[Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

[Dick]

Brazilian Pepper is a great tree. I had a giant in San Diego 15 years old when I moved away. The tree was extremely robust without a trace of added fertilizer. Whatever it required was already present in the soil. I believe the species will do well without supplemental feeding in any warm Mediterranean climate comparable to South Coastal California. 

Ten minutes is not, in my opinion, nearly enough time. Concentrate the water around the drip line and let it run until it has soaked at least three feet deep no matter how long it takes. Make sure the soil is wetted a little beyond the dripline and be sure the trench is moved outward to keep up with growth so that the drip line is always at about the center of the trench.  Use a soil probe to check the depth around the drip line but you might have to adjust the flow to correspond with rate of penetration in your soil.

With deep watering, you should be able to extend the frequency to at least weekly but probably two week intervals or more depending on the time of the year but that is a call I can't make from this computer. Learn to read the foliage luster and degree of droop. With proper irrigation, monthly is probably okay in hot months but that is a determination you will probably have to engineer with experience using trial and error with your own soil.  

Do you have a name and what part of the country do you live in, inmgvegag83? Location could make a huge difference and many of us find it awkward to spend our own time composing complex responses to questions posed by nameless people. Master Gardeners are strictly non-profit, amateur volunteers. Let us know how this works so that we might learn even though the knowledge might ensue from errors in judgement.

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mgvegaq83 at yahoo.com>
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 9:41 AM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page


> 
> 85048
> mgvegaq83 at yahoo.com
> 
> Hi there!
> I have a Brazilian Pepper tree in the west part of my backyard, and it has not grown an inch since we planted it two years ago.The tree looks healthy but we have concers about its growing. Maybe we are not watering it enough (2 times a week for 10 minutes)or maybe it is not a good tree for the desert.
> I will appreciate your help with it.
> Thanks a lot.
> 
> 
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