We have been growing fruit trees in Phoenix for the last 4 years and figuring out watering in the heat each summer stresses us out. Thank you for this new method suggestion.
My young trees greatly benefited from twice a day watering for 20 min when temperatures are greater than 105. The more mature ones can do well with much less frequent watering. Fruit trees have fairly shallow roots, especially pomegranates, so young ones will fry with infrequent water.
Sanity among the Insane! I started watering twice per day, 10AM and 4PM, during the summer and my trees have LOVED IT. Same tangerine and lemon and figs grow in Florida, so think about it folks... I have 2 or 3 6 gph drippers into 12" pvc down pipes. I'll never go back to the "deep watering only" mantra. I also hit all my trees with 2-3 cups of Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate) 4-6 times/year for the freshest green leaves even in September.
Thanks for the update; that's good food for thought. I'm always considering irrigation changes and improvements as my garden evolves and my trees get more established and reach maturity. My soil is very different here. No clay, just super hard pack with lots of heavily embedded rocks; it takes a jackhammer to dig holes. Then there is a never ending layer of caliche at about 14 inches. Surprisingly my drainage is decent and my tree wells tend to stay wet a long time with no root rot issues. Happy gardening!
You are welcome! No reason to fix what's not broken. This works for my situation; everyone has their own set of challenges that call for different solutions.
Thanks for the update, very encouraging results! I also have non stop growths with all my citrus this year since I started the frequent watering! Your emitters are great, I am going to switch to them soon!
Thank you so VERY much! I have been struggling with my veggies and flowers looking ragged and not bearing . I was doing 5 minutes twice a day BUT I just changed my irrigation (thankfully on my computer) to close to what you have and I will watch. First thing I changed was my citrus. I am looking forward to seeing the difference. I figured out I will save 30 minutes of watering daily too! So very grateful that you took the time to share this!
I hope you don't mind but I posted this video on our f/b page Gardening in Phoenix (over 20,000 viewers) to reply to another who also had water questions.
Natasha, do you order your sprinkler heads from Amazon? Any specific favorites? My mulch is pretty thick in places so will have to investigate my watering times. Now that it’s cooler I have tons of work to get done. To start, I’ll be updating my timer and sprinkler heads and adding one new valve. Your new method of watering has convinced me! Will let you know how my figs turn out once I get them all in the ground this summer.
Great tips. You mentioned a couple of plants that were particularly susceptible to the heat (e.g. sapote and loquat). I learned the hard way with the latter; got an Argelino from JFE and it dropped a lot of leaves after I skipped a couple of days of watering. I'd be curious to hear which of your many fruit trees are a little more tolerant of our AZ summers and which struggle. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful. All my bamboo and subtropicals (loquat, mango, atemoya, avocado, lychee, ice cream bean, sapodilla, jaboticaba, black sapote, white sapote, surinam, guava, starfruit, banana, etc.) appear to have shallow fibrous roots and start burning up on the foliage if they don't get frequent water. Stone fruit trees, fig trees and citrus are OK on less frequency but if holding fruit have issues with fruit splitting and/or drying out. The rest like mulberry, moringa, quince, apple, curry, Royal Poinciana etc. don't seem to be affected either way; they look good on frequent irrigation/less volume or less frequent/more volume.
Pertinent for me as I've been growing squash and melons under my smaller fruit 'orchard' outback which obviously require frequent watering here in N. Commifornia low inland, hot and dry summers. (small trees with much light passing around them before they form a dense canopy a few yrs forward) Also try to maintain 4 plus inches of woodchips which has been a game changer vs grass or exposed dirt obviously. Counter to popular garden "mythology", the only actual science I've seen *referenced* said the roots go deeper with frequent watering. I use very similar emitters as you.
I'm originally from Mountain View; I left and moved here about 20 years ago. That's another great point about frequent irrigation to support ground cover. Another thing the experts push is to only water at the edge of the canopy as if all the roots on the inside of the canopy no longer need water...lol. I find no other style of emitter results in as good coverage. Some water is lost to evaporation but the benefits outweigh that IMO.
@@EnlightenmentGarden I have about a dozen timers/circuts coming on at different times (to avoid dropping water pressure and effecting eachother) mostly at night to reduce evaporation. Only have melons and winter squash on afternoon watering to avoid wilt on hot days, not sure if it helps or maybe they've grown strong enough to be more resistant by now. Not familiar with watering beyond 'drip line advice, tend to end it about there to conserve water, no longer water open spaces, no real lawns. Big old fruit and nut trees get essentially nothing, too expensive, so harvests largely determined by given yr precip results on those.
@@EnlightenmentGarden Thanks for vids, your experience is useful especially in my similar summer climate, tho we tend to top out around 110 to 114, not 120. One of my 14 or so avo trees in the ground doesn't look like it's going to take the heat, (Mexicola on the label but questioning that) tho it's on 4th yr. Have only harvested 6 fruit so far on the lot of them, hoping to have avos near yr round eventually. More types in pots to be put in ground when stronger over couple yrs. My citrus and avos also form high density green privacy walls. Citrus is a complete no brainer here, 'thrive on neglect', produce heavy reliably AND store fruit on the trees, have citrus fruit of some kind yr round.
Thanks for the great information on watering in a high temp area, this is terrific. I would really appreciate knowing what size your main drip lines are (that the 1/4 dia. line to each emitter connects to), and what pressure you run in the main lines. I can only use about 8 emitters that look just like yours before the pressure drops so low each emitter is just dripping, not spraying for 4-8 feet in diameter as yours do. How many emitters can you run at a time? I don't know if my line size is wrong (I am using 1/2" dia. main drip line) or my pressure is too low (I am using 25lb pressure reducers as I was told anything higher will cause frequent blowouts).
