Hi everyone,

As we know, growing fig trees in containers means a soil/potting mix that allows for quick drainage.  What I see is the water running quickly through the pot, with the runoff quickly going into the ground beneath it.

With a large number of containers, there can be quite a bit of runoff, and in an arid climate like ours (High Desert), I like to get as many uses out of water as possible.

I had thought about a french drain system....that would channel the runoff water to trees or other medium/high water use vegetation.

Has anyone designed a way to channel or re-divert that runoff flow?
 

Have you considered using drip irrigation? I know it's a shift from what you are asking but it was designed for trees growing in arid climates and to save water. It's also very inexpensive to set up and use and is very dependable. I used on an 1100 tree orchard for 6 years without a single failure at a cost of 1 dollar per tree -- that was 1998 dollars though.

How much investment do you want to do?

A simple way in my mind is dig a small trench that allows water to flow and cover with a a thick plastic and let it drain to a collection pool.

Another way is to put gravel in a shallow trench and lined with plastic, with a sock tile in it also running to a collection pool that could in turn be pumped back for irrigation where ever you wished.

I've thought about the same thing,,,, it's a lot of water to watch seep away. But I was wary of the idea of reusing the run off water again because of contamination. I'm not sure if it would be an issue,,, any ideas on it?

I have many of my potted plants around or partly under my other trees (cherimoya, citrus, jujube, banana, etc). This inhibits evaporation from the soil under the pot, reduces the temperature in the root zone of the trees, and all the water that flows out the bottom of the pot irrigates the trees this way. For many trees, this is all the irrigation that they receive of need. Haven't tried moving the water to a different location.

You could channel the run-off into a small cistern (bury a 55 gallon drum, maybe) and the use a swamp-cooler pump, or similar, to move it to your other plants.

Greetings,

I have many of the same questions that have already been posted, but was really wondering how many potted plants are we talking about here? I think Michael's suggestion of drip irrigation would be the best bet. Seems like any French drain running to a collection pit still leavesca lot of ways for the water to go where you don't want it. Evaporation, leaks, birds, animals, etc. I think drip irrigation is the way to go for best utilization of your water resources.

keep us posted!

I agree with drip. but would also consider changeing up your potting mix a bit. I have found by letting them dry out to much will make things worse. It will act like a dry sponge, til it absorbs up some water. If you do nothing, at least add a small amount of water in each pot at a time, then come back thru a few times. Adding water slowly will give it time to suck it up. If you do not have funds for a drip set up, you can always do something as simple as filling 2 liter used soda bottles with water and putting pin holes so the water drips from them. You can adjust how much water by how many wholes. Just make sure it drips slowly or it will be the same as running the hose. Hope this helps.


luke

I have noticed that keeping the soil moist between watering helps minimize the run off . If the soil is allowed to dry up a bit and it develops cracks and void in the soil volume and at the interface of the soil and the pot, there will be a lot more run off through these cracks and voids. Also one may think that he has used enough water and the soil should be drenched by now but actually part of the soil in the pots may stay dry because of water channeling through cracks. If the soil cracks are not closed by expansion by moisture, the same run off will take place the next time when watering. This can cause problem with plant growth progress. It has happened to me frequently this year when I thought I watered the plant enough because I noticed a lot of run off but noticed the pot was lighter and not as heavy as it should have been. Then I lifted the plant from the pot to check and found the soil only partially moist and sections of the soil were dry. If this happens, I place the partially dry pot in a bigger container full of water to soak the soil for a few minutes.

This may be more than you are willing to do, but it might bring up other ideas...

When I was growing in containers I had built these trays to keep my containers off the ground (my yard in Houston was infested with RKN). 



The trays are made with 16' long 1X6 (actual) corral boards.  The boxes were about 24" wide and I had three pieces of corral board with about a 3" gap between them on the bottom to support the containers.  I had thought several times to irrigate out of a bucket at the end of tray.  My idea was to run roof flashing between the board to collect water and return it to bucket at the end.  Then as Jon suggested, use a pump to feed water back to the containers.  The water would need to be changed out 1-2 times a week depending on how many times it passed through the containers.

Also, for those of you who overwinter in a garage or shed, one could build these trays with axles / wheels and roll them in during the winter and back out in the spring.  Fully loaded, I was able to move these things... not easily, but it was possible.

james great picture, love your pots,,,, I just wish they weren't so expensive.