They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but if you're going to do it today you better have a 20 year plan, right? Glad you enjoyed this one.
This has to be one of the most helpful and informational videos related to gardening that I've EVER seen. Thank you so much! God bless you and may your garden harvests be plentiful! 😊💝🙏🏻
Hello I'm not sure how far away you are from the sea but sea weed is one of the best water retention mulches if that makes lol and they're packed full of nutrients and vitamins it's the only thing I add to my garden and it always thrives
That would be a great resource if we were closer to the ocean. I would love to get some natural nutrition in that seaweed. We're about 6-7 hours from the beaches in Cali.
Now that’s a crop circle. I build single berms especially on new plants to make sure they get enough water. I’ve never exposed root crowns, we have roots cook in the heat already. Thank you for sharing.
The key really is ensuring those new plants get plenty of access to water. We're finding that the inner circle in these rings does an excellent job of giving them plenty of water in that first year while also allowing them to grow further out into that outer ring as they're able to.
I have never seen anything like this. I am so impressed with the whole system of encouraging the roots of the tree to grow outward, and I have never seen anyone do rings around the tree like this. It makes so much sense to cover them with woodchips to help keep the water from evaporating in the heat of the sun, and the way you used the rocks with the valve box is genius! I mean, even without an irrigation system, like you said; you can can just stick a water hose in the valve box and water manually. I can see how the wood chips will also help keep a heavy rain from washing out your rings you made as well. Thanks for sharing!
I'm really glad to hear you're finding this one useful. It's a challenge to find designs that make sense for us in dry climates that take into account the needs of the tree (from young to mature) as well as ensuring we're being good stewards of the land. We're hoping this encourages others to do the same.
Your channel is super helpful. I have been so delighted how my channel has grown too. I do limit the number of channels I subscribe to simply because as a senior retired my days are still full with developing this property. That said I subscribed seeing how informative this channel is. Way to go Duane.
We've really found our viewers to be a wealth of information for us as many of experience that trumps ours by decades. Glad you're enjoying the content. Now I need to head over and see what you have going on!
In Tucson, trees are most successful if you predig a 4x4x4' hole, back fill it in with the removed soil and manure. The reason for doing this is to remove the caliche in this 4 foot area to give the tree an area it CAN grow without running its roots along the surface of the ground and it also guarantees the water can soak in deeply. To create even better success, place a 4 inch perferated pluming pipe verticle in the hole's outside perimeter. When the hole is filled in and the tree planted in the center of the hole, the tree can be watered slowly via the pipe OR flooded with water.
Awesome video. You are very charismatic and capture attention very well with how you filmed, audio quality, and pacing. Also the topic of using this ring design is something I will adopt for my trees I'm planting this summer. Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad to hear the content was useful for you. If you have any questions as you put this in place, please reach out!
Glad we can encourage you guys and give you some ideas. That's what we did for years before finally getting here, so plan first and then run like crazy getting it all in place once you're on that land! Once you're there and get something planted you'll have to send us a quick video so we can share it with everyone here on our Viewer's Playlist.
An alternative to painting your trunks is to grow pole legumes in the center mound as an intercrop. As the sun sets in, the beans vine up the trunk and make better use of that hot desert sun than white paint would. The beans also keep the microclimate cooler during the summer via transpiration, but die off on the winter (think providing shade via deciduous trees)
Just needs more water though, because that microclimate and shade-generating biomass is made by transpirating water as opposed to reflecting the incoming energy in the first place (as paint does).
@@aenorist2431 definitely true, but I for one count it as water well spent since I love both green beans and mature beans. Water consumption itself though is a hugely complicated topic, and how water is spent for a plant varies wildly based on technique. For example, squash in the Three Sisters intercroping technique uses water that would otherwise mostly be lost to evaporation anyway, and results in a net yield in all 3 crops. Another point to consider is that reflected light doesn't just disappear; anyone who's been on a rooftop in the south-west knows that point all too well. Our rooftops here in the Mojave where I live regularly hit 140°+ due to the reflected light.
Question if I don't have wood chips would hey work? All the videos on youtube people use wood chips but where I live we don't have tress but I have an abundance of hey.
Excellent make sense video. The second trench is brilliant. We planted a personal food forest using the wood chip overlayed with lawn clippings and straw to build up the soil fast with organic matter..
Glad you enjoyed this one and congrats on that food forest. There's nothing quite like walking outside and picking fresh fruit and veggies throughout the year!
Outstanding video !🤗 I currently have over 600 plants here on my 24.5 yr plot in Tempe & have planted close to 7000 plants in over 26 yrs. Watering correctly (how & where, etc) is a pet peeve for me. Though you can certainly have some variance (most everything I have is on early, long & deep drip I personally installed over MANY yrs, finalizing everything well over a decade ago). This is one of the very few video's I have watched where things are done & taught correctly !! And I love the humorous finish to the video !😁🤗
Hey there Millie. I'm glad to hear this will be helpful for you. We've had a lot of folks ask us about irrigation here in AZ, so we're trying to share as much as we can on what works well for us.
What a great video 👍 Thank you so much! I have planted all my trees wrong and thats why they are all dead, unfortunately. When I finally am 100% on homestead, Im going to use this technique 👌 ty! Blessings!
Hey Jen! We're finding it really is ideal for us. It's a bit of work up front to get it set up, but then it works well with either timed irrigation or hand watering.
I bought & have the Aprium tree from RSI growers. My grandparents had lots of citrus here in Phoenix & they had deep irrigation front & back yard. We used to play in the irrigation as kids. I am going to try your rings for the Aprium & Nectarine. My citrus have wells to the drip lines to emulate irrigation. I never have planted a tree above ground, nor do any of my native planters. They, like you, do not dig the hole much bigger than the rootball. I plant my trees the same way. But, I have been told to make a good microclimate by using mulch & lots of it, without piling at the trunk. Thx for explanations & video
Hey Christa. Sounds like you have some experience with this and that makes all the difference in the world. We have a good mix of folks with a lot of experience and new growers starting with their first trees, so we try to encourage both ends of the spectrum!
New Sub :) ... I really love the way you did the swale and berm around the trees. This is what I was going to do if we buy land in west TX. Great info!!! Thank you so much. :)
I absolutely love this method! I also love our sun joe tiller as well and now I know of a fantastic way to make my job even easier when planting trees. I like the double ring method you shared here and will start implementing this as well in future tree plantings. Thank you so much for sharing.
Glad to hear you're finding that tiller as useful as we are! We have really put that thing through the ringer on both this farm and our old one and it's still going strong.
Are you planning on planting anything by the fence to catch road water runnoff and increase biological sufface area and precipitation? Things like bushes or suculents, it just adds to your root network and soil.
That is great suggestion G M. Eventually we're hoping to get some ground cover at the edges of the tree rings. I hadn't considered succulents and they would really do well at the edge of those rings. Apple cactus would be pretty cool....hmm.....
@@gm2407 no, we are WAY behind on our UA-cam watching these days with everything going on. Summer time is our down time, so we'll have a lot of research to catch up on.
In Illinois we have a program called Prairie Strips Initiative, where the FSA pays you per acre to have a designated area to catch water run off and provide sanctuary areas for local wildlife. Usually along fences or roads or even on slopes within your farmland.
Glad to hear it Elizabeth. Much like you, we understand the importance of balancing production and water conservation. We're finding this takes care of both. Please let us know how it goes for you!
Here there Alex. Yes! We're excited to see how these trees will do and from what we understand they use root stocks that do really well for us here...and there for you as well I'm sure!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I'd love to know a good source to buy citrus trees with good rootstock for AZ soil. I live in Avondale, and really appreciate all your garden and tree videos. :)
@@jan10-l our favorite source for citrus trees is RSI Growers, but they are another year out before they will have some available again. Elgin nursery is a good source for trees that are from Yuma and they are right there close to you in Avondale. That is where we picked up the tree we planted in this video actually.
