Does anyone have their potted maples on a drip system with timer? Is this an ok method for watering? I have quite a few maples that I wanted to put around the back side of my house but don't want to drag the hose 200 feet. I was looking at the different kind of nozzles, deep watering, adjustable, mist etc. Does misting the leaves at night benefit maples as say a fern? If watering with a drip system is ok, which nozzle would you select? I have some potted maples that mainly don't get very much sun and get watered by the sprinkler system which seem to be doing just fine which got me thinking about a drip system. Thanks!
I find the drip system ok, but if you have a lot of maples in differing size pots, their frequency of watering will be different. You can over water some and this can lead to maple fatalities. I water by hand each individually after checking with a water sensitivity meter. I also use rain water collected by our many water butts. I have found that misting our maples with rain water in 'late' evening on hot Sumner days very beneficial. Our oldest maple a red discectum is nearly 40 years old, we have had it from a tiny one year graft and is still healthy and vigorous in a pot using the above method. We do repot every two years in a very drainage friendly compost, that we mix ourselves.