You are welcome! I go into far more detail on the anatomy of my irrigation system in a video titled, "Irrigation System for Backyard Fruit Trees in a Desert Climate." I do not have my 1/2" polyline coming straight off the manifold as I wanted to utilize the existing 3/4" pvc lines that fed my lawn sprinklers initially. I converted half the sprinkler heads on those 3/4" PVC lines to the 1/2" poly runs and capped the rest. My pressure coming out of the main line is around 50 PSI and I have no reducer as I wanted high pressure. I've never had blowouts with these emitters. Sure, if you have those little 1gph emitters, you could have problems but these emitters can push 30 times that water volume. You need 35 PSI minimum to get decent coverage from the sprayers so I'd suggest removing the pressure reducer and see if that improves things. If not there may be an issue with the pressure coming out of your main line and you may need to call in a pro to assess/resolve that
What percentage would you say your soil under your tree canopy's has been amended to change soil structure? On one of my properties I have worked on has flood irrigation and I've killed trees by over-watering by watering ONCE between flood in the heat of summer because of heavy thick clay.
At planting any tree in the past, I always took out half the native soil and replaced it with cactus soil. The only ingredient in that cactus soil that is likely remaining in my soil after all these years is the lava rock and a little bit of sand as the rest has long since decomposed and been replaced by roots. So it's basically 100% clay under the top soil and mulch; however, I have spread lots of gypsum over the entire yard, especially the first 3 years. That made a huge difference in the drainage as the gypsum has indeed changed the soil structure to where it crumbles. After learning more about soil last year, I no longer amend with cactus soil and use things more permanent like sand and pumice for drainage. I also now plant on slight mounds. The avocado I planted this way and irrigate light and frequently is thriving with that setup. Issues of root rot are common when trees are planted with organic material in the planting hole like wood chips and compost. This stuff is pushed big time by the nurseries but turns into sewage when it's kept wet. Almost any time I buy a plant at a big box store, it smells like rot and I have to change out the media. It's possible to get anaerobic conditions even in pure clay soil if there is poor drainage. I guess even regularly flood-irrigated properties can lack drainage due to varying soil compositions in the valley; some have a lot of sand and others hard pan clay
@@EnlightenmentGarden Exactly. Lava sand or something to like pumice to change the structure is the only way to have trees thrive that aren't on a rootstock like nemagaurd or something very tolerant of heavy wet clay
Thanks so much for the watering update! 🙂 I've been trying to figure out my watering during the super hot dry summer. 🏜 After watching your previous change of thought/practice video, I started increasing my watering frequency (~2x daily), I also give a deeper watering once a week to help flush the salts down, and for my trees with a tap root. I think I'm definitely seeing an improvement with most of my trees and my figs seem to be holding more fruit. 🤞 Question, where do you get your spray emitters? I've been using drip/bubbler type heads that are good at wetting the soil but not the mulch, which could really help with the cooling and increasing the humidity a bit.
You are welcome! Deeper watering once a week in addition to daily frequent in summer is helpful in year two to get the trees established and allow the tap root or anchoring roots to plunge deep. Once the trees are established, you may not need that deep watering if we get some good rain events to flush out the salts. I've put the product link in the description for the emitters
No plans to change; it's been working well. I started watering like this once we hit the 90s this spring. Out of necessity, my citrus are getting the same treatment because they are on the same irrigation lines. They are producing as well as they were on deep irrigation.
Sorry, I do not give in-person tours but do try to post a full video tour every year in the fall. Not sure if you are familiar with Jay Barringer and his channel "Arizona Fruit Trees" but he is located in Mesa and does offer advice and informal tours on the weekends. Please feel free to drop any future video suggestions or questions.
I have not attempted but know of some around our area trying. I think it's just too cold here with occasional mid to high 20s to be successful. Having said that one could make it work with a cold frame, high-density frost cloth, and heat source
How was your soil before you ammended it with gypsum & wood chips? What type of wood chips? Where do you get them? I'm in St George Utah with clay like soil, very compacted & want to add Figs to my landscape & other fruit trees & bushes. Could I still plant these Fig trees & slowly add gypsum & wood chips to eventually get my soil like yours? Do you ever add compost on top around the trees? How about lime around the fig trees? What water testing gauge did you use to check the 12" watering depth? Does getting the trunk wet constantly cause problems? Thank you, I really appreciate your channel.
The native soil before gypsum and wood chips was hard as a rock and impossible to hand dig with a shovel. I had to use a pick axe and chisel and hammer to break it up to dig holes initially. We also have caliche here at around 2-3’ down. Back then I’d have to dig a little and then keep filling the hole with water to excavate deep enough to plant a tree. These days digging is very easy. I’ve gotten wood chip mulch from local companies in bulk (cubic yards) like Pioneer Rock and also bagged wood mulch (2 cu ft) from the big box stores. You can also call local arborists and/or chip drop for a load to be dropped off and it’s usually free. Drop gypsum in the bottom of your planting hole before planting. It will improve drainage/change soil composition over time. You can definitely plant now and add wood chips on top at planting. Even in 6 months between irrigation and wood chips, your topsoil will transform. Yes; I have added compost on the topsoil of the trees to feed organically. These days, I have hens and add their manure amongst the fallen leaves which eventually break down to the tree. We don’t use lime here as the pH is already too alkaline. I have used elemental sulfur to drop the pH. I just use a thin piece of rebar to check the watering depth or a bamboo stake. Any hardware store carries it. Getting the trunk wet constantly does not cause problems in my climate as it’s very hot and dries quickly in summer. You can always get 90 or 180-degree pattern emitters, place them at the trunk, and direct the spray away from the trunk to avoid it getting wet.
