[Arid_gardener] Re: Citrus: Yellow-Green Leaves

[Dick Gross]

Neil, I have gardened in this Salt River Basin since 1986 and been a Master 
Gardener since 1995 and I have never seen caliche or hard pan here. Maybe 
I've just been lucky. This entire valley is alluvium and you would have to 
go a half mile deep in most areas to impervious sediments. There are pockets 
of natural concrete where clay has bonded river rock together to form a 
dense deposit resembling cement, usually in an ancient river bed. If you are 
planting over such a formation, drainage might be zero.

But it is easy to check.

Dig a hole 12 to 15 inches deep in the area you want to plant . Fill it with 
water and see how long it takes for the hole to empty. If the hole is still 
full the next morning you do indeed have a drainage problem that you will 
have to poke through and fill the void with gravel to evacuate excess water 
from the root zone.

But if it takes a couple of hours to empty, you are okay. Fill it several 
times to get a good feel for how it reacts to more water. This gives you 
some rough idea how much you can irrigate and how often without drowning the 
roots that must have air.

Don't hesitate to respond, Neil, if any of this brings out skepticism.

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
University of Arizona Maricopa county
Cooperative Extension


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Olin Miller" <olindmiller at att.net>
To: "NEIL BIBLER" <nbibler at msn.com>; <arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:22 PM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Re: Citrus: Yellow-Green Leaves


> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "NEIL BIBLER" <nbibler at msn.com>
> To: "Olin Miller" <olindmiller at att.net>
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 6:30 PM
> Subject: Re: Citrus: Yellow-Green Leaves
>
>
> Many thanks for your advice. It gives rise to more question s, though *s* 
> ~~
>
>> The "chimney" you recommend: will that alter the hard pan over time? Or, 
>> put another way, what is its function or purpose? (I presume it is to 
>> help alleviate there being too much water sitting above the hard pan, at 
>> least in part.)
>> ...
> ============================================
>
> It will only provide drainage for that tree.  Th only way to correct the 
> hard pan is to break it up mechanically.  Farmers use a chisel plow..
>
> Olin
>
>
>
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