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<pre>Hi Andrew & Val,

I am not an expert on Olives but I am learning fast!

Regarding watering olive trees, I can tell you what I did and it seems to
be working.

I was very disappointed when I was planning my grove. I could not find any
clear, easy to understand data on water requirements.

Many of those who advocate an annual requirement of water seem to ignore
the seasonal conditions. My grove is in the North East of Victoria and we
have hot dry summers and wet winters. I am told that adding water in winter
is important to enhance fruit set. In this district I am confident that
most winters will be wet enough without having to irrigate.

For me the need is to establish young trees and to nurse them through their
first few summers.

I designed my own system after failing to find an irrigation design person
that was prepared to consider my budgetry constraints.

I had a contractor divine and drill a bore. It is yielding only about 2000l
per hour. I believe that this will be adequate for about 2,000 trees. I
pump the water into a tank and then it gravitates to the grove. A dam or
tank gives greater flexability and it is not necessary to exactly match the
bore pump output to the capacity of the sprinklers. A tank gives me the
opportunity to ensure water cleanliness and quality as opposed to a dam.

For the main line I used Rural poly pipe and for the laterals I used LDPE.
The size required can easily be calculated by referring to friction loss
charts after taking into account the rate of flow required.

I like the Dan olive tree sprinklers that deliver 35l hr per tree. For my
young trees, I am applying about 150l per tree at intervals of 10 - 14
days. (My trees are well mulched with straw).

I water two or three rows at a time depending on the length of the rows.
Turning the valves on and off can be done by controllers and celenoid
valves alyhough at this stage I am opening the taps manually.

My trees are smiling at me and growing well so I suspect that they are
enjoying the conditions.

I am new to olives but I have had a lifetime in horticulture and cash
cropping and I have discarded all of the high tech moisture measuring
devices. Squeezing a handful of soil tells me all I need to know about soil
condition and moisture.

Regards

Sil.
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