Ram pump for watering needs

[BenAllgood]

Has anyone built a ram pump to water trees or plots? It looks pretty simple to build and requires no electricity an little to no maintenance. This diagram shows a waterfall, but it could be a pipe from a pond dam, spring, creek, etc.

 

[LEWI B]

What little I have read says they work but a lot of people didn't like the noise.

 

[Apple Junkie]

I love the concept, but I have no experience. If you give it a shot, please keep us posted. Good luck.

 

[BenAllgood]

I love the concept, but I have no experience. If you give it a shot, please keep us posted. Good luck.

I'm wanting to start an orchard this fall, but I live in another state, so trying to find the best way to water the trees automatically is what I'm working on. I think the ram pump will give me the water I need. I need to figure out a way to supply that to the trees now.

 

[Apple Junkie]

Personally, I would not let your ram project de-rail your plans to plant trees this fall. Very few of us have the option of watering our trees once planted... me included. Properly planted, your trees should thrive with the rainfall the regions gets naturally. Just my 2 cents.

 

[BenAllgood]

Personally, I would not let your ram project de-rail your plans to plant trees this fall. Very few of us have the option of watering our trees once planted... me included. Properly planted, your trees should thrive with the rainfall the regions gets naturally. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks. Reading comments about keeping trees watered the first year, making sure I could water if needed, and such, had me worried. It would still be nice to have water, but I'll get a few trees planted even if I don't get the ram pump working. I just didn't want to waste money on killing trees.

 

[Turkish]

Seems like they’d drain a pond and work best with a spring or creek. They run constantly, right?

 

[BenAllgood]

Seems like they’d drain a pond and work best with a spring or creek. They run constantly, right?

They are meant to be used with a constant water supply like a spring or creek, but you can stop it and use it temporarily when needed as far as I I can tell

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I agree that if you plant the right trees for the area, they will survive. When I first started planting trees, I use to travel to them just to water them every weekend. I had to grab 5 gallon buckets of water from the creek and I would fill up buckets I had attached next to the trees, that I would drill a few 1/16 inch holes in it to water them slowly. But after I started getting more and more trees, I found it wasn’t possible to keep this up. So I plant them, water them at planting, then they were on their own, unless I knew we didn’t get any rain, or anything for a few weeks, then I would go and water them.

 

[Mike]

I have had great success getting trees started at property that I am only able to visit twice in the spring/summer. My property is in the Western Upper peninsula of Michigan. I have always first dug the holes for the trees. Then I would put a few buckets of water in the holes until I felt like the ground under where the tree was going to be planted was saturated. I would then plant the tree and pack loose soil into hole and on top. Then you need to place some type of mulch on top of and around the planted soil (This is the critical step that will keep the sun from drying out the soil in which your tree is planted). I always use that black felt like material you can buy at any nursery just cut to sized then put wood chips or dead grass on top. I have always planted them early in the season (late May early June). Once planted I have never watered any of these trees again and have lost very few over the years.

 

[OakSeeds]

Mike makes several points that are essential if you intend to plant trees and leave them on their own with respect to their need for water. No 1 …. plant as early in the spring as you can (cooler and more abundant rain). Dig a generous hole for the root ball or root stem on seedlings; and, as Mike says, fill the hole with water and let it soak into the surrounding soil before placing the tree in the planting hole. Again, following Mike's advice … backfill the hole and - I imagine - Mike would water the newly planted tree generously to ensure you have great soil to root contact. As he notes, landscape fabric helps retard competition (weeds, etc); however, I avoid using wood until the tree is 5-6 years old because wood binds up nitrogen in the soil as it decomposes. Leaves, grass (notes Mike) and - my favorite - weathered straw work very well to insulate the roots against wind (drying the soil) and keeping the soil warm during colder nights in early spring . Mike's planting strategy will give your young trees their best shot at survival in the critical first couple of years. Thanks for your post Mike

 

[Mike]

You know what else you can do if you are concerned about not being able to water a tree its first summer is plant it in the fall. I have planted a few here at the house in October that I hardly watered at all. The tree is already dormant and wakes up in the spring in a wet environment with plenty of rain. That's the most fullproof way to plant fruit trees.