How much to water apple trees

11 years ago

Hello,

I am just looking for a little advice. My apple trees have been in the ground 2 years now. I watered them a lot the first year and almost none last year as we had a ton of rain last summer.

This spring has been very dry here in southern Michigan. I judge my tree watering needs by the condition of my lawn. The lawn looks like mid july already starting to go dormant so I have been hand watering my apple trees once a week with a deep watering. Anyway, just wondering how much to water until we get some rain.

1. I have 10 trees in my little orchard all been in the ground 2 years. This will be the third summer.

2. Should I hand water really deep once a week? More? Basically I spray the hose around each tree for about 5 minutes each. Is this enough?

All of my trees are in pretty good shape. I would really like to pay a lot of attention to them this year in hopes of putting on some nice growth so I can hopefully get a my first crop next year. I did get a few flowers this year but they were all killed with our late frost. Leaves seem to be in good shape though.

Thanks

Featured Answer

ribs1
Original Author

11 years ago

I am mulching with partially decomposing leaves. I have a landscaper buddy who dumps leaves at my house which has produced a huge compost heap. Until the leaves fully compost I will continue to use them as mulch. The only problem with this so far is this mulch breaks down fast

Normally I wouldn't even worry about watering but it is a strange year. The little rain that we've had in lower Michigan has mostly gone just north of us. I haven't even opened my lawn sprinkler system yet so my lawn has pretty much gone dormant already. Never seen a spring drought like this. Only about 40-60 miles north of year, they have had too much rain. All the rivers up there have been flooded.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Just went out with my 2 year old and watered my 5 paw paw trees today (2 of which I suspect might be dead)

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