[Alberto]

We went out today to look at a job where a few plants are dying. The beds are muddy but the plants are on the dryish side. We have clay soil and the plants were grown in potting medium. My conclusion is that you cannot trust irrigation to water a new planting, but it is hard to get a customer, whose irrigation system you just installed, to accept that. Irrigation is great for turf, but not so much for shrubs. Anybody else?

[NCSULandscaper]

we only install drip irrigation for shrub beds, so no i think it works just fine

[Greensmith]

Irrigation is fine when used right and installed right of course. Most people tend to over irrigate and drown their shrubs. My clients in clay heavy areas always kill their plants with frequent watering.

[TrickyDick]

I try to install irrigation on every larger job. It works fine if it's done right. In most cases it's cheaper than what they would end up paying to have it hand watered and the client isn't going to do it.

[Inspired]

I guess it depends on where you live. Everything here (Phoenix, Arizona) is dead in about two days without it. You can't plant anything here without some sort of system.

One thing I'm sure we have in common though, you can't depend on the customer to set the timers correctly.

[site]

I think the problem with irrigation is that folks think they can ignore their plants as long as the system is on. There are a lot of shoddy irrigation companies around us, and they cut every corner possible. Homeowners think everything is great because the system just automatically comes on. Many installers have no idea how much water to give plants, or even grass for that matter. I don't have irrigation at home, and I don't promote it to customers unless they are willing to pony up the cash for the proper system.

[dan deutekom]

Originally posted by Alberto
The beds are muddy but the plants are on the dryish side. We have clay soil and the plants were grown in potting medium. My conclusion is that you cannot trust irrigation to water a new planting,

When you transplant plants of different soil types you have to make sure the rootball is wet when you plant it and you have to hand water to ensure the rootball remains moist until the plant becomes established. If a dry root ball goes into moist soil, a barrier between the wet and dry is formed that a normal irrigation system will not handleand the plant suffers. It is essential when planting to rake the rootball (tickle the roots) so that young growing roots quickly establish into the new growing medium, and this moisture barrier is broken. It is a basic horticultural practice that we as landscapers forget to practice. A small but important step that can save $ in replacement costs. We also tend to rely on technology when a human touch is required.

[tom]

Dan is right on the money. Disturbing the roots is especially important when dealing with container grown plants.

How are the shrubs being irrigated?

Drip is all we use for landscape beds.

[phototropic1]

Thanks Dan! You saved me lots of typing!

[sumski]

I also use a micro-drip irrigation for shrubs, and have one rule: never rely on customer to irrigate (especially when I do maintenance), as someone said- they think if they pay its gonna work without any worry.
If I don"t do maintenance, I always give a short course of irrigation to customer (its in my interest that every plant lives as long as it can)- for their plants off course.

While projecting a system, I always put plants that requires similar quantity of water in same line of irrigation, so I can link them with same pipe (water release per head is 2 or 4 l/h), and control time of watering on same way.

Another essential thing is soil: different soil properties - different penetration of water, you can simply measure that with bar or screwdriver- water the soil and then sting bar or screwdriver to depth you want to measure (you can see how slightly it goes in upper layer of soil).
Depth depends on plants, how big is their root zone (for just planted young plants):
trees- 45-90cm
shrubs- 30-60cm
so we want water to come to lowest zones. This is not always easy method, and in some cases
required lot of time to adjust water quantity to certain plant- but it is also best way to avoid problems after job is done.

[Sonnenblumen]

I cannot imagine how in the hotter US States any significant planting without an irrigation sysytem, even here in Ireland, what is comparitively speaking one big water feature, given the amount of rain we get. However we can and do get extended dry spells, hard to remember the last one, we do use irrigation systems!

A well known UK TV gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, always recommends that one spends twice as much on preparing the hole as the plant. IMO good advice.

When we're planting our simple house rule requires all plant roots (irrespective of size) be tickled ie lightly loosened and where practical dunked for 5 - 10 mins and drained off before planting.

I have yet to see a plant which has been planted in this way, where the root ball has not developed well. IMO dry planting comes with a higher risk of plants failing to take, no matter how much watering post planting.