When using a garden hose simply place the hose on the uphill side of the rootball. If multiple trees need to be watered at the same time then a hose splitter can be purchased which can give you 1, 2 or 3 additional water hose connections. Each outlet on the splitter has a valve so that the flow rate can be adjusted per each tree’s needs or shut off which allows different container sized trees to be watered at the same time. The negative part about adding a splitter is that there are multiple hoses throughout the yard.
We recommend that customers target a flow rate of .75 gallons per minute or slower. A flow rate of .75 gallons per minute should take approximately 80 seconds to fill up a 1 gallon container. We like to target slower flow rates like this to ensure that there is no run off. Normally when customers start to exceed 1 gallon per minute water tends to run off the rootball and any water that is running off the rootball doesn’t count. If there is any run off, then a slower flow rate should be targeted until the run off is eliminated. Our flow rate calculator can be used to verify that the tree(s) are being watered for the correct number of minutes and that the correct number of gallons are being applied each watering.
For added convenience electronic garden hose watering timers can be installed. This allows customers to automate the watering by programming the watering frequency, watering run times and watering start times. Normally the timers are installed right at the faucet and for customers that are concerned that their faucet has been used for the sole purpose of watering the trees, then a splitter can be installed right at the faucet and a timer can then be installed on one side of the splitter.
This will allow you to have a dedicated hose for the trees and a free hose attachment for other purposes. There are lots of different types of water timers on the market to choose from but a simple and affordable one is from RainBird (Model #1ZEHTMR).