Q. We had six 24″ box bay laurel trees and one 24″ olive tree planted in April of 2021, three years ago. We water once a week for one hour with four, two gallon per hour emitters in the spring. We are not sure if they are doing well and would appreciate your expert advice. A. Thank you for telling me how you are irrigating these trees. If it were me, I would flood the area around the tree, a single time, with water now. Don’t wait. Use a $12 stationary sprinkler at the end of a hose and adjust the watering pattern from six to eight feet. Water this way for one hour. Next, I would increase the four emitters to four gallons per hour rather than two gallons per hour. I would still water for one hour. As trees get bigger, they need more water. I believe you did not give these trees enough water when they needed an increase in water. A normal response to a lack of water is leaf drop and thinning of the canopy. I doubt it is a disease problem. I would first guess it’s not getting enough water as temperatures increase. This is normally taken care of by increasing the number of times you water per week. In your case, I think the two gph emitters did not release enough water. Replacing the emitters is sometimes a better solution than increasing the water output for ALL the plants. This way your watering time does not change. Some people …
Q. One of our mature Meyer lemons just crashed. I think we are giving it enough water. Were watering it once a week. I fertilized it and applied Kerex iron. A. It is the end of May. Make sure it is not water problem. Right now, we should be applying water to it (at least half of the spread of its canopy and to a depth of 18 to 24 inches) twice a week starting about 2 to 3 weeks ago for most soils and fruit trees in the Las Vegas area. That is the first thing to take care of before we start correcting other problems. It is mesic in its water use, not a desert tree. During spring is a dangerous time to fiddle with the amount of water. If you skimp on water while the fruit is getting larger, then it may make fruit smaller because you were not applying enough water. Enough water MUST be available to the fruit as they enlarge if you want the fruit larger. Never daily. That’s a no-no. If water is applied too often then diseases are a problem. The first thing to do is make sure there is enough water present for fruit formation, but not watering daily so that diseases develop. Right now for most soils we should be watering twice a week in Las Vegas and using a thick surface mulch. Next are the nutrients. For the fruit and trees to be healthy and to produce healthy fruit, all nutrients should be present. …
Q. Can you recommend something that can be used to discourage birds from eating my figs and peaches? A. Peaches are a lot easier than figs. Figs must be picked when they are ripe. Peaches will ripen off the tree. As soon as you see bird pecks on firm peaches, harvest them. Don’t wait for them to get soft. The birds know when they are ripe enough to eat. A few days on the shelf at room temperature and they will be ripe enough to eat. If you are not sure whether to harvest the peaches or not, look at their “background color” or when they turn from green to either yellow or red with yellow, depending on the variety. If you are still not sure, mark your calendar. Do this in combination with bird pecks. If they are ready to harvest in early June, mark your calendar and start checking them in late April for bird pecks. Start harvesting them the day you see bird pecks. Or harvest them when they turn color; when they are “firm” and no longer “hard”. At that stage, they are tree ripe! A couple of days out of the sun and at room temperature and they will be ready to eat. Peaches that ripen during hot weather are ready to harvest over a period of about two weeks and earlier peaches (April and May) are closer to three weeks. Harvest the ones that are ready first and then wait a few days and harvest more. Peaches will ripen first …
Q. I know you water a boxed tree to 24” deep but do you water a new tree to 24” deep even if is a sapling in a 15-gallon pot? A. What we have done with newly planted fruit trees (planted among established fruit trees) is move drip emitters closer to the trunk during the first year of establishment. These newly planted trees are irrigated 18 to 24 inches deep during this time, but the emitters are spaced on top of the rootball, close to the trunk. By fall, newly planted trees will become “established” and acclimated. The right number of drip emitters can be added for future growth at that time. The newly planted trees will become established when temperatures cool off by the fall months (usually by the end of September or early October). Planting during the spring months (late January through March) gives these plants time to get established by fall. Spring or early summer planted plants will usually get established by the following fall. Fall planting of trees and shrubs have a cool fall and the following spring to get established. Planting during the early summer months (April and May) will work but does not give them as many months to get established. Once plants get established (provided the planting hole was dug wide enough) during the fall months the water can be applied normally, with the other plants.