you have a lot of tropical stuff, then you might need to soak them regularly, but cold hardy palms mostly come from areas where drought is common and they seem to expect the soil to dry out periodically.

[nick]

it depends on the spot (shade, sun) palms and the size. Some like more some less water.

In general in summer our irrigations system runs twice a day for 8-10 minutes, in winter 2 or the sytem is off because of rain.

Our climate differs much of yours with no rain for months during the summer.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Troy, I water most of my stuff once a week, but in two cycles (e.g., Saturday morning at midnight and again at 4am). The reason for the two cycles is to prevent runoff and puddling. I water in the night to prevent evaporation. Some stuff that happens to be on the same zone as my wife's vegetable garden gets twice a week, but that's on drip as opposed to sprinkler heads. I've had much better luck with once a week, as I get less weeds and my water bill goes down.

This comes with a big caveat, however. Almost all of my stuff is now established, and it got established when I was watering more often. Depending on weather, humidity, soil, etc. it may be very difficult to water only once a week with a newly planted palm. In your neck of the woods, it's my understanding that your high temperatures are not as extreme as in SoCal, and I think your humidity is pretty decent year-round, so I think you would likely be fine with once a week. But 13 gallons an hour seems really high - if there's anyway you could turn that down to 3-5, I think that would be better.

Hi justin

I have set my controller to start up @ night to minimize evaporation etc . The bubblers can be turned down to 3 -5 gallons easily enough .my average Summer highs are around 24 C ( 75 F ) and rarely get extreme heat events . I have set the controller to water every 4 days at the moment as i think once the dry weather arrives once a week won't be enough for the smaller palms .

I have may lawn area on those new MP Rotators and they are great !

Troy

[Justin]

Awesome, sounds like you are well on your way to a smaller water bill and more free time!

[Tassie_Troy1971]

" sounds like you are well on your way to a smaller water bill and more free time! "

Water bills here never really significant .

My last bill for the 3 month period was

11 kL @ 0.9234 / kl

59 kl @ 0.9234 / kl

$ 64. 64 for 3 months use of 70 KL

The free time bit i like a lot !

[KennyRE317]

" sounds like you are well on your way to a smaller water bill and more free time! "

Water bills here never really significant .

My last bill for the 3 month period was

11 kL @ 0.9234 / kl

59 kl @ 0.9234 / kl

$ 64. 64 for 3 months use of 70 KL

The free time bit i like a lot !

the last 3 years I've only had a small front lawn to take care of since I was very slow at ripping out everything else in the back so I didn't mind the 10minutes every 3-5 days to water the lawn. When I was ready to get everything else going I knew how long it would take to water everything so I did all the irrigation. just watering the potted stuff takes about an hour right now

[trioderob]

you guys in LA and FL get massive tstorms that drop 3 inch + of rain in a day.

in southern cal we get all summer - what you get in a single 5 minute down burst.

some areas there get as much rain in a weekend as we get in 2 years total.

the difference in summer rain is so dramatic as to be ridiculous

on top of that you get steam bath humidity where we are bone dry with some folks putting cream on their hands and lips to keep them from cracking open

Edited November 12, 2013 by trioderob

[KennyRE317]

Yup, just lookesd it up and our average rainfall is about 10-14"/yr

Edited November 12, 2013 by KennyRE317