There is another reason for using these perforated tubes,
and it’s pretty much opposite of what they are designed to
do. Instead of displacing water, passive root snorkels can
accelerate the penetration of water deep into the soil as
opposed to surface application alone.
Today, more and more landscapes are being irrigated
with drip systems. Residential drip systems will
generally have two to six different watering stations or
zones, while commercial systems usually have more. All
the plants within a zone will have water applied for the
same length of time. Consider an example where small
flowers that have shallow roots are in the same zone as
large shrubs and trees. An identical watering time for
such different plants can present several problems, one
of which is watering too shallow for the tree root system.
Deep watering creates a deeper root system. This not
only provides a stronger anchoring system, protecting
nearby hardscapes or homes, but encourages the tree to
produce fewer surface roots.
Even if we place 10 drip emitters on the tree and only one
on the flower, the run time would remain the same and the
depth to which the water penetrates would likely remain
the same. The extra water would only run deeper in sandy
soil, which has a high percolation rate.
Of course, it would be best to place different plant types
on different zones or stations, but this isn’t always possible.
Adding more zones and hence more PVC irrigation tubing
to separate the water cycle from one plant type from the
other is expensive and troublesome. Many a homeowner
is looking for some easy way around this issue, and this
type of situation that deep watering tubes—the very same
perforated plastic tubes used as root snorkels—can be
so effective. Two or three of these tubes, typically placed
12-18 inches deep about three feet from the tree trunk, will
produce deeper roots in that area. Simply run irrigation
into them or, if installed
properly, hand-
water directly
into the tube.
“
INSTEAD of displacing
water, passive root
snorkels can accelerate the
penetration of water deep
into the soil as opposed to
surface application alone.”
These tubes also work in desert climates where rainfall
is not adequate, and in areas where the soil has a high
percentage of clay and water penetration is very slow. In
geographical areas where rainfall is plentiful, it is rare
that deep watering tubes will be necessary. Here, the slow
percolation of rainfall travels deeply and establishes those
deep roots that are so important to large shrubs and trees.
Just because man-made root snorkels are useless as soil
aerators doesn’t mean the technology is useless. These
vertical perforated PVC pipes provide rapid deep water-
ing throughout the soil structure. Watering at least slightly
deeper than the existing roots or at least to the depth of
the grow pot is the technique for producing maximum root
volume in all grow media applications. Indoors or outdoors,
deep watering is the way to go.
For more information,
scan the QR code.
grow cycle
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