Plants & Planting

Most people know that too little water kills plants. But did you know that too much water can be just as fatal? Plant roots need water, but they also need oxygen. In the high desert, the best way to give your plants a healthy environment is to install a drip system and follow a watering schedule. Here’s a watering schedule that can help (University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Water Wise Program printout, 05/12):

3–4 days

6–7 days

7–10 days

10–14 days

Gradually extend the time between irrigations until plants are established*

*It usually takes one year to establish small plants, two years for shrubs, and 3 years for trees.

Winter

30–60 days

30–45 days

21–45 days

If needed–Seebelow

When you water your plants, the water needs to penetrate to the depth of the root system of the plant/shrub/tree you’re watering. For plants, it needs to penetrate 1’, for shrubs, 2’and for trees 3’. How to know if you’ve watered enough? Use a soil probe (or a big screwdriver) after watering and push it down into the soil. It will stop when it hits dry soil. If you haven’t watered long enough, you’ll need a dripper that delivers more water per hour or run the drip longer.

Be sure that your drippers are at the ‘drip line’, which is the outside edge of the foliage, especially for your trees. The roots that take in water are not next to the tree trunk, the feeder roots are found at least as far from the tree trunk as the limbs protrude from the tree. For that reason, your drip system needs to be monitored and adjusted to accommodate growth.

If drip systems are new to you, a free drip irrigation training by the University of Arizona is available online at the following web address:
https://sgsonetwork.org/drip-irrigation-training/