How often do I need to water my plants with TreeDiaper

How often do I need to water my plants with TreeDiaper® treemats?

We get this question a lot! Here is youtube version of this case study: https://youtu.be/JthxpoXur-s

The best answer I can come up with is: I DON'T KNOW. Anything else would be just the wrong answer.

TreeDiaper® technology is different from all the other watering methods: surface irrigation uses gravity to bring water from the source to the point of interest, drip irrigation uses emitters with a set flow rate at a certain pressure of the water source, and watering bags release by gravity and pin holes. As long as the pin holes and/or the emitters are not clogged, the release rate is positive and one can calculate the time it takes to release. Above field capacity (overwatering) is common and the only solution is to drain that water away. After that, it relies on the soil to hold the plant available water (PAW) for the plants to use. So setting up a watering schedule and providing a watering prescription without knowing the soil moisture is just as good as a wild guess. BTW, the excess water drained away is wasted.

None of the conventional watering technologies would absorb excess water. TreeDiaper® treemats can do that. Here is a youtube video I cut from a 60-min presentation explaining why normal watering wastes too much water and how the excess water is absorbed by TreeDiaper® treemats. I explained how water is released from TreeDiaper® treemats. Both processes are controlled by the relative osmotic pressure between the soil and TreeDiaper® treemats.

So I would recommend people check soil moisture and water their plants based on the soil moisture. In the summer of 2022, Houston Texas experienced extreme drought. We have a customer who agreed to install a soil moisture sensor around a newly installed tree in 2021. So we captured the whole process of soil moisture during the drought. He used a matured crepe myrtle in the same yard as the control.

- No irrigation systems on the property

- 2.5" Sweetgum, 24" rootball, 48" TreeDiaper® treemat (TD48) was installed 

- matured crepe myrtle used as control and no TreeDiaper® treemats installed

- 1.5" in 78 days from May 25 to Aug 10, 2022, as recorded at IAH airport, which is 10 miles away from the site. source: wunderground.com

- soil moisture measurement was one data point every 10 minutes

- ONE manual watering event is needed on Aug 7th as suggested by the soil moisture

Cost Comparison of TreeDiaper^® TD48R with Watering Bags and Irrigation System