I planted 12 xie shan satsuma trees on flying dragon yesterday as spring has sprung here near Sugar Land, TX. They are 8 feet apart and 5 feet from the fence. This is the drip line I put in. It is 1/2 inch with a 0.5 gph emitters at each tree:



I have a bunch of rootstock in pots waiting to bud with some expensive CCPP budwood, $3.75 a bud plus overnight shipping. I used 1/4 inch line with emitters every 12 inches:



I have all the trees on one zone. I'll also run some 1/2 inch under the grass to 7 trees out in the yard:


Note the mounds of dirt. The soil directly under the grass is 100% clay.

Phil, your well on your way to the good life. As a side note, many people who are planning to sod their yards, are first laying down drip irrigation at one foot spacing, then laying sod directly on top of the lines. It works well. - Millet

I see. I never lived in an area with a lot of rain. . - Millet

Yes, thirty miles east of Denver, near a small city called Bennett. - Millet

Mr. Texas,

If you really want to get your trees popping, go ahead and install a fertilizer injector (I like Dosatron D14MZ2) down stream from a timer (I like Claber Aquadue Duplo). Automate the irrigation and feed at 100-150ppmN everytime that you water. I divide the total daily water requirement by three and pulse three times daily as opposed to giving the tree all it's water at one time.

Find your tree water needs here: http://128.227.177.113/ACPS/Data.html

Find injector stock solution ratios here: http://www.dosatronusa.com/technical-support/calculators/water-soluble-fertilizer-calculator.aspx

The Dosatron/Claber setup is great because you don't need to run power. the Dosatron is water powered and the Claber takes a 9v battery.

I grow pot in pot with felt bags inserted into socket pots. See pics that I took last summer. I've got 27 trees on the program now and they are doing super. Pot in pot is great because I can grab my trees up in inclement weather and retain the advantages of having the root ball reside underground.












Best,

Skinn30a

bussone, you pretty much got it right.

Skinn - I have the same Dosatron injector as you show. - Millet

Hey Bussone, you water grass because the Home Owners Assoc. Nazi old ladies say you have to, so that the neighborhood they have chosen for their retirement and have nothing better to do than wander around and write neighbors up in, always looks nice and green(despite the season, cost of new grass, inefficiency of incorrect grass, loss of water, etc.). How dare you have a brown spot some neighbor's dog peed on, its ruining her retirement, fix it within 24 hours or else!

Thank you Skinn for your pictures and details, very interesting!
I was planning a similar thing.

Axier,

The system is very effective and after some practice, self sufficient. The whole idea of ACPS is to provide the tree daily only what it requires on that day. For you and I, it get's a little difficult when you've got several trees of different ages and different rootstock/scion combinations. Since each cultivar's water requirements are different, you've got to tinker with each trees emitter pattern individually until to get it just right - a 3 year old cara cara on swingle will need lots more water than a liner satsuma on FD. This would not be much of an issue if all the trees that you were growing were of the same age and cultivar/roostock combo or if you cold create enough zones to accommodate each age/cultivar group. Since the claber only offers two zones, I've found the best way to do this is with 1/4inch drip tubing with the emitters spaced at 6 inches apart and make a "watering ring" that sits around the base of the tree at an appropriate distance from the trunk. You can easily customize how much water a tree gets by adding or removing 6inches of the tubing.

Best,

Skinn30a

I have a row of several Orange Navel trees in pots, of similar size and age, and two in ground (I have almost all kinds of navel ). All will be fertirrigated with the same set.
Obviously, they will need different amount and frequency of water.
I have installed two shutoff valves for each in ground trees because they will be watered with much less frequency.
I have heard very good things about Dosatron injector, but it is very expensive (at least here) for my needs. I will try instead with a cheaper (but accurate enough) Venturi injector.

Thanks!

The 1/4 inch drip didn't work out. Too much pressure drop. I re-did it with 1/2 inch with drip every 18 inches.



Ok, here are the other 7 trees in the yard. I buried some drip to each one. 2 persimmons, two seedling citrus, cherry of the rio grande, pear, and edible bay laurel.