plant water use – Xtremehorticulture

Landscapes Have Too Many Plants and they are Big!

Use Fewer Plants Using fewer plants makes the remaining plants more visually important and saves water. A landscape full of plants is enamoring. It’s a jungle of plants. The temptation in our Western Hemisphere to fill “voids,” open spaces, with plants. Western floral arrangements are full of plants. However, each plant uses water. If we cluster them together, they are easier to water, easier to manage, and collectively use less. However, the more area not covered by plants, the lower a landscapes’ water bill. Western floral design fills all the spaces with flowers. We treat our landscapes the same way. Small Plants Use smaller plants. Smaller plants do the same job as larger plants and use less water. A decrease in plant size decreases their need for water. This leads to less total landscape water demand. If you already have large trees and shrubs, prune them smaller. Making plants smaller decreases their need for water. Remember, decreasing plant numbers and size only works if the amount of water they are given is also decreased. Manage the water they get. Eastern floral design stresses using negative spaces in interesting ways. Xeric Plants Use Less Water Use xeric plants. Xeric plants are watered less often, but with the same amount of water. Plants watered less often but still look good leads to a decrease in total landscape water use during the year. To do that, these plants need to be on a separate valve or station. Place xeric plants on separate valves or “water lines” (hydrozone) from plants that need water more often. Anytime plants are watered less often, even if you give a plant the same amount of water, a landscape saves water. Palo Verde is xeric in its water use because it comes from the Sonoran Desert Water Use is Set When it is Designed Once landscapes are designed and installed, future landscape water use, and how often they need water, is carved in stone. Watering plants less often does not always lead to better looking landscapes. Some plants, like mesic plants, need water more often. Plants demand for water is not negotiable. Once a landscape design has been selected, the landscape water use is set. When plants are watered less, changes in appearance occur; growth slows, leaves or needles begin to scorch and the canopy thins, leaves or needles drop, branches die, and finally the plant or tree may die. Use this as a signal to water more often. But water deep. When water is returned, many plants spring back to life. There is a tradeoff in perceived beauty vs. water use. Landscapes do not just have to be for plants. Conserving water is a reason homeowners are encouraged to use art forms in their landscapes that do not need water. Homeowners can become familiar with creating beautiful negative spaces without the use of plants. Our job in the desert is to create landscapes that conserve water while enjoying it at the same time.

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Estimating How Much Water Landscapes Use

Leave a Comment / irrigation, landscape, landscape water use, plant water use / xtremehorticulture

When you estimate a plant’s water use, the plant must be growing all by itself. When plants are grown together the roots intermingle, their branches might intermingle creating shade and wind diversions, not only that but its water use is confused with any neighboring plants close by! When you estimate a landscape water use, use the total sum of all your plants. It will be a little high because of influences by plants nearby. This can be estimated by someone who knows plants and their water use. For a traditionally sized family of four, landscape water accounts for about 70% of your water bill. When recording the water use of plants, they must be separated from other plants such as using this weighing lysimeter and hoisting the individual plants. How many square feet is your total landscape? Your landscape size is your lot size minus the house, patio, driveway, sidewalks, and any other hardscape that would be difficult to remove. The problem is your monthly water bill comes, at best, in gallons of water. Landscapes vary in size. The size of your landscape is in square feet. Water bills, like this one from Henderson, NV, lists the water use of an entire home lot. You must multiply this by approximately 0.7 to get the actual water use of a landscape. You must convert the gallons of water used by your landscape to the size of your landscape in square feet. The multiplier you needed is to convert a landscape from cubic feet to gallons. The magic number that does that is multiplying the square footage by 7.8. That is, 7.8 gallons fits into a one cubic foot spot. Two cubic feet contains (7.8 gallons x 2 cubic feet) 15.6 gallons for every 2 cubic feet. The front landscape size is calculate from the total landscaped area, not including the driveway, sidewalk, or any so-called hardscaped area. Any time your annual gallonage represents less than two feet of water covering your entire landscape, you are doing a very good job! That is less than two feet of water needed to water your landscape each year! When the landscape gallon totals less than 4 feet deep, you are doing an acceptable job. Six feet or more is unacceptable for desert landscapes. For instance, let’s say your landscape area totals 2000 square feet. This size includes every possible spot a plant can be planted. Two feet of water covering this landscape area = 2000 x 2 x 7.8 = 31,200 gallons of irrigation water per year. That is very good. Four feet of water covering your total landscape area = 2000 x 4 x 7.8 = 62,400 gallons of irrigation water per year. That is acceptable. Six feet of water or more covering the total landscape area (2000 x 6 x 7.8 = 93,600 gallons of irrigation water per year) is unacceptable.

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Practice Watering and Managing Plants with a Hose and Lopper? Try Jojoba.

