hiya guys.

i know figs are shallow rooted. i also know most  of you water daily.

i can do this for my trees. i got tired of lugging big pots around so i put my trees inground
a month ago.

this area is in the fifth year of severe drought. the last good rain was last september. everything is brown.  grasses, forbes dead. very depressing to see  all that brown.

but, the native mesquite trees are green n happy. they are getting water somewhere deep.

i'd like my figs to outlive me. for that they need to get along on their own even if i'm not here.

so, i've been watering deeply every 4-5 days. so far with temps in the 80s, it's worked.
i'm thinking of stressing the trees even more n watering only when i see leaves wilt. i guess i'd hurt the crop but i wonder if these trees would do better long run.

ideas? comments? suggestions?

will it work?

Don't force them.  Hold a treat close to the nose and pull it down and away slowly...

Oh wait.

It'll work as long as you're attentive.  If it drops all of its leaves you might have gone too far.  :) 

I'm not sure figs are shallow rooted only. 

Some people say the fruit you do get will better tasting if you do it that way.

thanks bob. i hadn't heard that.

You can make a simple deep watering device that will help them push roots down.
1) Get a 5 ft long piece of 4 in diameter plastic pipe
2) use posthole diggers to dig a hole a couple of ft from the base of the tree.
3) dig until  you can place about 3 ft of the pip below ground level
4) firm up with remaining dirt and maybe add a little sand to bottom of pipe.

Now when you water the tree just fill the pipe. One filling will be 3+ gal. This will encourage the roots to grow deeper to reach for the damp soil you are creating 3 ft down. Rains will keep the surface roots growing, but your watering will encourage deeper roots that do not compete with grass.

The other option is to use the Hugelkultur system. You can google it, but the short answer for planting trees is bury a 2-3 ft long piece of rooting log 2-3 ft down and then plant your tree on top of this. The log will finish rotting very slowly underground, and in the meantime will act like a water reservoir, soaking up water when it rains and slowly supplying water to your tree in dry times. Studies show that the wood will continue to function for 15-30 years underground, depending on the species.

Or if you really want to go for it, do the two together! Bury the log or two and run a pipe from them up to the surface. If you do, just make sure you "plug" the bottom of the pipe with course sand. Otherwise it will allow airflow which will dry out your reservoir.

thanks for those cool ideas gene.

i take it then, it is possible to make roots go down deeper than normal?

WATERING TO ESTABLISH

The goal of good watering (deeply & infrequently) is to encourage roots to grow deeper and access a

larger, more stable volume of water which isn’t subject to the drying effects found at the surface. Deep

soaking puts water down where you want the roots to grow & infrequent watering forces them to go

searching. Shallow and/or frequent watering will create a shallow root system more subject to the

elements. After the first few months, a properly established tree should be able to go a week between

waterings, the following year, a month and by the second season it should be self-sufficient only

needing water during extreme conditions. The smaller the plant, the smaller the root system but the

concept is the same... shrubs may ultimately need water only monthly, perennials maybe only weekly,

your lawn only every 3rd day and annuals every other day! Only new plantings and plants in pots are

OK with daily water when needed.

See info here: http://www.orchardnursery.com/pdfs/nurserycare/70watering101.pdf

thanks, sas. i was hoping that would be the case.

i'll continue the deep infrequent watering to get the roots down deep enow to find native water.

Thanks Sas, good info.

There's some great info here from forum members.

Also, if drip irrigation is going to be used then at the time of planting the drip emitters can be placed down 2 feet or so around the plant.  That would encourage the roots to develop at a good depth.

thanks joe. i'm gonna see if i can do that.