To maximize rain capture when on level ground, the top of the outer ring (the outermost berm) would merely be ground level (just a ramp up). A sunken basin, in other words. The tree crown remains ground level or a touch higher. Have you considered this design? Thanks for the video.
Hey there Jason. What you're describing would really be ideal. The challenge we have here is our extremely hard dirt which makes trenching down a good 12 inches very difficult (we mulch heavy, so 12 inches would be minimum). With the goal to get our 170+ trees planted in a year we weren't willing to put in that amount of labor for each tree to accomplish it. You are dead on with your suggestion though.
The mulch will really by creating an environment for microbes as it breaks down. This is great design. I love the double ring. When you do get rain, the outer ring will catch that extra water.
You hit the nail on the head Gilead! We very quickly find an abundance of life in these rings in a fairly short period of time and with the irrigation keeping moisture present, the earthworms are having a field day under there!
Awesome video. Thanks for the insight and motovation. I just purchased 13ac outside of dallas and your videos are a great help on what I want to plan for my farm.
Woohoo! Todd, 13 acres is a lot of space and you'll be able to do so much with that land. What are your plans for the new property? Fruit trees I'm assuming, but what else?
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm 1.5 acre pond and some fruit and nut trees. The main operation will be 8 to 10 feeder beef, grass feed and most likely grain finished. I have 8 acres designated in 4 2ac paddocks for ritational grazing. The first step is my 50x80 barn with an additional 16x80 lean-to aquaponics green house, irrigation plumbing stub-up and 3500 ft of 5 strand fencing. Barn will have a 600sqft 2 story apartment that we will live in until construction price level out. Then we will be builing our house. Kind of backwards way if doing it, but we live in a crazy world now.
@@toddwikel3849 wow, that sounds like a solid plan for your new farm Todd. The integration of livestock is so very important. We're learning that here as we continue to grow the farm. It's one of the reasons Lori has finally taken the step to be here FT as we needed her here in order to effectively bring more animals onto the farm. You have nearly double the space we do, so you'll be able to do more with larger livestock (especially cattle) which can very quickly drive up your fertility.
Great job! very impressed that you are working as a team. I would like to know what you used for ground cover, and how long does it last? Do you import it in?
Hey Byron. We use wood chips for ground cover and we source them from local arborists through a website called Chip Drop. We also have a neighbor down the road who's a landscaper and he brings material to us as well from time to time. Given how dry we are here it usually takes a few years for them to completely break down. If they have a higher percentage of leaves vs chips it can be a bit quicker.
I was thinking of something like this when I start my food forest, but you pointed out a few extra things, thank you. One question though, do you eventually fill in the smaller circle when the tree grows bigger, or do you leave it in?
Great question Kathryn. We don't fill in the inside ring, but we block off the channel leading into it after the first growing season to ensure we're watering at and beyond the drip line for the growing tree.
Great video! So far, all I have is the first ring around my trees. Just need some time and parts to finish the second ring and irrigation. Thanks again for all the AWESOME videos!!
Hey Kylan. We do have the space between the trees to extend the rings further, but I'm not sure it will be necessary. That's one of the many reasons for the woodchips between each tree. Hopefully that will hold enough moisture for each tree to push into the next tree's watering ring if it needs to.
This is great , I’m getting ready to plant some fruit trees on my other property and won’t be able to water very much . With this system should work great Thanks
The brilliant design of the ancient city of Atlantis has come full circle haha! Awesome team work making permaculture heaven on Earth. Great work to be replicated globally:)
Hey Aaron! It's funny, we've had folks suggest several things for this ring design and I suppose Atlantis fits as well! I imagine we're a long way from being underwater, but maybe a bit more rainfall with these principles can change the future!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I really love how you have 6 or 8 inches of mulch around every fruit tree. It is a winning strategy! In 2014, in Douglas, Arizona I dug large swales in my side yards to collect and store the monsoon rains coming off the house roof. I then covered the entire areas with truck loads of mulch. 8 years later we have strong and healthy peach, apricot, jujube, plum and fig trees along with rich soil, bugs, worms and shade.
Glad you enjoyed this one! We lost one of our first apple trees over 10 years ago to sunburn, so we're careful to keep them painted those first few years!
Nice video thanks for sharing. I am in the middle of nowhere in Northwest Kansas smiley face or chemical farming has turned us into a desert. I have never seen a double dish for a tree I will have to try it.
The dire straights we've put ourselves in with chemical farming is just downright scary. Our area is naturally desert, but we seem intent on turning the whole planet into one if we can!
Really interesting to watch. I have never lived anywhere that any of this would be needed. Half my life, it rained every day of the year, at 4 pm, for three hours, then stopped. About 120 mm of rain a day, every day. :) Except the hurricanes, those tended to be unmeasured amounts of rain, because of the "sheered everything off at ground level, and piled it up somewhere out to sea" aspect. Then I lived in Western Australia. I was there for three and a half years. It did not rain.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarmHey, last night I mentioned your tree care regime to the only person I still talk to who lives in Three Springs, WA, and she knew whose website I was talking about. And she said "You silly buggar, what do you think we do to plant trees here?". I thought they didn't have any trees. It is all dirt, and brown sticks from memory. :)
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm it really is!!! Rock removal is happening now 🙌🙌🙌 9 trees, 6 bushes, 8 vines are waiting !!! Much more to come thanks again for sharing and inspiring !!
Woah that formation is so similar to a shivling. A form worshipped in our Indian culture. Also can this method be used for small fruiting trees in a dry hot climate?
We've heard that form several folks and although it wasn't intentional, it definitely looks very similar! We use a similar design for our dwarf kumquat trees and it works just fine. You may find the outer ring will not need to be quite so large in diameter.
Glad to hear those watermelons are rockin. It's amazing how from year to year you end up having to deal with something different. Just a little change in the weather can bring on a whole new set of pests!
I use a similar method here in southern California. What I find is that eventually the water running into and around the rings starts to cave in the sides and the ring begins to fill with soil. I have to dig out the rings every so often.
That's interesting that you're getting cave ins. I'm guessing your soil structure must be much looser than ours here as it turns to a very hard clay with regular watering. That being said, the woodchips do break down over time which can cause the rings to clog. Much like you, we resolve this by moving that soil to the outside of the rings when fertilizing 3x/year which helps keep that channel open.
I have NEVER seen anything like this!! Thank you!! I live in ABQ. NM, the Chihuahuan Desert, and we have hard caliche soil. I need to refresh my trees with this system. Can it be done in already established trees? Great info!
Hey Christine! I (Duane) used to travel to ABQ and Santa Fe for work every month, so I know just what you're up against there! You can definitely install this for an existing tree, just be careful when digging the ring as you may wind up hitting a lot of small feeder roots. If you do, you can dig the ring more shallow and scrape dirt from outside the ring to build up the berm. Of course, you won't need that inside ring that you're seeing us create here, just that outside ring at the dripline.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Mmmm . . . thank you. I'm going to rework 2 rose bushes I recently planted and perhaps the fruitless plum tree that's already established. It looks so professional and effective! As close as Santa Fe and Albuquerque are to each other, their climates are very different. I'm not sure about the soil in SF, but Abq. has a lot of SAND and caliche. It's not fertile on its own, unless your land is close to the Rio Grande. We're basically a huge beach!
Thank you guys. You inspired me again. I have lost hope. I live in Central Cali, on an acre of heavy clay. Digging a hole, even a large hole, becomes a water pot and rots roots. If you read this, please give me tips on soil. Idk what to do.