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Jojoba (Simmondsia californica) Do you want practice managing a plant that does not need much water by pruning it? Try this Sonoran Desert native plant, Jojoba, and see how you do. I was introduced to this plant in the mid-1980s when it was getting popular as a source of oil. It’s again popular but this time because it doesn’t use much water. Like most desert plants, it responds to watering by growing. This was a picture of Jojoba taken by Andrea Meckley and posted on my blog in 2014.https://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2014/09/desert-plants-jojoba.html You can read more about this plant here in a post by Andrea Meckley I published on this blog in 2014. Details about Jojoba Growth of this plant is tied very closely to watering frequency; 1 to 2 inches of water, 3 to 5 times each year. It has the potential for saving water in the landscape if you know how to water and prune it. Most fruit trees require about 50 inches of water each year. This plant grows with 5 to 8 inches of applied water. If you water it with your controller this is what you are likely to get. This is a jojoba on an irrigation timer.https://www.public.asu.edu/~camartin/plants/Plant%20html%20files/Irrigated%20jojoba.jpg · Unpruned height is nearly 20 feet tall. It grows this tall slowly. Height can be kept 5 to 6 feet tall if pruned once a year or every other year. Don’t prune it from the top with a loppers or hedge shears. Get on your hands and knees and prune it with a loppers or hand shears at the base. Can it be grown taller and pruned into a small tree? Perhaps. I haven’t tried it. Pruning the lower limbs from this giant shrub(above) might make a nice small patio tree. · Evergreen plant unless it gets very cold (lower than 20F) and then it drops its leaves and becomes deciduous. At very cold temperatures (below 15F) the top of this plant may die to the ground. · Cold temperature limits: 20°F · High temperature limits: 125°F + · Irrigation: 5 to 8 inches of water each year. Give it 1 to 2 inches of water in the spring, do that twice in the summer months and once in the fall. Apply this water in a basin or donut surrounding the tree to contain the water and reduce water waste. Do not put this plant on an existing irrigation system or you will be sorry because of it’s growth. · Planting location: east side of a building or wall is best but tolerates full sun (south or west sides) if planted at least 5 feet from a hot surface. Tolerates planting of rock mulch on the surface of the soil. · Spacing from each other or walls: depends on plants mature height. If grown 20 feet in height than planting distance is no closer than 15 feet apart (8 feet from a wall). If pruned to 6 feet height, then plant them no closer than force feet apart (2 feet from a wall). Male and female plants are wind pollinated much like date palms and corn. If they are propagated by the nursery from seed, then you get 50-50 male and female unless there sexed. If plants are vegetatively propagated (no sex involved) then they will be either all-male or all-female if they came from the same plant. Male plants may cause a pollen problem. Female plants produce the fruit and oil. If these plants are watered too often or the soil has poor drainage, watering frequently on the controller may cause root problems, yellowing and plant death. Directions for planting Jojoba: 1. Pick a location for planting, preferably on the east side of your home. The north and south sides are okay as well but the east side is preferred. Pick a spot that is at least half the distance from a wall equal to the height you want it maintained at. 2. Plant Jojoba (Simmondsia californica) without any drip or supplemental irrigation. It’s okay to put it into a rock landscape. Build a level basin or donut around the plant 4 feet in diameter that can hold 2 inches of water. When watering with a hose, fill this basin or donut only once. Reestablish the irrigation basin when it no longer holds enough water. 3. Make the hole for it wide and the same depth as the container or roots. The roots of this plant need places to spread horizontally easily. 4. Stake the plant to establish the roots without wind for one growing season and then remove the stake. 5. After planting in the spring or fall, wet the soil thoroughly to remove air pockets and establish the roots. 6. Fertilize this shrub lightly once a year in the spring or fall or when needed. 7. Manage this plant’s growth by watering its basin. 8. Prune this plant at its base or bottom. Never prune this plant at its desired height. Prune this plant from your knees. Prune this plant by removing long stems (usually 2-4) near its base (renewal or rejuvenation pruning). Do not prune once a year. Usually not necessary unless it’s being watered too often. Every two years, or whenever needed. Where to get Jojoba? Check with your local nurseries and see if they haven’t first. They usually have some sort of guarantee if it fails. Don’t forget to check Lowes or Home Depot as well. Online nurseriesCalifornia online native plant nursery, Las Pilitas Arizona online nursery, Desert Horizon Nursery Listing these online nurseries is not an endorsement of any specific nursery. I don’t know them. It’s just a suggestion.

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Big Plants Use More Water than Little Plants

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Q. My wife believes 30 ft. pine trees do not need watering because they absorb water from the air. I ask you because the pine needles are turning brown Is she correct? A. She is not correct. As any tree or plant gets bigger its demand for water increases. They do not take water from the air. Just the opposite. They lose water to the air in a process called transpiration, the same as any other tree, needled or with broad leaves.

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