Converting Peach Tree Irrigation from Twice a Day to Normal

A. This will be a challenge. Get ready for an irrigation overhaul! The usual reason for fruit drop is because the fruit
was damaged in some way, either from a lack of water to the tree or cold
temperatures that hurt the fruit. I don’t think there were cold temperatures this late in the year,
so I go back to the water issue.

I don’t like
that you are applying water every day; twice a day in fact! Is there any way that
can be changed to less often? That irrigation frequency sounds like watering a
lawn or vegetable garden when its really hot and windy out! I don’t know about
the amount you are applying, but you are applying water way too
often.

Fruit trees should have water applied to them twice a week right now and growing
in most soils. The applied water should be enough so that the roots of the tree
get wet to a depth of about 18 inches. For
fruit trees growing in the desert, I like to see a layer of woodchips on the
soil surface 3 to 4 inches deep. These woodchips provide a layer that protects
the roots from getting too hot, conserves water, prevents most weeds from
growing and helps keep the soil dark and rich.

You are
watering so often, unless you have very sandy soil, I imagine the tree roots  are growing about 2 inches deep. They should
be growing 18 inches deep. Roots growing shallow like this are cycling back and
forth between too dry, too hot or too wet. Roots can’t grow deeper because they
are drowning (if you are watering a lot) or getting too hot and dry (if you aren’t
watering enough).

Thirty minutes of water is meaningless to me. I need to know
how many gallons you are applying and where it’s being applied.

This is tricky because the tree roots need encouragement to grow deeper and
hot weather is already here. Root growth would be better starting in October when
temperatures are cooler. Do not apply any more water using the current
irrigation schedule of twice a day.

Free woodchips from local arborists who wanted a place to dump clean mulch.

Cover
all the soil under the tree’s canopy with 3 to 4 inches of woodchips. Apply
water to the soil 12 inches from the tree trunk all the way to the edge of the
canopy. This can be done by constructing a donut around the tree trunk 6 to 8
feet in diameter.

Basin beneath grapes that didn’t hold the water. It was repaired but easy to see!

The
inside of this donut must be flat with a circular wall that is 3 to 4 inches
tall. Fill the inside of this donut with a 1-inch layer of compost with woodchips
on top. Fill the inside of this donut with water once a day. At the end of
August, begin watering every other day. At the end of September water every third day. By December you should be watering once a week.

Rectangular basins with flat insides to hold water but let people and equipment through.

I
generally figure that most peach trees that produce an abundance of fruit
should only be allowed to keep about 1% or less of all the fruit produced by a
tree. I’m assuming you are removing fruit that are closer than three or 4
inches apart all through the tree.

When peaches are pruned in the wintertime about half of
all their branches are removed from the limbs. The removal of these branches
are so that the remaining branches produces fewer fruit and there is less
thinning to do. Otherwise there’s a lot of limb breakage because of the weight
of the peach fruit.