Hey there Ed. Sounds like you have something similar to what we deal with here in AZ. Our East orchard where we're growing our pome fruit and figs is exactly how you're describing. We have literally fused metal tips onto auger bits trying to dig a hole deeper than 2'. The key with this type of soil is consistent moisture and encouraging outward root growth on your trees. As you're seeing here with how we design these watering rings, you need those lateral roots to grow out as quickly as possible. To help soften that soil we use wood chips EXTENSIVELY around our farm. This helps maintain both soil moisture and allow for beneficial bugs to start doing the job of converting that clay into soil. It takes time, but they will come. Using manure based composts for fertilizer under the wood chips will help with all of this as well. We use partially composted pig manure and that does really well.
The wood chips have all come from arborists we found through Chip Drop online. The termites are actually a benefit as they help break down the material. They're especially important for us in AZ as we don't have enough moisture to assist with that breakdown.
Hey Angus. Yes, it's been a year already. Hard to believe, but it's starting to come together. Glad you're enjoying the content and going through this with us!
Thank-you so much!!! This is a wonderful video!!👍❤❤❤❤❤ I'm here in Tucson Az and please please I want to know ..where do you get all those wonderful woodchips?
Hey guys! The wood chips are from several sources, but our primary go-to was Chip Drop in the beginning. We also chase every wood chipping truck we see in town and ask for deliveries. We also found a neighbor down the road who has a landscaping business and he also brings us material from time to time when he can chip it. We're pretty much always on the lookout for wood chips!
I live in North Central Victoria, Australia and my mother, who came from Geraldton, West Australia, taught me how to garden in this climate. The rock hard "soil" is a problem. If you don't have a fancy rototiller, you can hack out a shallow trench, even just an inch deep, and fill it with water. Wait for the water to soak in and the soil should be easy to dig out. Repeat if necessary to get the depth of soil that you need. BTW, my parents were market gardeners in Geraldton who established their own farm from scratch. In season, they would produce tonnes of tomatoes and some of their tomatoes ended up in markets in Melbourne or even Singapore! They had a similar method of establishing fruit trees, to plant them in what they called a "dam"', a hole with a berm around it. The only difference was, they planted the crown deep, about 2 inches below the surrounding soil depth. I think this was because they had very sandy soil that was free draining when it was loose (not in "concrete mode"!) and if the crown was level with the soil surface or built up above the soil surface, it would dry out. Because they were near the sea and on a fossil marine soil (lots of shell, seabird dung (guano) etc), the soil was very fertile and high in lime, but you wouldn't know to look at it. It looked pathetic, but once some water and a bit of organic matter was added, it flourished! Folks used to mine guano from some islands near there, and there was a superphosphate plant just down the road, where my Dad used to work for extra "off farm" income (as he had a boilermaster's certificate).
Hey there Guineith! It sounds like your parents were kindred souls with very similar aspirations to ours. We meet folks from all around the world who have this same desire to live off the land and share that abundance with others. Thank you for sharing your story with us and great tip on prepping hard soil for planting. It does make all the difference to get a little moisture on the ground before going at it with shovels, picks and whatever else you need to get it started.
These were delivered through Chip Drop (arborists chipping as they work on tree trimming in the city). They are hit or miss when you're more remote, but it does work.
You are doing a fantastic job. I'm tempted to up sticks and move to Arizona or New Mexico. Have you looked into the Growasis boxes. I wonder how they would work combined with your double rings.
Hey Marye! We're definitely fans of living in AZ for many reasons, but the ability to grow such a wide variety of fruit bearing trees is hard to beat! The Growasis boxes would probably work fine for desert adapted trees (mesquite, palo verde, etc) that don't produce water dependent fruit. Fruit bearing trees like what you're seeing here need WAY too much water in order to ripen fruit. Now you may be able to use them for newly planted trees and forgo the inner rings, but those outer rings that they will quickly grow into will need multiple gallons each week (30+ in the first year during the dry season) in order for the tree to thrive.
That's a solid option in most desert environments. The problem we have here is the heavy caliche layer that runs 1-2 feet under the surface. Eventually the trees can penetrate it, but a newly planted tree will struggle if it doesn't have some space before hitting it (it also does not allow water to penetrate, so it pools).
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Caliche is a tough problem. I havè heàrd of situations where a hole is excavated thru it. An arboretum near Tucson does thàt. Nothing likes caliche.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm If you can crack through the caliche, the roots will do the rest. 1 - Rock drills and a sledge hammer. 2 - Chemicals: expose the caliche, chip a small basin into it and pour pool acid into it (HCl or H2SO4). When it stops fizzing, scoop out the sludge and do it again. And again until you have a hole that drains. Wear protective gear. We did both, and the various trees (orange and mesquite) thrived.
Hello Duane & wife , thanks for getting back with me on that impomtment info, just wondering how hot does it get in wittman az where we are in can and have seen 125° at midnight it's still 100° have a good day Gary
We're about the same as the rest of the valley. We hit 125 a couple of years back in June. Normal daytime temps in Summer are 110 or higher. 100 degrees at 5am.
Wonderful..... I see that you can add another pipe in standing in the large circle to look inside it and see the water level because this layer of wood is blinding you from seeing the water level unless you will use a watering system.
Hey Ahmed. I imagine that would be useful if you're wanting to easily access the soil. We use automated irrigation here, so we only occasionally check soil moisture.
Recently found your channel as we are about to prune our almonds and was looking for advice, then found a few more of your videos. We have an old olive grove and it's going to need a water system putting in as our natural rainfall is decreasing. How would you set something up for much larger existing trees? Thanks
Hey there! Glad you found the channel and are finding the content useful. Olive trees are desert adapted trees that need deep, infrequent watering to be fruitful. With that, the design you see here can be incorporated into that assuming you don't have the option of true flood irrigation, which would be ideal. The rings may need to be a bit larger depending on the size of the trees, so your bubbler output would need to increase (along with the lines supplying the water). How many trees are we talking about?
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm thanks I'll be looking at whats available locally. Flood irrigation is on the way out here now as water is becoming more scarce. We have 50 olive trees, so not too many but enough to get a good harvest of oil
I'm late to the party and your channel so you may have already addressed this, but where in the world do you get that much wood chip mulch in the dessert? I'm in West Texas. Mulch is a game changer for growing just about anything in our hot summers. And also kept my pomegranates alive (at least the roots) when it got below 0 for the first time in 30 years. I'm a mulch fanatic so just curious as to your source.
Sounds like you know just how important that material is to us out here! We have a couple of consistent sources and one of them is a neighbor down the road that we followed home one day and asked if he would bring us the chipped material he has from time to time. We've also had some success with Chip Drop. We're about 20 minutes from one of the county dumps, so it's not impossible to coax tree trimmers out here with a case of adult beverages!
Just to add on , wood chips retain water and moisture underneath almost as dead leaves in forest slowly decomposed will add on for trees proteins and protecting from sun. Well done could have connected all trees with channels and extra water to flow to the next one but it’s already individually watered.
You are reading our minds with that last suggestion Senad. We have large mulberries lining the back of the property and that is also where the flow of water leaves the property. The plan is to connect each of these rings with a swale that diverts that water flow into the irrigation rings.
I’m new to your channel. Maybe in a video you could give your backstory. Are you both from AZ? How do you know so much about growing trees? Is this a business or just for you? Are you testing which trees grow best so that in the future you’ll grow more if that kind?
Hey there Laurie, welcome to the family! We've covered your questions in a few episodes over the years, but here are a few details. I (Duane) am originally from Los Angeles and Lori is from Phoenix (city kids with no farming experience). We met in San Diego and moved here in 1998. Started seriously growing fruit trees in 2012 and moved to Wittmann in 2014 to start the farming business. We had a 1 acre farm that we started on testing out several types and varieties of trees and as we started establishing the business decided we needed more space which is why we're on this new property. You have a great suggestion on us giving our backstory in an episode, we'll have to do that. We also do a monthly Q&A livestream on the first Saturday of each month at 3pm AZ time. The next one is coming up next Saturday, so drop by if you can make it!
