watering trees, water spikes?? Ideas wanted!

not directly greening the desert but.....
we want to plant some trees and bananas over the weekend and we won't be there for several weeks. So how to water? It is NOT a dessert climate but warm temperate with decent rainfall it's summer here.
My first idea was these spikes from Bunnings which you screw onto bottles but apparently, they are NOT working at all. webpage Any other ideas? Anything DYO which is low tech and does work?

My dad would poke a small hole in the bottom of a milk jug, fill it with water and screw the lid on tight. Makes a good extended release waterer, but the hole calibration may be tricky if you want precise watering.

Also low tech is the cotton or natural fiber string submersed in a bucket full of water up over the side down to the soil near the plant weighted with a stake or rock. The string pulls the water from the bucket to the soil slowly.

Depending on just how dry your conditions are, you might consider a bit more labour-intensive solution that would deliver more water....I'm thinking a homemade olla or string of ollas attached to a water source like a barrel.

Traditional ollas are clay urns with a narrow neck, that are buried with the neck sticking above the ground, and you fill them with water and put a rock or something on the top to prevent evaporation, and then the water slowly wicks through the clay into the soil. The rate is controlled by the dryness of the soil. I don't think that would keep your trees in enough water for several dry weeks, unless you put quite a number of these around each tree maybe. But what I think would work better would be an olla-like homemade setup with two clay pots glued together to make a pseudo-olla, and then you can attach one of these using tubing to a water source like a barrel or large carboy. Or even attach a string of them together with tubing that feeds from the barrel.

This link shows how to make the ollas from two clay pots, just glued together with Gorilla Glue or caulk, and if you scroll down a bit they illustrate an automated watering system attached to a barrel.

http://www.globalbuckets.org/p/olla-irrigation-clay-pot-system.html

Also, in addition to whatever solution you select for a watering device, mulch like crazy. Make a depression around the tree, with a little ridge surrounding it to hold the water, spread a thick layer of the most rotten mycelium-laden wood chips you can find, and soak this bowl of wood chips repeatedly with as much water as it will hold. After the last soaking, pull the wood chips back a few inches from the trunk so that they are not actually touching the tree.

Thanks! I probably will use the bucket and milk jug method. If I collect enough I can use both methods on each tree. I l like ollas too but to buy them they are too expensive and to make them - well I can't throw that big! Coiling takes a LOT of time. And I would need a low fire clay. Bt the two other methods are easy enough - it's only until the tree starts growing later I think there won't be watering necessary.

Angelika Maier wrote:Thanks! I probably will use the bucket and milk jug method. If I collect enough I can use both methods on each tree. I l like ollas too but to buy them they are too expensive and to make them - well I can't throw that big! Coiling takes a LOT of time. And I would need a low fire clay. Bt the two other methods are easy enough - it's only until the tree starts growing later I think there won't be watering necessary.

Oh, no, I wasn't suggesting to actually throw a bunch of pots by the weekend. I meant the 'glue two clay pots together method'. And then string them together with hose or tubing to feed them water from a larger barrel.

That sounds good and is acutally chaper!