Hello, While I am new to this forum I am not new to growing things in the Arizona desert. I am having one problem though. Finding the best was to water my small 40 tree mixed fruit orchard, small grape vineyard (30 plants) and small berry growing area (12 plants).
I am currently hand watering the berries every day as they are new and young. The grapes gave a sort of base watering system made of pvc and a place to put a hose end into a barrel. The fruit orchard is currently being watered with impact sprinklers *this one is not working well at all!
My soil is loamy sand with no clay or rock in the area. We are in an ancient dry lake bed in zone 8a. This winter is my best chance of digging up the old watering system in the orchard and replacing it with one that will actually give the young trees the water they require. I would greatly appreciate hearing how others with my temps and soil type have solved the issue of the wind blowing the water everywhere but to the trees!
I am considering ripping out the old and making large tree wells like 2 feet past the expected drip line of the mature tree and placing multiple drips into that. Problems: really hard to keep the orchard ground cleaned and mowed with this system! And that is a bunch of tube to clean out each fall and spring etc. HELP please, if you can!