Glad you enjoyed this one! The only thing we add to the planting is typically some diluted fish emulsion and Vitamin B-1 to help kickstart root growth.
Amazing job, and you went to so much effort. But you didn't pull apart the root ball. Not sure about Citrus as they may be different. However, for nut trees and larger fruit trees the roots will continue to spiral round. You may get ok growth for a few years, but the trees often do not grow as well, and the dense root ball formed in the center becomes a haven for various diseases. After having to dig up 5 to 10 year old trees for people several times, I don't like seeing people not take the extra minute or so especially after so much care went into planting it in the first place.
Hey Nick. Great points and solid suggestion. Most of the trees we plant here are recently grafted trees grown on local root stocks, so we rarely have issues with wound root balls. If we do come across those we break the ball up to help encourage that outward growth as you're describing.
Adam in Tucson Q, 1 what paint to use for the Tree Trunk? Q, 2 when in the day to water and how much; I am talking about three different Figs three and one Pomelo, thank you.
Hey Adam. We've switched to the IV Organics Trunk Protectant as it gives us an organic option that also protects against rodent and bug damage (we have a discount code for that if you take that route, EONFARM). You can also find trunk paint in the gardening section of your local Home Depot or Lowes. We water the trees at night and right now our full size trees get 60 gallons once/week. That may inch up a bit if we have consistent days over 110. It decreases significantly during the Winter months, especially if we see any rainfall. Most of this past Winter we were watering once/month at the most.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you, so much for your answer. I`m definitely not a farmer, but got very green fingers and what I plant grow. I need the bit of your gardening input thank you very much.
Hey Dwayne, An excellent video. I am in Missouri and starting to build an orchard. My question is this, does any of your root stock, like apple for instance, develop a deep taproot? I don't have your caliche problem. But, I have large stones and boulders, usually concealed below the soil line. My partner purchased a used "Ground Hog" to drill multi size holes up to six feet deep. We will set plants in September. So, what tree species are your biggest challenge, for root depth?
This is a good question and I'm not aware of any of the root stocks that we have available to us here in AZ allowing for deep tap roots. It's one of the reasons we focus on that larger irrigation ring to drive outward growth. That being said, the trees will push deeper growth over time and they eventually punch through our hard caliche. I know they will also find their way between rocks underneath the soil assuming they can find water.
Hey Skud. The main reason we use the double rings is how we irrigate (bubbler/flood type irrigation) and the combination of different water needs on the same zone. The inner ring is only used for the first growing season on full size trees. We close it off after that and water in the outside ring only. As we find the need to replace trees or we have dwarf trees on the same zone, this allows us to water both closer to the smaller rootball as well as further out and away from the trunk where lager fruit trees need irrigation to occur. The outside ring allows for water penetration further away from the tree which is the only way the roots for these trees can penetrate our desert soils and continue to establish. I'm assuming you're referring to something like the Groasis water boxes when you say inverted cone? In other words, the water is kept closer to the trunk/root ball.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm inverted cone I just meant like one big bowl so the middle of the bowl where the tree trunk always gets the water and the outside gets it once the inner gets saturated. I thought it was more of an overflow area. I didn't realize you block the centre ring off for the second season though. Does that mean you will sometimes make a 3rd ring for later seasons if the tree is likely to get larger?
@@Skud0rz ah, ok. Thanks for clarifying. I'm not sure whether or not we'll need a third (or larger) ring. We have the areas between the trees heavily mulched to allow for strong water retention when we do see weather events and the swale/berm design of the ring allows for water to penetrate a good 2 feet or more out and away from the ring. We're hoping that will be enough to get the trees to full size without additional ring size. If needed, we can extend them further.
Yes! finally, a video that is actually correct! Thinking short term AND long term!!
They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, but if you're going to do it today you better have a 20 year plan, right? Glad you enjoyed this one.
Yeah, super long-term thinking planting trees where they simply cannot be sustained by natural processes.
@@gregmartin9024 guess israel had it all wrong
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm you're truly far sighted
55🔫
more beautiful to watch couple helping each other.
Thank you so much R M!
This is so interesting. I'd never considered painting a tree trunk before but it makes so much sense in hindsight.
For us here in AZ it's a must have, especially on hew plantings!!
This has to be one of the most helpful and informational videos related to gardening that I've EVER seen. Thank you so much! God bless you and may your garden harvests be plentiful! 😊💝🙏🏻
I'm glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful. May Gob Bless you as well. ❤️
Hello I'm not sure how far away you are from the sea but sea weed is one of the best water retention mulches if that makes lol and they're packed full of nutrients and vitamins it's the only thing I add to my garden and it always thrives
They are in the desert far far far away from water, lol.
That would be a great resource if we were closer to the ocean. I would love to get some natural nutrition in that seaweed. We're about 6-7 hours from the beaches in Cali.
I used peat moss ...
@@chevman46 I imagine that does a good job of retaining moisture for you.
I think he's closer to Sushi than the Sea!
Now that’s a crop circle. I build single berms especially on new plants to make sure they get enough water. I’ve never exposed root crowns, we have roots cook in the heat already. Thank you for sharing.
The key really is ensuring those new plants get plenty of access to water. We're finding that the inner circle in these rings does an excellent job of giving them plenty of water in that first year while also allowing them to grow further out into that outer ring as they're able to.
I have never seen anything like this. I am so impressed with the whole system of encouraging the roots of the tree to grow outward, and I have never seen anyone do rings around the tree like this. It makes so much sense to cover them with woodchips to help keep the water from evaporating in the heat of the sun, and the way you used the rocks with the valve box is genius! I mean, even without an irrigation system, like you said; you can can just stick a water hose in the valve box and water manually. I can see how the wood chips will also help keep a heavy rain from washing out your rings you made as well. Thanks for sharing!
I'm really glad to hear you're finding this one useful. It's a challenge to find designs that make sense for us in dry climates that take into account the needs of the tree (from young to mature) as well as ensuring we're being good stewards of the land. We're hoping this encourages others to do the same.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm for sure! and I'm glad I found your channel!
Your channel is super helpful. I have been so delighted how my channel has grown too. I do limit the number of channels I subscribe to simply because as a senior retired my days are still full with developing this property. That said I subscribed seeing how informative this channel is. Way to go Duane.
We've really found our viewers to be a wealth of information for us as many of experience that trumps ours by decades. Glad you're enjoying the content. Now I need to head over and see what you have going on!
Painted tree trunks! Fascinating!
I imagine it seems strange, but it's very common here in Arizona. All of our nurseries sell trunk paint for young trees like this!
The most beloved fruit tree in the world. Well done, guys!
Glad you enjoyed this one!
Love the ring design, looks amazing and thank you for sharing.
Thanks Daniel, it seems to be working good for us so far. We'll see how it develops as the trees continue to grow.
One of the best UA-cam videos I have watched, great detail and explanation. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful Wesley!
That's is a beautiful design guys.
Thanks for the compliment. We've been adjusting this thing over the last year and think we finally have it figured out.
Last time I was this early you were still at the old farm.
Always great to hear from you G M. We have a few of you "old timers" still hanging in there with us!
In Tucson, trees are most successful if you predig a 4x4x4' hole, back fill it in with the removed soil and manure. The reason for doing this is to remove the caliche in this 4 foot area to give the tree an area it CAN grow without running its roots along the surface of the ground and it also guarantees the water can soak in deeply. To create even better success, place a 4 inch perferated pluming pipe verticle in the hole's outside perimeter. When the hole is filled in and the tree planted in the center of the hole, the tree can be watered slowly via the pipe OR flooded with water.