@EnlightenmentGarden Thank you Greatly for the detailed information, I appreciate it. Sounds like we have the same soil here, it's hard as a Rock if it's dry... if I soaked it for hours then came back the next day I could dig it. Water seems to run off & not soak immediately. How much gypsum would you add in the hole before planting? Do you add gypsum to the surface as well over time? Ali's Organics TH-cam Channel, they live in La Verkin, Utah, about 30 minutes northeast of St George, Utah & she says she adds lime to her figs even though it's a high ph. Didn't make since to me though. I have added Elemental sulfur & a small amount of lime to my potted figs, as well as bonemeal. I started in February with figs, so I'm definitely still learning & figuring out my yard & where to put them The wood chips at the box stores here only carry colored mulch or Cedar mulch. I've added Cedar mulch to my pots. Star Nursery our local company also only has colored mulch. I'll keep searching around for wood chips & see about local arborists. Chip drop seems a little overwhelming if they dump a giant load, I don't have that much land. So you just hit the rebar into the ground & if it stops going deeper, you know how moist your ground is? I don't really understand that method I guess. Thanks again for your help & advice. Sincerely, Matthew
You are welcome! You could add 3-4 lbs to the bottom. My general method to plant has been to take ½ the native clay soil out of the planting hole and add in its place cactus soil and mix that well with the remaining native soil to provide good drainage for the plant. If you have one of those electric cultivators, it makes the job fast and works it in well. Yes; it’s good to add some gypsum to the topsoil also. It will work its way down over time. The dyed mulch isn’t the best stuff but will do if you don’t have better alternatives. I used to wait for the dyed mulch to go on sale and buy a pallet. Cedar mulch gets to be very expensive with even a small area and will repel all sorts of insects even beneficial pollinators. You may want to check out @GarysBestGardening (Gary Matsuoka) and his soil video. The idea is to apply irrigation and then right after, see how far you can plunge rebar in. The depth you can plunge it with your hands (not hit it) will tell you how far the moisture has penetrated your soil. You may want to check out another video I did that goes into more depth on the topic and demonstrates it called “Fruit Tree Irrigation in Summer - AZ 9B”
@EnlightenmentGarden Amazing information, thank you, ThankYou. I'll do all that. Especially watching your irrigation video & as many other videos as I can, I really enjoy your channel & all those wonderful figs. Those citrus trees look amazing as well, but one step at a time. I do have a Ryobi Earth Auger that mixese the hole soil very well & digs the hole at the same time, not as good as a cultivator though. I bought three bags of Cedar mulch at Lowe's for $1 each, they had small tares on the bag. I can find Straw locally, would that work instead of wood chips? If not I'll keep looking. Thanks again for spending your Sunday answering my questions, very kind of you. Hope you have a Happy Mother's Day. Sincerely, Matthew
@@MatthewsFabrication Straw is a great mulch if not sprayed with round-up. The only issue is it will blow all over the yard in the winds. Worms love all kinds of mulch like leaves and grasses. You could always do a hybrid and put the straw on the bottom layer and top it with wood chips. $1 is awesome for bagged cedar mulch!
Yes; my in-ground roses now get watered 4 times a day in triple digits as they are in full sun and need it. They are heavily mulched and I'm dropping a total of roughly 1-2 gallons for each rose bush each day. Even before this change, I always irrigated roses 1-2 times a day in summer. I have almost all plumeria in containers and water the containers every 3-4 days but they are under 40% shade all day. Plumeria is the one plant I allow to dry in between waterings. Most plumerias need afternoon shade to avoid solar bleaching (yellowing of the leaves) and scorch or some shade cloth overhead
I have a Dave Wilson cocktail apple tree that I think has the same varieties as yours. The arena and golden Dorsett overpower the Gordon and Fuji. I see that you got a standalone Fuji apple tree. How was it doing in your zone 9B?
1) Anna and 2)Golden Dorset are the winners in my climate in that order. Fuji is a very poor producer here and by the time a few of the apples are ready in fall, summer has burnt/blistered them, and animals damage them. I have since top worked the Fuji with some other varieties but they did not show much promise so far. If they do not perform after another year, I likely will give the Fuji the boot as it's not worth the water to have no production
Yes; please check out my video. "Fruit Tree Irrigation in Summer - AZ 9B" My goal is to keep the 1st 1' moist 100% of the time. Moisture depth is influenced by volume and duration. Since I am not trying to push water feet below, watering 4-5 times a day for a few minutes at a time works best in my garden. Another channel, Tropical Central Valley waters a couple minutes every hour. I don't find that I need to go to that many times a day as the moisture stays in the soil in between waterings
Real quick question, now that we are into fall what is your watering schedule? I’ve been following your schedule this summer but with cooler temps I’m not sure what to do.
I've dropped to just one session per day with current temps instead of 4. The plants are getting about 1-2 gallons depending on emitter number and flow rate. You can try doing the same and see how long it takes for the soil to start drying out. I'll eventually go to 1 - 2 times a week once we cool down further. We are due for a wet winter so I'm not bothering to do any deep soakings as I figure those rains will help push salts down.
