I don't; now get some sleep. ;)

Possibly a disaster in the long term. The tree will now expect 4 hours of water daily, and may throw a tree-tantrum when it doesn't get it. Who knows how that could end? Ever seen a tree throw a tantrum? Leaves everywhere, branches frantically waving, trunk leaning. Horrible sight.

(Actually, that long watering will go a long way to establishing a healthy tree. No down-side at all.)

Yes, get some sleep now ;>0

wrong forum, but no. :-)

Just to keep the records straight, even though there were several frivolous remarks, the tree got no more water than it would have in periods extreme water fall like a hurricane. This type of storm does not kill trees by over watering.

In our yard after about 15 minutes the water would have traveled through the porous veins in the yard and would be coming out about 30' down the slope.

You'd do a better job at providing water to the root ball of your new conifer by taking the hose out there on your own. Direct watering of the root ball for just a very few minutes with the right nozzle will get sufficient water to the right place without soaking the foliage.

You'd probably be shocked at how ineffectual thirty minutes of sprinkler watering is.

Sometimes I like the sprinkler. While I don't do rootball trees I still imagine watering near the tree forces it to grow roots out of its planting hole.

Sprinklers are not efficient time wise.

Water wise, I guess in the big sense it matters. Practically though, I am in an area which gets enough rain to support its human population (frequently more than we want, dumb councilmen rezone floodplains).

on my sand ... it would make no difference ....

you say your drainage is very good .. so i dont see a problem .. in fact.. you may have gotten water down into the whole root mass planted ... which would be perfect ....

if you want to know the status of moisture in the soil ... INSERT FINGER ... or dig a 3 to 4 inch hole.. AND FIND OUT ...

and then perhaps you can rest easy ...

with 5 acres .. and raising lids.. this is one reason i used to carry a timer ....

btw .. i would NOT water the top parts of conifers .. so i would also suggest a hose on trickle ... lawn sprinklers are for lawn ... not tree leaves ...

i would also suspect it may not need water for a month or 3 .... depending on what you find.. when you dig a couple holes and find out ... keep in mind its fall.. and when temps fall significantly .. especially night temps .. water stays in the soil much longer than in the heat of summer ....

ken

I left the hose on for 9 hours a few weeks back. Its like having an all day rain.

Only poorly drained soils or situations where the soil is froze at a lower level would you have issues.

"with 5 acres .. and raising lids.. this is one reason i used to carry a timer ...."

Ken do the lids you raise fit all container types and sizes, or just some? There used to be a lid farm near me but it converted over to corn.

I'm too young and square(!) to have known that meaning of lids. I do know of the baseball cap definition.

Way back when, If a guy "flipped his lid" it meant he lost his cool. I think it might mean something else now days. :)

I'm lucky I have sandy soil, because I could leave the hose on 24/7, til the end of time, and it still wouldn't kill my plants. There's probably been 3 or 4 times where our hose was left on full power (5 gallons of water per minute) for 16 hours or so, and nothing ever came of it. The only thing I ever worried about, in fact, was our water pump!