Definitely another option that I know a lot of folks use.
Awesome video. You are very charismatic and capture attention very well with how you filmed, audio quality, and pacing. Also the topic of using this ring design is something I will adopt for my trees I'm planting this summer. Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad to hear the content was useful for you. If you have any questions as you put this in place, please reach out!
Love your channel your giving us lots of ideas on how to setup our orchard when we get started on our property, thank you
Glad we can encourage you guys and give you some ideas. That's what we did for years before finally getting here, so plan first and then run like crazy getting it all in place once you're on that land! Once you're there and get something planted you'll have to send us a quick video so we can share it with everyone here on our Viewer's Playlist.
An alternative to painting your trunks is to grow pole legumes in the center mound as an intercrop.
As the sun sets in, the beans vine up the trunk and make better use of that hot desert sun than white paint would. The beans also keep the microclimate cooler during the summer via transpiration, but die off on the winter (think providing shade via deciduous trees)
That would definitely be an option worth considering.
Just needs more water though, because that microclimate and shade-generating biomass is made by transpirating water as opposed to reflecting the incoming energy in the first place (as paint does).
@@aenorist2431 definitely true, but I for one count it as water well spent since I love both green beans and mature beans.
Water consumption itself though is a hugely complicated topic, and how water is spent for a plant varies wildly based on technique. For example, squash in the Three Sisters intercroping technique uses water that would otherwise mostly be lost to evaporation anyway, and results in a net yield in all 3 crops.
Another point to consider is that reflected light doesn't just disappear; anyone who's been on a rooftop in the south-west knows that point all too well. Our rooftops here in the Mojave where I live regularly hit 140°+ due to the reflected light.
Bean plants for shade! i love it.
Question if I don't have wood chips would hey work? All the videos on youtube people use wood chips but where I live we don't have tress but I have an abundance of hey.
Fantastic idea! Thanks for the tips, I'll be using that the next time I plant a tree, & update my current system.
Glad you found this one useful Jennifer. It seems to be working really well for us so far, so we wanted to share with everyone out there.
Excellent make sense video. The second trench is brilliant. We planted a personal food forest using the wood chip overlayed with lawn clippings and straw to build up the soil fast with organic matter..
Glad you enjoyed this one and congrats on that food forest. There's nothing quite like walking outside and picking fresh fruit and veggies throughout the year!
awesome video! need to start following your method of irrigation for my fruit trees.
It really does well for us in the desert here.
Outstanding video !🤗 I currently have over 600 plants here on my 24.5 yr plot in Tempe & have planted close to 7000 plants in over 26 yrs. Watering correctly (how & where, etc) is a pet peeve for me. Though you can certainly have some variance (most everything I have is on early, long & deep drip I personally installed over MANY yrs, finalizing everything well over a decade ago). This is one of the very few video's I have watched where things are done & taught correctly !! And I love the humorous finish to the video !😁🤗
Glad you enjoyed this one and it sounds like you know just how challenging this can all be for us!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Keep up the great work. Thumbs Up all the time !😉👊 Great channel
Very cool way of doing this
It seems to be working pretty good so far, hopefully it will continue to do well along with these trees!
Sir Namaste!! Your plantation is very nice. God bless you & ur all family members.
Thank you sir. God Bless you and your family as well. ❤️
I really needed this video! 🙏
Hey there Millie. I'm glad to hear this will be helpful for you. We've had a lot of folks ask us about irrigation here in AZ, so we're trying to share as much as we can on what works well for us.
Great information thanks 🌳
Glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful!
What a great video 👍
Thank you so much! I have planted all my trees wrong and thats why they are all dead, unfortunately.
When I finally am 100% on homestead, Im going to use this technique 👌 ty! Blessings!
Hey Jen! We're finding it really is ideal for us. It's a bit of work up front to get it set up, but then it works well with either timed irrigation or hand watering.
I bought & have the Aprium tree from RSI growers. My grandparents had lots of citrus here in Phoenix & they had deep irrigation front & back yard. We used to play in the irrigation as kids. I am going to try your rings for the Aprium & Nectarine. My citrus have wells to the drip lines to emulate irrigation. I never have planted a tree above ground, nor do any of my native planters. They, like you, do not dig the hole much bigger than the rootball. I plant my trees the same way. But, I have been told to make a good microclimate by using mulch & lots of it, without piling at the trunk. Thx for explanations & video
Hey Christa. Sounds like you have some experience with this and that makes all the difference in the world. We have a good mix of folks with a lot of experience and new growers starting with their first trees, so we try to encourage both ends of the spectrum!
Thanks lot for your Video and Very important knowledge! Hoping this inspires Millions of People!
Glad you enjoyed this one and we agree. This can help a lot of folks ensure their trees are irrigated appropriately!
New Sub :) ...
I really love the way you did the swale and berm around the trees. This is what I was going to do if we buy land in west TX. Great info!!! Thank you so much. :)
Glad you found us Dana! The tree rings work fantastic to hold the water in and get a good even watering.
Thank you very much. Very helpful and well prepared video. Nick from Greece.
Hey Nick. Wow, all the way from Greece! That is really cool. I imagine we have very similar climates in some areas of Greece.
Now that’s what I call a tree DADDY!!!❤😂
😂
Thanks for the lime recommendation.
Definitely. This will do well for you out in Cali.
Awesome Video, just moved out to a desert like area and will be using this method to plant my fruit trees. thank you
Congrats on making that move. We have our unique challenges, but there are distinct benefits to being where it's dry as well!
I absolutely love this method! I also love our sun joe tiller as well and now I know of a fantastic way to make my job even easier when planting trees. I like the double ring method you shared here and will start implementing this as well in future tree plantings. Thank you so much for sharing.
Glad to hear you're finding that tiller as useful as we are! We have really put that thing through the ringer on both this farm and our old one and it's still going strong.
Are you planning on planting anything by the fence to catch road water runnoff and increase biological sufface area and precipitation? Things like bushes or suculents, it just adds to your root network and soil.
That is great suggestion G M. Eventually we're hoping to get some ground cover at the edges of the tree rings. I hadn't considered succulents and they would really do well at the edge of those rings. Apple cactus would be pretty cool....hmm.....
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Have you seen what Brad Lancaster did in Tulsa? Might be some good ideas there for you.
@@gm2407 no, we are WAY behind on our UA-cam watching these days with everything going on. Summer time is our down time, so we'll have a lot of research to catch up on.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm You would definately benefit with a watch of that as its about desert plants and water in the soil.
In Illinois we have a program called Prairie Strips Initiative, where the FSA pays you per acre to have a designated area to catch water run off and provide sanctuary areas for local wildlife. Usually along fences or roads or even on slopes within your farmland.
This will definitely help me in California, thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear it Elizabeth. Much like you, we understand the importance of balancing production and water conservation. We're finding this takes care of both. Please let us know how it goes for you!
Done good. Keep up the great work. Thanks for taking the time and putting it on video.
Glad you enjoyed this one Derrick!
I really learn alot from you. You give it all to us. Thanks
This is one of the designs we've had the most success with when it comes to fruit trees. It works great in many different climates.
Brilliant! Sharing this with all our off-grid food-producing friends!
Glad you found this one useful!
Wow! Did you say Yuma!? That's where I live! So awesome.
Here there Alex. Yes! We're excited to see how these trees will do and from what we understand they use root stocks that do really well for us here...and there for you as well I'm sure!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I'd love to know a good source to buy citrus trees with good rootstock for AZ soil. I live in Avondale, and really appreciate all your garden and tree videos. :)
@@jan10-l our favorite source for citrus trees is RSI Growers, but they are another year out before they will have some available again. Elgin nursery is a good source for trees that are from Yuma and they are right there close to you in Avondale. That is where we picked up the tree we planted in this video actually.