Yes. They are included on my automated irrigation lines and get watered frequently in summer given I don't have a dedicated line for them. The total water per day per bush is about 1 gallon so the volume is not very high. To date, I have not seen any detriment and avoids the issue of splitting due to the regularity of the irrigation. In my experience, they also do fine without frequent irrigation like one watering per week.
@ Thanks for that quick reply; you are always so good about answering questions! That’s good news, since my pomegranates are pretty scattered among other fruit trees and shrubs. I have been hand watering them, and struggling with a LOT of splitting long before they are ripe. Hoping to get them on irrigation before next summer.
How long are your watering sessions? I bought some of the spray emitters on Amazon and it looks like 25 gph max flow. To keep weekly watering around 27 gal/week/plant with 4 sessions/day I'm guessing each session is just a couple minutes?
In summer, I started at 4 mins 4 times a day but with the constant 115-degree highs each day, I went to 5 sessions. GPH totally depends on the pressure. If you have high pressure like me and don't put on reducers, then you can reach the top of the GPH scale for the emitter; otherwise, it will be much less. I go into a lot of detail on the actual run times in this video, including the budget setting on the controller box "Fruit Tree Irrigation in Summer - AZ 9B"
Correct; no root rot. With light irrigation plus high dry heat, roots are never sitting in water; they only get what they need. Avocados are the most susceptible of any tree to root rot and my nearly one year in the ground Bacon avocado (12:37) is thriving.
@@EnlightenmentGarden Ok, that makes more sense why it's not working for you. The deep watering and infrequent scheduling is based on infield scientific research also based on ET, evapotranspiration. Water compensating emitters are great, because it slows the rate of water penetration into the soil, which also reduces water run off in the soil. Clay and loam soil cannot handle fast moving water, it will spread in the matter of minutes. Also its better to use it because you can specifically target the feeder roots, which is outside of tree canopy. You should really consider the water compensating emitters for fruit trees. It's also great that you're using mulch to reduce water use, also beneficial for microbes. Do not use flag emitters, but water compensating emitters there is a difference. Water regulations are coming soon to our state, they will limit your water use at your meter. Meaning they will give you , x amount of water per month. The state is already going after agriculture, it's only matter of time when they go after residential. good luck!
@@charleshoward1609 Thanks. I don't use flag emitters for fruit trees. I use micro bubblers. I never said deep irrigation did not work but that IMO, it wastes water as it pushes water down deep past the feeder roots that don't go past 2'. I also called out that my experience with summer fruit such as figs is that they ripen better on light frequent irrigation. As I said in this video, this method has reduced my water consumption by 30% in summer and made the figs ripen to perfection. Compensating emitters are not needed unless one has uneven pressure which is not an issue for me. Also, I've never had run-off issues as my emitters do not provide a volume that would create fast-moving water.
I do not grow walnut trees or any nut trees in my yard. This video is specific to watering in summer in my climate which is very dry and hot. When it is not hot (over 100 degrees), I do not water often. I deep watered my trees for years prior and it's been my experience that feeder roots do not go beyond 2' in our clay soil no matter how deeply trees are watered
Yes; with drip emitters but not with micro sprayers which is what I primarily use. The droplets cool considerably with the spray before hitting the mulch/soil
I did the same and switched to micro sprinklers, but have been running it once a day. I noticed the water was hot when I tried running the system in the afternoon. Have you noticed that?
I have observed that the water temp is warmer in the afternoon but not hot with the sprayer emitters I use. The water cools as the droplets are dispersed thru the air. Admittedly, the drippers I have on the roses do push hot water in the afternoon as there is no evaporative cooling effect with them. You may want to switch to early morning to avoid hot water.
In my local gardening Facebook group there are so many “experts” preaching the infrequent deep watering. It’s supposedly the solution to all problems. Sigh.
First, I would exclude the emitter and the drip line as being clogged by replacing the 1/4" barb connector from the main line, 1/4" tubing, and emitter and see if that resolves the low pressure. If not, it's possible your manifolds have a pressure reducer that drops the main line pressure to 30 PSI or lower. If your pressure is low, the poly run is long and the emitters are at the end of the line, it just does not have the pressure to perform. I personally decided not to use any reducers because I have so many feet of poly tubing. You may want to have a plumber look at your pressure and potentially re-work your zones so you have adequate and consistent pressure. The emitters need 30 PSI for max output. antelco.com/us/assets/products/datasheets/Page-13-Spectrum-Adjustable-Flow.pdf
We have been growing fruit trees in Phoenix for the last 4 years and figuring out watering in the heat each summer stresses us out. Thank you for this new method suggestion.
Thank you for the update and thank you for telling me about the Tropical Central Valley TH-cam channel.
My young trees greatly benefited from twice a day watering for 20 min when temperatures are greater than 105. The more mature ones can do well with much less frequent watering. Fruit trees have fairly shallow roots, especially pomegranates, so young ones will fry with infrequent water.
Sanity among the Insane! I started watering twice per day, 10AM and 4PM, during the summer and my trees have LOVED IT. Same tangerine and lemon and figs grow in Florida, so think about it folks... I have 2 or 3 6 gph drippers into 12" pvc down pipes. I'll never go back to the "deep watering only" mantra. I also hit all my trees with 2-3 cups of Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate) 4-6 times/year for the freshest green leaves even in September.
Thanks for the update; that's good food for thought. I'm always considering irrigation changes and improvements as my garden evolves and my trees get more established and reach maturity. My soil is very different here. No clay, just super hard pack with lots of heavily embedded rocks; it takes a jackhammer to dig holes. Then there is a never ending layer of caliche at about 14 inches. Surprisingly my drainage is decent and my tree wells tend to stay wet a long time with no root rot issues. Happy gardening!
