[Arid_gardener] texas ebony help!

[Dick]

Mary, assuming your root system isn't diseased, a condition rather rare I've 
noted in 30 years of seat-of-the-pants gardening in the desert, this is what 
I would do faced with the same facts. Make a shallow trench 18 to 24 inches 
wide and about 2 inches deep all around the tree defining the drip line, The 
drip line is an imagimary line in the soil defining the outer reach of the 
branch tips and that line should be about the center of the trench.

Assuming your ground is relatively level, put a garden hose nozzle in the 
trench. Adjust the flow to maintain a water level of a half inch or so and 
let it run intil you have soaked or saturated the soil at least three feet 
deep all around the drip line if that is physically possible. Check the 
depth with a soil probe but if you can't lay your hands on one buy a 
barbeque spit at the hardware and when you can sink it to the hilt in the 
drip line several places around the tree, shut off the water. Don't irrigate 
again until you scratch about three inches into the drip line and find it 
quite dry. Deep irrigation disolves and flushes salt compounds below the 
feeder roots where they can do little harm.

If the lay of the land won't let you do the entire circumference at once, do 
a section at a time until you have circuited the tree. You can put a hose 
end in a trench and let it drip until you reach a desired depth.  That area 
near the drip line is the only place where feeder roots exist to ingest 
water and nutrient. I have four 40 year old healthy citrus trees that have 
never had water any place other than the drip zone unless it rained. A 
common problem I have often observed in this area is a mature but ailing 
tree with a shallow trench near the trunk where the owner has continued to 
irrigate but where not a single feeder root exists. Occasionally, trees with 
that handicap appear to survive because its feeder roots reach outward to 
other nearby irrigated plants or trees and, while not an ideal situation, 
trees appear to do okay if the remote moisture is within the reach.

After you have deep watered, Mary, if the tree doesn't respond, it may not 
be possible to reserect it.  If this creates more questions than answers, 
don't hesitate to bring any difugalties to my attention.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "M Gotway" <mgotway at cox.net>
To: <arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 11:35 AM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] texas ebony help!


> Hi All,
>
> I am new to this forum. I live in Phoenix, AZ.
>
> I am concerned about a Texas Ebony in our front yard. The tree has 
> western exposure. This tree is about 12 years old (we just bought the 
> house 2 years ago). In the last 3 months or so we started noticing  that 
> the branches on the tree are slowly dying. About 2 months ago,  we removed 
> the dead branches. However, another large branch has now  suddenly died. 
> There is no irrigation to this tree...but we gave it  water and that did 
> not seem to help. There are several areas of new  growth at the base of 
> the tree. Any idea what is killing this tree?  Thanks in advance!! Mary
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