Excellent ☺️👍 love from India bhai 🌺
Hello in India!! I'm glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful.
Simply dope lol
It does work wonders for us!
This is a WOW video for sure! Very well thought out, with a tough irrigation unit, trimmers and mowers just can't mess with it:::subbed:::
Glad you enjoyed this one and look forward to seeing you here in the comment section!!
Really liked the way it was explained.. and mulching techinique is which i going to take it from this video.. awesome .. keep it up .. 👍
That mulch really makes all the difference Anil. It basically eliminates any evaporation that might occur with the irrigation water into the ring.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm true .. your right .. thank you ..
To maximize rain capture when on level ground, the top of the outer ring (the outermost berm) would merely be ground level (just a ramp up). A sunken basin, in other words. The tree crown remains ground level or a touch higher. Have you considered this design? Thanks for the video.
Hey there Jason. What you're describing would really be ideal. The challenge we have here is our extremely hard dirt which makes trenching down a good 12 inches very difficult (we mulch heavy, so 12 inches would be minimum). With the goal to get our 170+ trees planted in a year we weren't willing to put in that amount of labor for each tree to accomplish it. You are dead on with your suggestion though.
The mulch will really by creating an environment for microbes as it breaks down. This is great design. I love the double ring. When you do get rain, the outer ring will catch that extra water.
You hit the nail on the head Gilead! We very quickly find an abundance of life in these rings in a fairly short period of time and with the irrigation keeping moisture present, the earthworms are having a field day under there!
Awesome video. Thanks for the insight and motovation. I just purchased 13ac outside of dallas and your videos are a great help on what I want to plan for my farm.
Woohoo! Todd, 13 acres is a lot of space and you'll be able to do so much with that land. What are your plans for the new property? Fruit trees I'm assuming, but what else?
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm 1.5 acre pond and some fruit and nut trees. The main operation will be 8 to 10 feeder beef, grass feed and most likely grain finished. I have 8 acres designated in 4 2ac paddocks for ritational grazing. The first step is my 50x80 barn with an additional 16x80 lean-to aquaponics green house, irrigation plumbing stub-up and 3500 ft of 5 strand fencing. Barn will have a 600sqft 2 story apartment that we will live in until construction price level out. Then we will be builing our house. Kind of backwards way if doing it, but we live in a crazy world now.
@@toddwikel3849 wow, that sounds like a solid plan for your new farm Todd. The integration of livestock is so very important. We're learning that here as we continue to grow the farm. It's one of the reasons Lori has finally taken the step to be here FT as we needed her here in order to effectively bring more animals onto the farm. You have nearly double the space we do, so you'll be able to do more with larger livestock (especially cattle) which can very quickly drive up your fertility.
Cogent Comprehensive and yet very informative
Glad you found this informative!
Great job! very impressed that you are working as a team. I would like to know what you used for ground cover, and how long does it last? Do you import it in?
Hey Byron. We use wood chips for ground cover and we source them from local arborists through a website called Chip Drop. We also have a neighbor down the road who's a landscaper and he brings material to us as well from time to time. Given how dry we are here it usually takes a few years for them to completely break down. If they have a higher percentage of leaves vs chips it can be a bit quicker.
thank you. i love planting tree in desert
Glad you enjoyed this one!
I was thinking of something like this when I start my food forest, but you pointed out a few extra things, thank you. One question though, do you eventually fill in the smaller circle when the tree grows bigger, or do you leave it in?
Great question Kathryn. We don't fill in the inside ring, but we block off the channel leading into it after the first growing season to ensure we're watering at and beyond the drip line for the growing tree.
Great video! So far, all I have is the first ring around my trees. Just need some time and parts to finish the second ring and irrigation. Thanks again for all the AWESOME videos!!
One question, you will be making a larger ring around this as the trees grow?
Hey Kylan. We do have the space between the trees to extend the rings further, but I'm not sure it will be necessary. That's one of the many reasons for the woodchips between each tree. Hopefully that will hold enough moisture for each tree to push into the next tree's watering ring if it needs to.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm oh ok! Thank you that makes sense!
Hey, happy anniversary! We'll hire a polka band. The tuba ought to chase off the wild critters. :)
Bring in that Tuba Martin!!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm And never mind that the chickens won't lay for a week :) Oompa! gotta rock, baby! :)
I learned alot from you
Glad you found this one informational!
This is great , I’m getting ready to plant some fruit trees on my other property and won’t be able to water very much . With this system should work great Thanks
Glad we could give you some inspiration on this one Clint. Good luck with those plantings!!
The brilliant design of the ancient city of Atlantis has come full circle haha! Awesome team work making permaculture heaven on Earth. Great work to be replicated globally:)
Hey Aaron! It's funny, we've had folks suggest several things for this ring design and I suppose Atlantis fits as well! I imagine we're a long way from being underwater, but maybe a bit more rainfall with these principles can change the future!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I really love how you have 6 or 8 inches of mulch around every fruit tree. It is a winning strategy! In 2014, in Douglas, Arizona I dug large swales in my side yards to collect and store the monsoon rains coming off the house roof. I then covered the entire areas with truck loads of mulch. 8 years later we have strong and healthy peach, apricot, jujube, plum and fig trees along with rich soil, bugs, worms and shade.
@@aaronvallejo8220 I love hearing this Aaron. A little time and the break down of organic matter and even the desert comes to life!
Wow that's a spoiled happy tree; I hope it gives you lots of limes :)
That is a spoiled little booger for sure! Seems to be happy so far with a few little limes on there as we speak!
Good information
Glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful Rajesh!
I had no idea trees could get sunburn. Always wondered what the white stuff on trees was for. Very informative video thank you
Glad you enjoyed this one! We lost one of our first apple trees over 10 years ago to sunburn, so we're careful to keep them painted those first few years!
Thanks for sharing. Amazing work, great info.
Glad you found this one useful Sam.
Thanks great job!
Glad you enjoyed this one!
Nice video thanks for sharing. I am in the middle of nowhere in Northwest Kansas smiley face or chemical farming has turned us into a desert. I have never seen a double dish for a tree I will have to try it.
The dire straights we've put ourselves in with chemical farming is just downright scary. Our area is naturally desert, but we seem intent on turning the whole planet into one if we can!
Really interesting to watch. I have never lived anywhere that any of this would be needed. Half my life, it rained every day of the year, at 4 pm, for three hours, then stopped. About 120 mm of rain a day, every day. :) Except the hurricanes, those tended to be unmeasured amounts of rain, because of the "sheered everything off at ground level, and piled it up somewhere out to sea" aspect.
Then I lived in Western Australia. I was there for three and a half years. It did not rain.
Oh my goodness, you've quite literally lived in opposite extremes!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarmHey, last night I mentioned your tree care regime to the only person I still talk to who lives in Three Springs, WA, and she knew whose website I was talking about. And she said
"You silly buggar, what do you think we do to plant trees here?".
I thought they didn't have any trees. It is all dirt, and brown sticks from memory. :)
Veri nice irrigation system 👌
Thank you, it is working great for us!
Very helpful!!! Planting this week 🙌🙌🙌😍😍😍
Glad that was helpful, planting is always so exciting!!
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm it really is!!! Rock removal is happening now 🙌🙌🙌 9 trees, 6 bushes, 8 vines are waiting !!! Much more to come thanks again for sharing and inspiring !!
Woah that formation is so similar to a shivling. A form worshipped in our Indian culture. Also can this method be used for small fruiting trees in a dry hot climate?