You are welcome! No reason to fix what's not broken. This works for my situation; everyone has their own set of challenges that call for different solutions.
Very helpful insight! Thank you
Wonderful 👍👍🌷🌷
This makes a lot of sense. I am watering everyday and my fig trees are producing well. Especially my White Genoa thanks for the update
Excellent video Mam. Your experience work very well in desert land. We learnt from you
Thanks for the update, very encouraging results! I also have non stop growths with all my citrus this year since I started the frequent watering!
Your emitters are great, I am going to switch to them soon!
You are welcome! Glad it's working out for you too.
Thank you so VERY much! I have been struggling with my veggies and flowers looking ragged and not bearing . I was doing 5 minutes twice a day BUT I just changed my irrigation (thankfully on my computer) to close to what you have and I will watch. First thing I changed was my citrus. I am looking forward to seeing the difference. I figured out I will save 30 minutes of watering daily too! So very grateful that you took the time to share this!
You are welcome!
I hope you don't mind but I posted this video on our f/b page Gardening in Phoenix (over 20,000 viewers) to reply to another who also had water questions.
@@marlenehowell9703 Not at all. I do these videos to try to help people grow successfully in our climate. If I help just one person, it's worth it.
Excellent info!
Thanks a lot for this helpful information
Natasha, do you order your sprinkler heads from Amazon? Any specific favorites? My mulch is pretty thick in places so will have to investigate my watering times.
Now that it’s cooler I have tons of work to get done. To start, I’ll be updating my timer and sprinkler heads and adding one new valve. Your new method of watering has convinced me! Will let you know how my figs turn out once I get them all in the ground this summer.
Hi! Yes, I order the emitters from Amazon. The link is in the description of the video. Your plants will appreciate it next summer!
Great tips. You mentioned a couple of plants that were particularly susceptible to the heat (e.g. sapote and loquat). I learned the hard way with the latter; got an Argelino from JFE and it dropped a lot of leaves after I skipped a couple of days of watering. I'd be curious to hear which of your many fruit trees are a little more tolerant of our AZ summers and which struggle. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful. All my bamboo and subtropicals (loquat, mango, atemoya, avocado, lychee, ice cream bean, sapodilla, jaboticaba, black sapote, white sapote, surinam, guava, starfruit, banana, etc.) appear to have shallow fibrous roots and start burning up on the foliage if they don't get frequent water. Stone fruit trees, fig trees and citrus are OK on less frequency but if holding fruit have issues with fruit splitting and/or drying out. The rest like mulberry, moringa, quince, apple, curry, Royal Poinciana etc. don't seem to be affected either way; they look good on frequent irrigation/less volume or less frequent/more volume.
Pertinent for me as I've been growing squash and melons under my smaller fruit 'orchard' outback which obviously require frequent watering here in N. Commifornia low inland, hot and dry summers. (small trees with much light passing around them before they form a dense canopy a few yrs forward) Also try to maintain 4 plus inches of woodchips which has been a game changer vs grass or exposed dirt obviously.
Counter to popular garden "mythology", the only actual science I've seen *referenced* said the roots go deeper with frequent watering. I use very similar emitters as you.
I'm originally from Mountain View; I left and moved here about 20 years ago. That's another great point about frequent irrigation to support ground cover. Another thing the experts push is to only water at the edge of the canopy as if all the roots on the inside of the canopy no longer need water...lol. I find no other style of emitter results in as good coverage. Some water is lost to evaporation but the benefits outweigh that IMO.
@@EnlightenmentGarden I have about a dozen timers/circuts coming on at different times (to avoid dropping water pressure and effecting eachother) mostly at night to reduce evaporation.
Only have melons and winter squash on afternoon watering to avoid wilt on hot days, not sure if it helps or maybe they've grown strong enough to be more resistant by now.
Not familiar with watering beyond 'drip line advice, tend to end it about there to conserve water, no longer water open spaces, no real lawns. Big old fruit and nut trees get essentially nothing, too expensive, so harvests largely determined by given yr precip results on those.
@@EnlightenmentGarden Thanks for vids, your experience is useful especially in my similar summer climate, tho we tend to top out around 110 to 114, not 120.
One of my 14 or so avo trees in the ground doesn't look like it's going to take the heat, (Mexicola on the label but questioning that) tho it's on 4th yr. Have only harvested 6 fruit so far on the lot of them, hoping to have avos near yr round eventually. More types in pots to be put in ground when stronger over couple yrs.
My citrus and avos also form high density green privacy walls. Citrus is a complete no brainer here, 'thrive on neglect', produce heavy reliably AND store fruit on the trees, have citrus fruit of some kind yr round.
Thanks for the great information on watering in a high temp area, this is terrific. I would really appreciate knowing what size your main drip lines are (that the 1/4 dia. line to each emitter connects to), and what pressure you run in the main lines. I can only use about 8 emitters that look just like yours before the pressure drops so low each emitter is just dripping, not spraying for 4-8 feet in diameter as yours do. How many emitters can you run at a time? I don't know if my line size is wrong (I am using 1/2" dia. main drip line) or my pressure is too low (I am using 25lb pressure reducers as I was told anything higher will cause frequent blowouts).
