JMoney wrote:

Since you wanted a debate, here it is.

I am not going to debate your points, as I fully agree

Well, in the winter I only water when they are getting dry of course and only in the morning never in the afternoon.. As for staying wet I don't agree it is a good thing, certain species will be ok, but others will suffer. The master who gave this advice uses Akadama for all trees, and as far as I am concerned, and I have been doing it a long time, the trees do look better. I doubt that most species could be grown well hydroponically, winter would be a problem. It is easier to underwater yes, but there is no such thing as overwatering just watering too much. I wanted a debate as I thought it was an interesting subject and as I said before I have never read any advice as to when (time of day ) to water.
Geoff.

Been reading this post for a while now and so I´ll take my chances and risk make a reply topic. I would only talk of how I do it though.

I live in a very hot weather in summer and a fairly cold weather in winter. Now in summer I always water my trees in the morning, usually around 9 or 10 am as the sun is going high since I have them all facing east, so they receive 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight.

I must say that they are all planted in an organic soil mix, that is because I acquired them past spring and they came like that. I will repot them next spring using a more adequate substrate though. So, right now, the soil never gets completely dry. For instance for my ficus and olive tree (var. sylvestris) I water them every other day, but for my acers I increase the frequency to everyday. I must say that I do not do this based on a schedule, I do it like this because I have observed that this way all of my trees have been doing just fine. Occasionally, when the day is extremely hot I re-water them a little bit around 3 to 4 pm. Also, one more thing that I do every day is that I sprinkle all of them in the morning and then again in the afternoon... this, I must say, seem to please them highly.

As for the winter, I plan to water my olive tree on a weekly basis, and my ficus and acers probably two times a week. Anyway, this is just a plan that I have right now... When winter comes this, of course, might vary accordingly.

Alain

Alain,
that sounds good, Just about what I do, although I do water every day in summer regardless, unless it has been raining hard all day. But even then I check as many of my trees have a canopy and do not get enough even in prolonged rain. Winter is different, thet I have gone 4 or more weeks without watering, it depends how cold it is and how much rain we have. THe trees are dormant and so do not need so much. Today for example I watered even though we have the treat of rain, it has been light so far and not filling my water butt.
Geofff.

I water when needed.

Right... And that is when your trees...

alainleon1983 wrote:

Right... And that is when your trees...

Dry.

I have a strawberry in my garden. Very thirsty plant. Good indicator for when I really have to water

alainleon1983 wrote:

Right... And that is when your trees...

Getting dry or dry, trees like it and favour it.

There is no avatar here for thumbs up... Otherwise I would give it to you both

Thanks;)