We've heard that form several folks and although it wasn't intentional, it definitely looks very similar! We use a similar design for our dwarf kumquat trees and it works just fine. You may find the outer ring will not need to be quite so large in diameter.
Shalom
Thanksgiving
Excellent
Glad you enjoyed this one!
Looks like a science project for lost city of Atlantis
Matthew, that is hilarious! Oh my goodness, literally LOL...that's great!
That was neat, thanks.
Glad you found this one useful!
I was tbinking of driving three ovc tubes with holes thre efeet down, but the rings look more effective and build soil at the same time.
@@dethmaul you hit the nail on the head with the soil building. In the end, that soil is what will continually feed the tree over time.
My watermelons are kick'n ass this year.
Dame bugs love the pumpkins
Glad to hear those watermelons are rockin. It's amazing how from year to year you end up having to deal with something different. Just a little change in the weather can bring on a whole new set of pests!
I use a similar method here in southern California. What I find is that eventually the water running into and around the rings starts to cave in the sides and the ring begins to fill with soil. I have to dig out the rings every so often.
That's interesting that you're getting cave ins. I'm guessing your soil structure must be much looser than ours here as it turns to a very hard clay with regular watering. That being said, the woodchips do break down over time which can cause the rings to clog. Much like you, we resolve this by moving that soil to the outside of the rings when fertilizing 3x/year which helps keep that channel open.
I have NEVER seen anything like this!! Thank you!! I live in ABQ. NM, the Chihuahuan Desert, and we have hard caliche soil. I need to refresh my trees with this system. Can it be done in already established trees? Great info!
Hey Christine! I (Duane) used to travel to ABQ and Santa Fe for work every month, so I know just what you're up against there! You can definitely install this for an existing tree, just be careful when digging the ring as you may wind up hitting a lot of small feeder roots. If you do, you can dig the ring more shallow and scrape dirt from outside the ring to build up the berm. Of course, you won't need that inside ring that you're seeing us create here, just that outside ring at the dripline.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Mmmm . . . thank you. I'm going to rework 2 rose bushes I recently planted and perhaps the fruitless plum tree that's already established. It looks so professional and effective!
As close as Santa Fe and Albuquerque are to each other, their climates are very different. I'm not sure about the soil in SF, but Abq. has a lot of SAND and caliche. It's not fertile on its own, unless your land is close to the Rio Grande. We're basically a huge beach!
@@christineribone9351 Chihuahuan desert..! Is it Mexico?
Awesome! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful Rostislav!
Awesome 😎 thank you!
Glad you enjoyed this one!
Thank you guys. You inspired me again.
I have lost hope. I live in Central Cali, on an acre of heavy clay. Digging a hole, even a large hole, becomes a water pot and rots roots. If you read this, please give me tips on soil. Idk what to do.
Hey there Ed. Sounds like you have something similar to what we deal with here in AZ. Our East orchard where we're growing our pome fruit and figs is exactly how you're describing. We have literally fused metal tips onto auger bits trying to dig a hole deeper than 2'. The key with this type of soil is consistent moisture and encouraging outward root growth on your trees. As you're seeing here with how we design these watering rings, you need those lateral roots to grow out as quickly as possible. To help soften that soil we use wood chips EXTENSIVELY around our farm. This helps maintain both soil moisture and allow for beneficial bugs to start doing the job of converting that clay into soil. It takes time, but they will come. Using manure based composts for fertilizer under the wood chips will help with all of this as well. We use partially composted pig manure and that does really well.
What type / where do you get your wood chips in AZ? Are you worried about termites being attracted to the chips? Love these videos, thanks!
The wood chips have all come from arborists we found through Chip Drop online. The termites are actually a benefit as they help break down the material. They're especially important for us in AZ as we don't have enough moisture to assist with that breakdown.
Fantastic video
Glad you enjoyed this one!
Super Excellent!
Glad you enjoyed this one Dianne!
A year has hone by already - enjoyed every video
Hey Angus. Yes, it's been a year already. Hard to believe, but it's starting to come together. Glad you're enjoying the content and going through this with us!
Terrifically ingenious! I can’t wait to fix all my amateur plantings with this new system. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed this one Jeremy.
Thank-you so much!!! This is a wonderful video!!👍❤❤❤❤❤
I'm here in Tucson Az and please please I want to know ..where do you get all those wonderful woodchips?
Hey guys! The wood chips are from several sources, but our primary go-to was Chip Drop in the beginning. We also chase every wood chipping truck we see in town and ask for deliveries. We also found a neighbor down the road who has a landscaping business and he also brings us material from time to time when he can chip it. We're pretty much always on the lookout for wood chips!
I live in North Central Victoria, Australia and my mother, who came from Geraldton, West Australia, taught me how to garden in this climate. The rock hard "soil" is a problem. If you don't have a fancy rototiller, you can hack out a shallow trench, even just an inch deep, and fill it with water. Wait for the water to soak in and the soil should be easy to dig out. Repeat if necessary to get the depth of soil that you need.
BTW, my parents were market gardeners in Geraldton who established their own farm from scratch. In season, they would produce tonnes of tomatoes and some of their tomatoes ended up in markets in Melbourne or even Singapore!
They had a similar method of establishing fruit trees, to plant them in what they called a "dam"', a hole with a berm around it. The only difference was, they planted the crown deep, about 2 inches below the surrounding soil depth. I think this was because they had very sandy soil that was free draining when it was loose (not in "concrete mode"!) and if the crown was level with the soil surface or built up above the soil surface, it would dry out.
Because they were near the sea and on a fossil marine soil (lots of shell, seabird dung (guano) etc), the soil was very fertile and high in lime, but you wouldn't know to look at it. It looked pathetic, but once some water and a bit of organic matter was added, it flourished!
Folks used to mine guano from some islands near there, and there was a superphosphate plant just down the road, where my Dad used to work for extra "off farm" income (as he had a boilermaster's certificate).
Hey there Guineith! It sounds like your parents were kindred souls with very similar aspirations to ours. We meet folks from all around the world who have this same desire to live off the land and share that abundance with others.
Thank you for sharing your story with us and great tip on prepping hard soil for planting. It does make all the difference to get a little moisture on the ground before going at it with shovels, picks and whatever else you need to get it started.
What type of wood chips did you use for your trees? where did you get the wood chips?
Thanks for the video and all the helpful information.
These were delivered through Chip Drop (arborists chipping as they work on tree trimming in the city). They are hit or miss when you're more remote, but it does work.
You are doing a fantastic job. I'm tempted to up sticks and move to Arizona or New Mexico. Have you looked into the Growasis boxes. I wonder how they would work combined with your double rings.
Hey Marye! We're definitely fans of living in AZ for many reasons, but the ability to grow such a wide variety of fruit bearing trees is hard to beat! The Growasis boxes would probably work fine for desert adapted trees (mesquite, palo verde, etc) that don't produce water dependent fruit. Fruit bearing trees like what you're seeing here need WAY too much water in order to ripen fruit. Now you may be able to use them for newly planted trees and forgo the inner rings, but those outer rings that they will quickly grow into will need multiple gallons each week (30+ in the first year during the dry season) in order for the tree to thrive.
I basin everything in my high desert garden. Focused around the plant roots. No runoff, no waste
That's a solid option in most desert environments. The problem we have here is the heavy caliche layer that runs 1-2 feet under the surface. Eventually the trees can penetrate it, but a newly planted tree will struggle if it doesn't have some space before hitting it (it also does not allow water to penetrate, so it pools).
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Caliche is a tough problem. I havè heàrd of situations where a hole is excavated thru it. An arboretum near Tucson does thàt. Nothing likes caliche.
@@got2kittys no doubt, getting below it would definitely be ideal.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm If you can crack through the caliche, the roots will do the rest.
1 - Rock drills and a sledge hammer.
