The first, almost tropical summer days of this year are behind us and if you want to get a good harvest in your own garden, you can't avoid watering your plants and trees regularly. The fruit trees are often “forgotten”, even though they have an almost insatiable need in times of peak fruit weight gain. Although moderate drought cannot harm the otherwise he althy and stable fruit trees and is even extremely beneficial for the fruit's aroma development, watering that is too well intentioned can significantly dilute the taste of our apples, pears or cherries. However, if you don't water enough, you will soon notice that your fruit trees become significantly more susceptible to pests and, unfortunately, diseases.
How should you water fruit trees correctly?
To water fruit trees properly, first remove 15-20 cm of soil from around the tree. Fill the area with wood chips and mulch if necessary. Place two spout buckets (30-40 l capacity) with drilled holes on the side of the tree and fill them with water from the rain barrel.
When even rain isn't much use
When the soil has dried to a depth of up to 30 cm, even the more vigorous trees will have serious problems with a persistent lack of water. Even long-lasting rain at night will hardly contribute to significant wetting of the fibrous roots due to its shallow penetration into the dried out sand. Therefore, in preparation for the (hot) summer and especially in view of the approaching holiday trip, a “Plan B for watering” the fruit trees should be considered.
Making the fruit trees “summer-proof”
If the drought lasts for a long time, even the previously laboriously created watering edges around the trees will not be able to contribute much to regulating the water balance. The often practiced watering habit of watering the trees a little every evening at best promotes moisture and the unwanted growth of the roots in the upper layers of the soil instead of in the depths. But there is a solution, although it requires some preliminary work.
Mulch under spit buckets instead of dried desert sand
The following traditional method of improvement is particularly suitable for older fruit trees. You will need (depending on the size of the tree):
- about 100 to 150 l of medium-coarse wood chips
- two spit buckets with a capacity of 30 to 40 l each (or mortar boxes, larger flower pots or similar)
- a manual wood drill
In the first step, the soil around the tree should be removed to a depth of 15 to 20 cm in an appropriately large radius. Now fill it up again with wood chips; if necessary, add a 5 cm high layer of mulch at the top (we'll do the mulch in the following article!). 15 to 20 holes with a diameter of 2 to 3 mm are drilled into each spit bucket. Then both containers are placed parallel to each other and with the tree in the middle. Now the containers can be filled with water, if possible from the rain barrel (€144.00 on Amazon). After 15 to 30 minutes, you will notice that all two containers are empty, with the entire amount of water evenly distributed throughout the entire root area.