Watering new trees/miracle grow

[Football Hunter]

Well, me and my son went down yesterday to my place and waterered,including miracle grow,all of my newly planted trees.None of these would be older tan 15 months in the ground,and Im not getting any younger,and am ready to see some fruit / sawtooth nuts soon.We used the MG as persribed on the box per gallon.

As we were getting ready to leave,sitting in the trucks AC and sucking down water,I looked at my son and said,"do you think it was worth the effort?"

So heres the question,was it?I have the abbility to take 65 gallons of water,which is about 21/2 gallons per tree.It was pretty dry,but looks like rain is going through.So......

1.Is 21/2 gallons of water ,slowly soaked in the the mulch anything to a young tree?

2.Does adding miracle grow to the water a few times a year make any difference?I really dont care if it knocks the fruit off this year.

Im really trying to do all I can to see my labor pay off,there is no grass or weeds around the trees,they have a good coat of mulch,and get sprayed pretty regulary.

any thoughts.?

 

[TS_13]

I would say 2.5 gal is definately worth it....

 

[ShaneHallum]

Better be careful with Miracle Grow... Yes it works. almost too good. The top of the tree will "outrun" the root system.


Your water count should be fine.

 

[richmanbarbeque]

Worse case scenario it is good for you and your son. Gives you and him some time together. I bet those trees appreciate the water.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Im sure the trees will appreciate any water they can get this time of year. Ditto Shane on the tree outrunning the root system. That happens alot to me even without miracle grow, then you have to vigorously prune everything back. I understand everyone wants fruit quick but its a real process that just takes time. You can get small amounts of fruit quick but for real production its just going to take time.

 

[Chaneylake]

get you some 5 gallon buckets, 1 for each tree, poke real small hole in bottom of each bucket, place bucket at base of tree and fill with water, aka "drip bucket", all you have to do now is to drive by each tree and fill bucket with h2o

 

[Football Hunter]

good ideas,thanks Oh yeah,looks like storms passed over twice now since the watering effort,kind of like washing your trucj I guess,but Ill take it!

 

[fishboy1]

Thanks for the fertilizer tips! I didn't know about the "outgrowing" bit.

How often is good? Once or twice a year?

 

[wlf89]

get you some 5 gallon buckets, 1 for each tree, poke real small hole in bottom of each bucket, place bucket at base of tree and fill with water, aka "drip bucket", all you have to do now is to drive by each tree and fill bucket with h2o

x2 thats what we do

 

[AllOutdoors]

All your efforts will pay off. I prefer to mulch with manure. It fertilizes when it rains and is highly attractive to worms, helping keep the soil loose around the roots.

 

[ShaneHallum]

Miracle Grow is a little too strong. just some good water and let them take their time.

 

[Boone 58]

Works great!

 

[Football Hunter]

All your efforts will pay off. I prefer to mulch with manure. It fertilizes when it rains and is highly attractive to worms, helping keep the soil loose around the roots.

good idea

 

[AllOutdoors]

Hey Football Hunter. I have plenty of manure here that I wouldn't charge a dime for. Of course you would have to dig it out of the stalls. LOL

 

[Football Hunter]

Hey Football Hunter. I have plenty of manure here that I wouldn't charge a dime for. Of course you would have to dig it out of the stalls. LOL

Well,that sounds fun,but seems like I also remember BSK saying that manure,of course,being made of grass more or less,Is gonna transfer seeds along with the niutrients.Could cause a lot of grass and weeds around the trees I guess.

 

[fishboy1]

I have a bunch of some nasty prickly weed growing from the horse manure we spread in the garden.

Next time I am going to pile it up and let it rot down for quite a while and turn it frequently to get the seed bed killed down.

Only after the manure is well composted will I spread it again.

Hopefully I haven't created too much of a disaster.

 

[woodchuckc]

I have a bunch of some nasty prickly weed growing from the horse manure we spread in the garden.

Next time I am going to pile it up and let it rot down for quite a while and turn it frequently to get the seed bed killed down.

Only after the manure is well composted will I spread it again.

Hopefully I haven't created too much of a disaster.

I made the mistake about 6 years ago of putting two pickup truck loads of non-composted horse manure on my vegetable garden. It sure made the garden grow, but I found out the hard way that horses love morning glories. I'm still battling those darned things!

 

[fishboy1]

What I really need is a swimming pool.
Dump all that manure in and let it rot for a couple months.
That should take care of all the seeds.


Hmmmm The neighbor down the street who burglarized my garage has a big above ground pool......... :D

 

[TS_13]

Does he have a water bed? :o)

 

[pass-thru]

All your efforts will pay off. I prefer to mulch with manure. It fertilizes when it rains and is highly attractive to worms, helping keep the soil loose around the roots.

Can't manure burn the roots of young trees?

 

[Boone 58]

I dug 5 holes about 2 inches wide and 6 inches or less deep around the perimeter of my sawtooth oak and just simply filled it with triple 13 fertilizer in each hole at the drip line of the tree and this works form most of an entire season and is pretty easy to do. You can use an auger from a termite kit or from a bulb planting kit and it works great for fruit trees also. As the tree gets bigger you can just use a shovel and make them larger and fill them with same.

 

[Football Hunter]

I dug 5 holes about 2 inches wide and 6 inches or less deep around the perimeter of my sawtooth oak and just simply filled it with triple 13 fertilizer in each hole at the drip line of the tree and this works form most of an entire season and is pretty easy to do. You can use an auger from a termite kit or from a bulb planting kit and it works great for fruit trees also. As the tree gets bigger you can just use a shovel and make them larger and fill them with same.

good idea

 

[AllOutdoors]

Fresh manure could burn young roots of trees, however, if used as mulch it want be in direct contact with the roots. The manure from the barn stalls will be composted quite a bit and puts on little weeds. Even if there are a few weeds, I just spray as I normally do to keep weeds and other brush from competing with the trees. The composted manure works well when mixed with dirt and put directly in the hole for the trees.