You are welcome! I go into far more detail on the anatomy of my irrigation system in a video titled, "Irrigation System for Backyard Fruit Trees in a Desert Climate." I do not have my 1/2" polyline coming straight off the manifold as I wanted to utilize the existing 3/4" pvc lines that fed my lawn sprinklers initially. I converted half the sprinkler heads on those 3/4" PVC lines to the 1/2" poly runs and capped the rest. My pressure coming out of the main line is around 50 PSI and I have no reducer as I wanted high pressure. I've never had blowouts with these emitters. Sure, if you have those little 1gph emitters, you could have problems but these emitters can push 30 times that water volume. You need 35 PSI minimum to get decent coverage from the sprayers so I'd suggest removing the pressure reducer and see if that improves things. If not there may be an issue with the pressure coming out of your main line and you may need to call in a pro to assess/resolve that
What percentage would you say your soil under your tree canopy's has been amended to change soil structure? On one of my properties I have worked on has flood irrigation and I've killed trees by over-watering by watering ONCE between flood in the heat of summer because of heavy thick clay.
At planting any tree in the past, I always took out half the native soil and replaced it with cactus soil. The only ingredient in that cactus soil that is likely remaining in my soil after all these years is the lava rock and a little bit of sand as the rest has long since decomposed and been replaced by roots. So it's basically 100% clay under the top soil and mulch; however, I have spread lots of gypsum over the entire yard, especially the first 3 years. That made a huge difference in the drainage as the gypsum has indeed changed the soil structure to where it crumbles. After learning more about soil last year, I no longer amend with cactus soil and use things more permanent like sand and pumice for drainage. I also now plant on slight mounds. The avocado I planted this way and irrigate light and frequently is thriving with that setup. Issues of root rot are common when trees are planted with organic material in the planting hole like wood chips and compost. This stuff is pushed big time by the nurseries but turns into sewage when it's kept wet. Almost any time I buy a plant at a big box store, it smells like rot and I have to change out the media. It's possible to get anaerobic conditions even in pure clay soil if there is poor drainage. I guess even regularly flood-irrigated properties can lack drainage due to varying soil compositions in the valley; some have a lot of sand and others hard pan clay
@@EnlightenmentGarden Exactly. Lava sand or something to like pumice to change the structure is the only way to have trees thrive that aren't on a rootstock like nemagaurd or something very tolerant of heavy wet clay
Thanks so much for the watering update! 🙂
I've been trying to figure out my watering during the super hot dry summer. 🏜 After watching your previous change of thought/practice video, I started increasing my watering frequency (~2x daily), I also give a deeper watering once a week to help flush the salts down, and for my trees with a tap root. I think I'm definitely seeing an improvement with most of my trees and my figs seem to be holding more fruit. 🤞
Question, where do you get your spray emitters? I've been using drip/bubbler type heads that are good at wetting the soil but not the mulch, which could really help with the cooling and increasing the humidity a bit.
You are welcome! Deeper watering once a week in addition to daily frequent in summer is helpful in year two to get the trees established and allow the tap root or anchoring roots to plunge deep. Once the trees are established, you may not need that deep watering if we get some good rain events to flush out the salts. I've put the product link in the description for the emitters
This makes a lot of sense! Any changes to your watering approach this summer? Also, would you recommend this method for citrus as well?
No plans to change; it's been working well. I started watering like this once we hit the 90s this spring. Out of necessity, my citrus are getting the same treatment because they are on the same irrigation lines. They are producing as well as they were on deep irrigation.
@@EnlightenmentGarden thank you for the response. I’ve already ordered emitters!
Do you do in person tours of your garden my kids and i would love to see it and bounce some ideas off you as we are starting to build a garden?
Sorry, I do not give in-person tours but do try to post a full video tour every year in the fall. Not sure if you are familiar with Jay Barringer and his channel "Arizona Fruit Trees" but he is located in Mesa and does offer advice and informal tours on the weekends. Please feel free to drop any future video suggestions or questions.
Have you ever kept dwarf coconut trees in AZ 9b? Or would it be too cold in winter for them. Thank you.
I have not attempted but know of some around our area trying. I think it's just too cold here with occasional mid to high 20s to be successful. Having said that one could make it work with a cold frame, high-density frost cloth, and heat source
@@EnlightenmentGarden Ok thanks, I will look into that.
How was your soil before you ammended it with gypsum & wood chips? What type of wood chips? Where do you get them?
I'm in St George Utah with clay like soil, very compacted & want to add Figs to my landscape & other fruit trees & bushes.
Could I still plant these Fig trees & slowly add gypsum & wood chips to eventually get my soil like yours?
Do you ever add compost on top around the trees? How about lime around the fig trees?
What water testing gauge did you use to check the 12" watering depth?
Does getting the trunk wet constantly cause problems?
Thank you, I really appreciate your channel.
The native soil before gypsum and wood chips was hard as a rock and impossible to hand dig with a shovel. I had to use a pick axe and chisel and hammer to break it up to dig holes initially. We also have caliche here at around 2-3’ down. Back then I’d have to dig a little and then keep filling the hole with water to excavate deep enough to plant a tree. These days digging is very easy.
I’ve gotten wood chip mulch from local companies in bulk (cubic yards) like Pioneer Rock and also bagged wood mulch (2 cu ft) from the big box stores. You can also call local arborists and/or chip drop for a load to be dropped off and it’s usually free.
Drop gypsum in the bottom of your planting hole before planting. It will improve drainage/change soil composition over time. You can definitely plant now and add wood chips on top at planting. Even in 6 months between irrigation and wood chips, your topsoil will transform.
Yes; I have added compost on the topsoil of the trees to feed organically. These days, I have hens and add their manure amongst the fallen leaves which eventually break down to the tree. We don’t use lime here as the pH is already too alkaline. I have used elemental sulfur to drop the pH.
