"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf
Marco Banks wrote:Frequent shallow watering in a small space will not encourage the roots to grow deeply and broadly.
If your drippers are in one spot and are not moved regularly, the tree will send roots to that area but will not spread out to the larger space around the tree. It would be much better to build a wide basin around your tree, saturate it with a couple of inches of water, and then not water for a couple of days afterward. This mimics nature -- big rain storms, followed by days or weeks of dryness.
If you wait until your tree shows signs of wilting, and then give a good, long, deep drink, you will teach it to go deep in search of water. This will require you to be more attentive to your trees, but in the long term, will allow you to be less attentive.
Mark Shepard advocates STUN in his tree management philosophy: sheer total utter neglect. Having a constant drip going, day and night, 24/7, it's the exact opposite of STUN. It's umbilical cord gardening, creating welfare trees.
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