Let's talk (budget conscious) homeowner scale irrigation

[disc4tw]

One aspect I had not discussed in my initial post was a fertilizer system. Brady mentioned the EZFlow system on this topic:

Blueberries - to replant or not to replant

Yes,that will work.I use to get it that way,but now buy the five gallon size,that comes with about a 1/4 inch outlet tube.There is an additional spigot sold,that I put on it,for easier metering. My Blueberries are on drip and using an EZ-Flo fertigator.Not the best,but it’s better than carrying buckets of water.It dilutes it fairly quickly,but the plants look okay. In the Summer,I’ll set the timer to come on about twice a day for about 1/2 hour.The emitters are 1-2 gallons per hour. The ratio…

Does anyone have input on what size EZ Flow system is appropriate for a quarter acre lot with a few dozen trees, some berry bushes and a few raised beds that could use it?

Also, is there a good source for liquid fertilizer, and is it sold as a solid form you mix in or something else? I think the stuff we use at work is solid particles of 10-20-20 so I don’t have a lot of experience with fertilizer otherwise.

This post briefly discusses general fertilizer guidelines:

Fertilizing fruit trees

I have a small front yard where Peach(10 years old), Sour Cherry(7 years old), Plum(4 years old) and two apple trees(1 years old) planted. I didn’t fertilize neither trees nor grass for many years, though my dogs doing it daily using the yard for potty break. This year I severe pruned my peach in order to renew it and also I was not happy with how much growth apple trees and cherry added last year, so I started to read about fertilization. I found this link: https://extension.tennessee.edu/publ…

Brady has a great writeup here too:

Fertilizing Schedules

This is my present fertilizing schedule,that is saved on Notepad.It is not complete and I don’t follow every thing completely,because of weather,temperature and other variables where the original information came from,might be different than my situation and locale.But I think it’s a good general guide.I can always change or add to it as I add plants or find new or better ways of doing things. I think Scott and or someone else may have posted theirs at one time.If anyone else has something,plea…

And Steve started a pawpaw specific thread here, they seem to be the black sheep of the fruit tree world in more ways than one:

Is Gypsum One Secret to Starting Pawpaws?

I’ve been searching internet to find a way to improve pawpaw survival and growth. Oikos Tree Crops (MI) website says to top dress a cup of gypsum when planting pawpaws. I dug further and found a horticultural science journal article that got increased survival and vigor in pawpaws grown in soil that had gypsum incorporated into the planting soil: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/39/5/1104.full.pdf I’m going to incorporate gypsum when I plant new pawpaws Spring 2016, will report re…