2 - Chemicals: expose the caliche, chip a small basin into it and pour pool acid into it (HCl or H2SO4). When it stops fizzing, scoop out the sludge and do it again. And again until you have a hole that drains. Wear protective gear.
We did both, and the various trees (orange and mesquite) thrived.
Super useful. Thank you!
Glad you found this one useful Grant!
nice stress test of the berm at the end🙃
Yeah, that was not on purpose!
Hello Duane & wife , thanks for getting back with me on that impomtment info, just wondering how hot does it get in wittman az where we are in can and have seen 125° at midnight it's still 100° have a good day Gary
We're about the same as the rest of the valley. We hit 125 a couple of years back in June. Normal daytime temps in Summer are 110 or higher. 100 degrees at 5am.
Sahara & africa need this idea
Agreed!!
Wonderful..... I see that you can add another pipe in standing in the large circle to look inside it and see the water level because this layer of wood is blinding you from seeing the water level unless you will use a watering system.
Hey Ahmed. I imagine that would be useful if you're wanting to easily access the soil. We use automated irrigation here, so we only occasionally check soil moisture.
Recently found your channel as we are about to prune our almonds and was looking for advice, then found a few more of your videos. We have an old olive grove and it's going to need a water system putting in as our natural rainfall is decreasing. How would you set something up for much larger existing trees? Thanks
Hey there! Glad you found the channel and are finding the content useful. Olive trees are desert adapted trees that need deep, infrequent watering to be fruitful. With that, the design you see here can be incorporated into that assuming you don't have the option of true flood irrigation, which would be ideal. The rings may need to be a bit larger depending on the size of the trees, so your bubbler output would need to increase (along with the lines supplying the water). How many trees are we talking about?
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm thanks I'll be looking at whats available locally. Flood irrigation is on the way out here now as water is becoming more scarce. We have 50 olive trees, so not too many but enough to get a good harvest of oil
I'm late to the party and your channel so you may have already addressed this, but where in the world do you get that much wood chip mulch in the dessert? I'm in West Texas. Mulch is a game changer for growing just about anything in our hot summers. And also kept my pomegranates alive (at least the roots) when it got below 0 for the first time in 30 years. I'm a mulch fanatic so just curious as to your source.
Sounds like you know just how important that material is to us out here! We have a couple of consistent sources and one of them is a neighbor down the road that we followed home one day and asked if he would bring us the chipped material he has from time to time. We've also had some success with Chip Drop. We're about 20 minutes from one of the county dumps, so it's not impossible to coax tree trimmers out here with a case of adult beverages!
Just to add on , wood chips retain water and moisture underneath almost as dead leaves in forest slowly decomposed will add on for trees proteins and protecting from sun. Well done could have connected all trees with channels and extra water to flow to the next one but it’s already individually watered.
You are reading our minds with that last suggestion Senad. We have large mulberries lining the back of the property and that is also where the flow of water leaves the property. The plan is to connect each of these rings with a swale that diverts that water flow into the irrigation rings.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm keep up good work .
I’m new to your channel. Maybe in a video you could give your backstory. Are you both from AZ? How do you know so much about growing trees? Is this a business or just for you? Are you testing which trees grow best so that in the future you’ll grow more if that kind?
Hey there Laurie, welcome to the family! We've covered your questions in a few episodes over the years, but here are a few details. I (Duane) am originally from Los Angeles and Lori is from Phoenix (city kids with no farming experience). We met in San Diego and moved here in 1998. Started seriously growing fruit trees in 2012 and moved to Wittmann in 2014 to start the farming business. We had a 1 acre farm that we started on testing out several types and varieties of trees and as we started establishing the business decided we needed more space which is why we're on this new property. You have a great suggestion on us giving our backstory in an episode, we'll have to do that. We also do a monthly Q&A livestream on the first Saturday of each month at 3pm AZ time. The next one is coming up next Saturday, so drop by if you can make it!
I love this! I am planning on planting an orange tree. What all do you add to the soil when planting the tree? Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed this one! The only thing we add to the planting is typically some diluted fish emulsion and Vitamin B-1 to help kickstart root growth.
Amazing job, and you went to so much effort. But you didn't pull apart the root ball. Not sure about Citrus as they may be different. However, for nut trees and larger fruit trees the roots will continue to spiral round. You may get ok growth for a few years, but the trees often do not grow as well, and the dense root ball formed in the center becomes a haven for various diseases. After having to dig up 5 to 10 year old trees for people several times, I don't like seeing people not take the extra minute or so especially after so much care went into planting it in the first place.
Hey Nick. Great points and solid suggestion. Most of the trees we plant here are recently grafted trees grown on local root stocks, so we rarely have issues with wound root balls. If we do come across those we break the ball up to help encourage that outward growth as you're describing.
Or maybe consider adding a third ring for several years down the road the help with any root circling?
Adam in Tucson Q, 1 what paint to use for the Tree Trunk? Q, 2 when in the day to water and how much; I am talking about three different Figs three and one Pomelo, thank you.
Hey Adam. We've switched to the IV Organics Trunk Protectant as it gives us an organic option that also protects against rodent and bug damage (we have a discount code for that if you take that route, EONFARM). You can also find trunk paint in the gardening section of your local Home Depot or Lowes. We water the trees at night and right now our full size trees get 60 gallons once/week. That may inch up a bit if we have consistent days over 110. It decreases significantly during the Winter months, especially if we see any rainfall. Most of this past Winter we were watering once/month at the most.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you, so much for your answer. I`m definitely not a farmer, but got very green fingers and what I plant grow. I need the bit of your gardening input thank you very much.
Hey Dwayne, An excellent video. I am in Missouri and starting to build an orchard. My question is this, does any of your root stock, like apple for instance, develop a deep taproot? I don't have your caliche problem. But, I have large stones and boulders, usually concealed below the soil line. My partner purchased a used "Ground Hog" to drill multi size holes up to six feet deep. We will set plants in September. So, what tree species are your biggest challenge, for root depth?
This is a good question and I'm not aware of any of the root stocks that we have available to us here in AZ allowing for deep tap roots. It's one of the reasons we focus on that larger irrigation ring to drive outward growth. That being said, the trees will push deeper growth over time and they eventually punch through our hard caliche. I know they will also find their way between rocks underneath the soil assuming they can find water.
hi, great video. what is the benefit of using the 2 rings over using something like a large inverted cone? thanks
Hey Skud. The main reason we use the double rings is how we irrigate (bubbler/flood type irrigation) and the combination of different water needs on the same zone. The inner ring is only used for the first growing season on full size trees. We close it off after that and water in the outside ring only. As we find the need to replace trees or we have dwarf trees on the same zone, this allows us to water both closer to the smaller rootball as well as further out and away from the trunk where lager fruit trees need irrigation to occur. The outside ring allows for water penetration further away from the tree which is the only way the roots for these trees can penetrate our desert soils and continue to establish. I'm assuming you're referring to something like the Groasis water boxes when you say inverted cone? In other words, the water is kept closer to the trunk/root ball.
@@EdgeofNowhereFarm inverted cone I just meant like one big bowl so the middle of the bowl where the tree trunk always gets the water and the outside gets it once the inner gets saturated. I thought it was more of an overflow area. I didn't realize you block the centre ring off for the second season though. Does that mean you will sometimes make a 3rd ring for later seasons if the tree is likely to get larger?
@@Skud0rz ah, ok. Thanks for clarifying. I'm not sure whether or not we'll need a third (or larger) ring. We have the areas between the trees heavily mulched to allow for strong water retention when we do see weather events and the swale/berm design of the ring allows for water to penetrate a good 2 feet or more out and away from the ring. We're hoping that will be enough to get the trees to full size without additional ring size. If needed, we can extend them further.