For the past 2 months I have been watching my peach tree, and my desert willow drop leaves, and not grow any leaves back.
I water deep. By doing this I only have to water once a month. When the temps get into the upper 90's I will be watering every 2 weeks. I want the trees roots to grow deep. Deep roots prevent trees from being blown over, or having surface roots, and helps the roots reach for a deeper water source.
I know I get 22" deep because 20 minutes after watering, I take a 5' plant stake and push into the wet soil. When the stake stops I have hit dry soil. I grab the stake at soil level, and pull it out. I measure how many inches it went into the soil. If it didn't get the depth I wanted, I know I need to extend my water time.
Last year in June I planted this desert willow. Three weeks later it dropped all of it's leaves. A month later it had started growing new leaves. I waited another week before I decided to water it again, and it dropped it's leaves again.
The desert soil is clay. Which means it will hold onto the water. The conclusion I have come to is; the next time I plant a desert willow I will add washed sand in the compost / ground soil mix for better drainage.
What I did last year was open a hole about a foot away from the trunk to allow the water in the soil to dry out faster. How did I open this hole you ask? Well let me show you.
This is my garden hose attached to an eight foot plant stake.
There is a sweeper nozzle, and a hose shut-off attached to the hose. Later I realized that the garden stake needed to be down further, so that I could tie the tip of the nozzle to the stake, to help keep the nozzle straight.
I then put the nozzle to the soil, and opened the water flow.
I let the water do all the work, and sink the hole 2 1/2' to 3'.
These holes I will leave open for at least a week, then put all purpose sand in them, or fill with lava rock. I did this to the peach tree also.
Your peach tree looks great now!
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