We had very wet spring, but for the month of June we probably had an inch of rain. For the month of July they do not expect any rain at all… Due to wet spring trees are not suffering yet form drought, the creek in the woods just stopped running few days ago. But very soon I guess they will start ti feel it. I never had experience with drought in relation to fruit trees. I hope people who did will answer few questions for me.
Do I need to water trees that expect crops?
13 years old peach
7 years old sour cherry
5 years old romance cherry
6 years old espaliered apple tree
3-4 years old apples with few apples on them
Do I need to water trees that have no crop - will drought affect flower buds development?
Plum
Apricot
Sweet cherry
If I need to water a tree, approximately, how much water the tree needs and how often? Should I just calculate it as 2 inches per week multiplied on canopy square footage?
Not fruit question. My tomatoes started to turn red and birds are after them. That was never happened before with first tomatoes. I guess the birds suffer from luck of water. Did anybody tried to provide water for birds in drought, does it help with them wasting the tomatoes?
As someone who lives in a Mediterranean climate that goes all summer without rain, I water my established fruit trees about twice a week. But I have very sandy soil. If I had clay soil, I would water less frequently. So, it depends on your soil. Water them thoroughly, then don’t water again until the soil is dry on the surface and just barely moist underneath.
We often go weeks without rain, and sometimes months. We try to make sure all our growing things get “a good soaking” about once a week. It’s probably more than an inch, less than two. If your soil drains well you aren’t likely to hurt plants with too much water, I think. With a clay soil it might be different. (I do think we drowned a plum once, but we got carried away that year.)
Fruiting trees need more water as they set and mature fruit, to a point.
@galinas,
Your soil is rich and better than mine. Mine is clay under a couple of inches of top soil.
We had a summer drought about 3-4 years ago so I learned from that. For me, young trees 1-3 years old will get about 5 gallons of water (by a hose) once a week. 4-5 years old trees, if they show signs of heat stress i.e. leaves wilting, scorched, etc, I soak them ,too.
Usually, trees older than 5 years should be OK. But again, I go by how stress a tree looks during a drought.
Also, some of my trees are on super dwarf rootstocks like M 27 or even dwarf like B9, I water them because their roots don’t go deep. They get help esp. the ones on M27.
I’ve been watering my fruit bushes every other day and my trees at least 2xs per week giving them a good 3-4 gal. roughly soak. its probably over kill as i have clay soil with mulch around them but with temps predicted to hit 96f today, i don’t want them to be wanting water. most of my trees are younger than 4 yrs also.
I don’t have advice other than my observations of several wild fruiting trees here… Pear, crab, and Pincherry. Maybe 8-10” trunks. Trees growing in very sandy soil that will feel dry to 4’ in mid summer. In the last 5 years, We’ve had summer droughts with no measurable rain for 6-8 weeks. The trees looked fine.
That being said, all of the fruit trees I’ve planted are irrigated. It accounts for about half the money I have in each tree. I made the decision after planting 500 pine trees in the spring only to have about 90% die during a dry summer. …I made a second attempt with 200 pines, but one year after laying 6” of woodchips where they would be planted…about 50% survive, but the survivors are located in a few clumps together, not randomly.
I’m sure there’s a break point between small/large trees where irrigation won’t be a big deal, but I really don’t know where it is.
Perhaps your prediction will be wrong as many here are. We were supposed to have .08" yesterday and then got well over an inch.
But I do feel your pain. Last year we went about 6 weeks without any real rain during the heat of summer and keeping my veggies, berry plants and fruit trees watered was difficult. It isn’t just the direct result of the lack of water, but weakened plants are more susceptible to pests and disease. Last year about a dozen large old oaks in my neighborhood died during the dry spell due to ambrosia beetles that were attracted to their weakened condition.
I wish… But it doesn’t feel so. It feels like it will stay dry… This year there is dust cloud from Sahara desert over Atlantic, it is preventing tropical pattern development.
Yes, the Saharan Air Layer. Clocked at around [DR.EVIL] 100 million tons [/DR.EVIL} they ride the prevailing winds on an almost annual basis. They don’t play well with storm creation and are said to bring nasties that negatively affect caribbean habitats and human health, but also deposit important minerals to soils across the americas. The nasa sat images are hella wicked.
60% chance of showers by midweek. been so hot my alpine strawberries in planters are scorched even though i water them daily. the 96f did some serious damage to them.
