[Arid_gardener] Shamel Ash

[Jim Oravetz]

Hello Ted,
I looked at your photographs because I also have a Shamel Ash.
Your leaves are drying out and there is not much you can do about it. 
It is pure physics that is causing the problem. We have high 
temperatures, low humidity and wind that is drawing the moisture out 
of the tree leaves at a faster rate than the roots can replace it. 
Your tree can sit in a bucket of water and will have the same 
problem. Many desert adapted plants have small leaves covered with 
light colored fuzz that reflects heat and light, or a waxy covering 
that slows down the rate at which water leaves the plant. But the 
Shamel has sort of a large 'naked' leaf that just throws water out 
into the hot dry air by the bucketful.
You might try watering a little more frequently. In the nursery, the 
box trees are watered every day. And while it sounds like you 
prepared the planting hole properly, the newly planted tree still 
does not have a large enough root system to go 3-4 days between watering.
Jim Oravetz
Master Gardener

At 04:34 AM 7/3/2007, wiersma7 at cox.net wrote:
>Ted W
>85308
>wiersma7 at cox.net
>
>I have a Evergreen Shamel Ash Tree I planted about a month and 1/2 
>ago. It came in a 24" box and I made the hole about 3x as big as the 
>box, When I filled it back in I used 1/2 dirt and 1/2 mulch. I have 
>been deep watering it every 3-4 days. I fill the well to thew top 
>and it takes about an hour and 1/2 for all that water to soak into 
>the ground since it is a large well.
>
>The last 2 weeks I have noticed that mainly a lot of the leaves on 
>the bottom 1/3 of the tree are drying out. Also some have 1/2 of the 
>side of the leaf dryed out and the other half looks normal. Just a 
>few of the upper top leaves look like this.
>
>I posted pictures of the leaves on my website so you could see what 
>I am talking about.
>
>http://www.learntagalognow.com/Shamel.html
>
>Thanks for any suggestions.
>
>Ted W
>Glendale,AZ
>
>
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