On Apr 18, 12:43*am, mm wrote:
How much should I water my brand new-to-me cherry tree? *And when?

I just planted a Lapins Sweet Cherry from Miller Nurseries, and a week
from today, I have to go away for about 3 weeks.

I have a Nelson water timer that will turn the water on up to 3 times
a day, for the times I choose in one minute increments, up to 11:59
hours. * I can choose the days of the week I water. * (Up to 3 weeks I
think, but so far I've only been working on the first week. *It only
has Su, M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa, 2nd, 3rd, so I'm thinking it does the 2nd
and 3rd weeks like the first one, but I don't have the full
instructions anymore.)

I have a week to watch it and get it right. *I live in Baltimore and
it will likely be in the 70's during the day during the time I'm gone.

As instructed, I filled the area around the newly planted tree with
water twice, and it was still damp then next day. *

I have a metal ball with a bunch of holes in it, that I placed 2 or 3
feet uphill from the tree, in order to water the whole area. *It is
uphill a little bit, a couple inches at 3 feet, but enough that the
water is sure to head towards the tree, and have time to spread out.

The soil seems to have a little clay but not much. *I had an apple
tree growing there well for the last 20 years, until it got cedar
apple rust and died.

The default start time in the timer is 11 AM.

If I figure out how long the water should be on to keep the ground
moist ??, should I water at dawnshould i break that time into 2 or 3
segments during the day.

If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM *:-)

If it were me, with those conditions, I'd water it 2 or 3 times a week
to deliver about 5 gallons of water each time. With a deep watering,
the soil will stay moist for 3 days at a time. Make sure the flow
rate is set so that the water stays in the area under the tree.