I just use a thin piece of rebar to check the watering depth or a bamboo stake. Any hardware store carries it.
Getting the trunk wet constantly does not cause problems in my climate as it’s very hot and dries quickly in summer. You can always get 90 or 180-degree pattern emitters, place them at the trunk, and direct the spray away from the trunk to avoid it getting wet.
@EnlightenmentGarden Thank you Greatly for the detailed information, I appreciate it.
Sounds like we have the same soil here, it's hard as a Rock if it's dry... if I soaked it for hours then came back the next day I could dig it.
Water seems to run off & not soak immediately.
How much gypsum would you add in the hole before planting? Do you add gypsum to the surface as well over time?
Ali's Organics TH-cam Channel, they live in La Verkin, Utah, about 30 minutes northeast of St George, Utah & she says she adds lime to her figs even though it's a high ph. Didn't make since to me though.
I have added Elemental sulfur & a small amount of lime to my potted figs, as well as bonemeal. I started in February with figs, so I'm definitely still learning & figuring out my yard & where to put them
The wood chips at the box stores here only carry colored mulch or Cedar mulch. I've added Cedar mulch to my pots.
Star Nursery our local company also only has colored mulch. I'll keep searching around for wood chips & see about local arborists. Chip drop seems a little overwhelming if they dump a giant load, I don't have that much land.
So you just hit the rebar into the ground & if it stops going deeper, you know how moist your ground is? I don't really understand that method I guess.
Thanks again for your help & advice.
Sincerely,
Matthew
You are welcome! You could add 3-4 lbs to the bottom. My general method to plant has been to take ½ the native clay soil out of the planting hole and add in its place cactus soil and mix that well with the remaining native soil to provide good drainage for the plant. If you have one of those electric cultivators, it makes the job fast and works it in well. Yes; it’s good to add some gypsum to the topsoil also. It will work its way down over time.
The dyed mulch isn’t the best stuff but will do if you don’t have better alternatives. I used to wait for the dyed mulch to go on sale and buy a pallet. Cedar mulch gets to be very expensive with even a small area and will repel all sorts of insects even beneficial pollinators.
You may want to check out @GarysBestGardening (Gary Matsuoka) and his soil video. The idea is to apply irrigation and then right after, see how far you can plunge rebar in. The depth you can plunge it with your hands (not hit it) will tell you how far the moisture has penetrated your soil. You may want to check out another video I did that goes into more depth on the topic and demonstrates it called “Fruit Tree Irrigation in Summer - AZ 9B”
@EnlightenmentGarden Amazing information, thank you, ThankYou. I'll do all that. Especially watching your irrigation video & as many other videos as I can, I really enjoy your channel & all those wonderful figs. Those citrus trees look amazing as well, but one step at a time.
I do have a Ryobi Earth Auger that mixese the hole soil very well & digs the hole at the same time, not as good as a cultivator though.
I bought three bags of Cedar mulch at Lowe's for $1 each, they had small tares on the bag.
I can find Straw locally, would that work instead of wood chips? If not I'll keep looking.
Thanks again for spending your Sunday answering my questions, very kind of you. Hope you have a Happy Mother's Day.
Sincerely,
Matthew
@@MatthewsFabrication Straw is a great mulch if not sprayed with round-up. The only issue is it will blow all over the yard in the winds. Worms love all kinds of mulch like leaves and grasses. You could always do a hybrid and put the straw on the bottom layer and top it with wood chips. $1 is awesome for bagged cedar mulch!
I am in the phx area too and my roses, hibiscus, plumeria etc are all getting scorched in this current heat. do you use this method with roses too?
Yes; my in-ground roses now get watered 4 times a day in triple digits as they are in full sun and need it. They are heavily mulched and I'm dropping a total of roughly 1-2 gallons for each rose bush each day. Even before this change, I always irrigated roses 1-2 times a day in summer. I have almost all plumeria in containers and water the containers every 3-4 days but they are under 40% shade all day. Plumeria is the one plant I allow to dry in between waterings. Most plumerias need afternoon shade to avoid solar bleaching (yellowing of the leaves) and scorch or some shade cloth overhead
I have a Dave Wilson cocktail apple tree that I think has the same varieties as yours. The arena and golden Dorsett overpower the Gordon and Fuji. I see that you got a standalone Fuji apple tree. How was it doing in your zone 9B?
Meant Anna and not arena
1) Anna and 2)Golden Dorset are the winners in my climate in that order. Fuji is a very poor producer here and by the time a few of the apples are ready in fall, summer has burnt/blistered them, and animals damage them. I have since top worked the Fuji with some other varieties but they did not show much promise so far. If they do not perform after another year, I likely will give the Fuji the boot as it's not worth the water to have no production
So Natasha...how do you determine frequency of watering? Is the object to keep the top foot of soil moist for 7-8 hours during the day?
Yes; please check out my video. "Fruit Tree Irrigation in Summer - AZ 9B" My goal is to keep the 1st 1' moist 100% of the time. Moisture depth is influenced by volume and duration. Since I am not trying to push water feet below, watering 4-5 times a day for a few minutes at a time works best in my garden. Another channel, Tropical Central Valley waters a couple minutes every hour. I don't find that I need to go to that many times a day as the moisture stays in the soil in between waterings
Real quick question, now that we are into fall what is your watering schedule? I’ve been following your schedule this summer but with cooler temps I’m not sure what to do.
