Daver
PMA Member
Through my work I will occasionally have 55 gallon plastic drums available, in fact I have about 5 or 6 available right now. For the most part these barrels would have had relatively environmentally friendly glycol in them. I plan on cutting the top off of one and using it to gather rain water that I will then use to water my apple trees in the summer. I have only 6 apple trees now and they are in a row, spaced out about 25' from each other. FWIW, I plan on adding another "row" of 6 this fall.
At any rate, I thought it would work well to gather rain water in a barrel that I will place in the center of the trees and then use a hose connected to the bottom of the barrel to gravity feed water out to the trees. I was planning on covering the top of the barrel with a wire mesh of some sort to keep birds and other crap out of the water, but I am pretty much making this up as I go.
I figure that 2 or 3 gallons of water a couple of times throughout the driest part of the summer should be helpful. Has anyone else tried such a thing, are there any tips to consider, etc???
Alternatively, I could just fill up several 5 gallon buckets from a nearby pond and then manually water these trees a few times this summer, but the barrel idea seems handier...
Also, if people are interested and they do not mind waiting until there are available barrels, I would be willing to supply barrels to folks that need them.
At any rate, I thought it would work well to gather rain water in a barrel that I will place in the center of the trees and then use a hose connected to the bottom of the barrel to gravity feed water out to the trees. I was planning on covering the top of the barrel with a wire mesh of some sort to keep birds and other crap out of the water, but I am pretty much making this up as I go.
I figure that 2 or 3 gallons of water a couple of times throughout the driest part of the summer should be helpful. Has anyone else tried such a thing, are there any tips to consider, etc???
Alternatively, I could just fill up several 5 gallon buckets from a nearby pond and then manually water these trees a few times this summer, but the barrel idea seems handier...
Also, if people are interested and they do not mind waiting until there are available barrels, I would be willing to supply barrels to folks that need them.