I've dropped to just one session per day with current temps instead of 4. The plants are getting about 1-2 gallons depending on emitter number and flow rate. You can try doing the same and see how long it takes for the soil to start drying out. I'll eventually go to 1 - 2 times a week once we cool down further. We are due for a wet winter so I'm not bothering to do any deep soakings as I figure those rains will help push salts down.
@@EnlightenmentGarden thank you so much, I will adjust to some what those numbers and see how it goes. Again thank you!
Do your pomegranates get the 4x/day watering also?
Yes. They are included on my automated irrigation lines and get watered frequently in summer given I don't have a dedicated line for them. The total water per day per bush is about 1 gallon so the volume is not very high. To date, I have not seen any detriment and avoids the issue of splitting due to the regularity of the irrigation. In my experience, they also do fine without frequent irrigation like one watering per week.
@ Thanks for that quick reply; you are always so good about answering questions! That’s good news, since my pomegranates are pretty scattered among other fruit trees and shrubs. I have been hand watering them, and struggling with a LOT of splitting long before they are ripe. Hoping to get them on irrigation before next summer.
How long are your watering sessions? I bought some of the spray emitters on Amazon and it looks like 25 gph max flow. To keep weekly watering around 27 gal/week/plant with 4 sessions/day I'm guessing each session is just a couple minutes?
In summer, I started at 4 mins 4 times a day but with the constant 115-degree highs each day, I went to 5 sessions. GPH totally depends on the pressure. If you have high pressure like me and don't put on reducers, then you can reach the top of the GPH scale for the emitter; otherwise, it will be much less. I go into a lot of detail on the actual run times in this video, including the budget setting on the controller box "Fruit Tree Irrigation in Summer - AZ 9B"
Thank you!@@EnlightenmentGarden
No issues with root rot or anything?
Correct; no root rot. With light irrigation plus high dry heat, roots are never sitting in water; they only get what they need. Avocados are the most susceptible of any tree to root rot and my nearly one year in the ground Bacon avocado (12:37) is thriving.
Out of curiosity, during the time your were using the technique of deep and infrequent irrigating were you using water compensating emitters?
No; I've never used compensating emitters as my pressure is even.
@@EnlightenmentGarden Ok, that makes more sense why it's not working for you. The deep watering and infrequent scheduling is based on infield scientific research also based on ET, evapotranspiration.
Water compensating emitters are great, because it slows the rate of water penetration into the soil, which also reduces water run off in the soil. Clay and loam soil cannot handle fast moving water, it will spread in the matter of minutes. Also its better to use it because you can specifically target the feeder roots, which is outside of tree canopy.
You should really consider the water compensating emitters for fruit trees. It's also great that you're using mulch to reduce water use, also beneficial for microbes. Do not use flag emitters, but water compensating emitters there is a difference.
Water regulations are coming soon to our state, they will limit your water use at your meter. Meaning they will give you , x amount of water per month. The state is already going after agriculture, it's only matter of time when they go after residential.
good luck!
@@charleshoward1609 Thanks. I don't use flag emitters for fruit trees. I use micro bubblers. I never said deep irrigation did not work but that IMO, it wastes water as it pushes water down deep past the feeder roots that don't go past 2'. I also called out that my experience with summer fruit such as figs is that they ripen better on light frequent irrigation. As I said in this video, this method has reduced my water consumption by 30% in summer and made the figs ripen to perfection. Compensating emitters are not needed unless one has uneven pressure which is not an issue for me. Also, I've never had run-off issues as my emitters do not provide a volume that would create fast-moving water.
Do u have wallnut? Because it root goes to deep. For this irrigation system watering stay close to surface not go deep
I do not grow walnut trees or any nut trees in my yard. This video is specific to watering in summer in my climate which is very dry and hot. When it is not hot (over 100 degrees), I do not water often. I deep watered my trees for years prior and it's been my experience that feeder roots do not go beyond 2' in our clay soil no matter how deeply trees are watered
@@EnlightenmentGarden Thx for reply
If you water in the afternoon in the summer, doesn’t the water come out really hot?
Yes; with drip emitters but not with micro sprayers which is what I primarily use. The droplets cool considerably with the spray before hitting the mulch/soil
I did the same and switched to micro sprinklers, but have been running it once a day. I noticed the water was hot when I tried running the system in the afternoon. Have you noticed that?
I have observed that the water temp is warmer in the afternoon but not hot with the sprayer emitters I use. The water cools as the droplets are dispersed thru the air. Admittedly, the drippers I have on the roses do push hot water in the afternoon as there is no evaporative cooling effect with them. You may want to switch to early morning to avoid hot water.
In my local gardening Facebook group there are so many “experts” preaching the infrequent deep watering. It’s supposedly the solution to all problems. Sigh.
Totally agree! Discernment or at least experimenting for oneself is vital. So many parrot falsehoods. Truth in doing is everything
I have an issue with some of my emitters just barely dribbling out, where the diameter of wetness is probably 5 inches
First, I would exclude the emitter and the drip line as being clogged by replacing the 1/4" barb connector from the main line, 1/4" tubing, and emitter and see if that resolves the low pressure. If not, it's possible your manifolds have a pressure reducer that drops the main line pressure to 30 PSI or lower. If your pressure is low, the poly run is long and the emitters are at the end of the line, it just does not have the pressure to perform. I personally decided not to use any reducers because I have so many feet of poly tubing. You may want to have a plumber look at your pressure and potentially re-work your zones so you have adequate and consistent pressure. The emitters need 30 PSI for max output. antelco.com/us/assets/products/datasheets/Page-13-Spectrum-Adjustable-Flow.pdf