My tree is dying, I live in Southern California in the high elevation desert and we haven’t had any rain this entire summer. Tree is starting to drop leaves and leaves are turning yellow and dry. I have hose feeding water to it but I’m not sure how much water a tree this size needs. Any help would be appreciated!
by Medical-Practice-332
11 Comments
Something something… tree of liberty… watered.. something to that affect.
Also as a Marine I was told only one thing makes grass grow, figure it applies to trees as well?
If it’s really dying there’s probably not much you can do. It’s likely not from a lack of water, since it managed to get that big in the first place.
If you’ve suddenly been watering it a bunch all summer, you may even be killing it with too much water. I’m not sure either way though.
I’ve had plenty of trees shed leaves in late summer during extreme droughts, only to green right back up again spring like nothing happened. The tree could very well be perfectly fine.
The rocks are super heating the soil and likely killing the tree
Why do you think it’s dying? There’s rarely rain in the dry season in Southern California, particularly in the desert. What type of tree and what planting zone?
If it’s a native plant, such as a live oak, it is probably fine and just going dormant. They typically are dormant from July/August to October/November. Unless it’s planted in a zone that it’s unsuitable for.
Go get some tree fert spikes. LOWES, Home Depot. Use as directed and water it daily. Just slow trickle, not full blast. You would be better if you rake some of the rocks away from the base and put a couple bags of mulch around it. It works, been in the game for 20 years.
Move the rocks away from base to drip line. Add wood mulch. Water it deeply.
Try r/arborists for a solution.
Def needs a good watering at least. Kinda hard to make out from the pic, is this a pear of some type?
What species of tree? ..
As long as you have the hose on a cc drip mode- especially at night, the water should percolate down into the roots and give the tree just enough to ride out the dry season.
You got this… You don’t have to lose your tree
the rocks and mulch are killing it. Get rid of that and plant clover around it.
Its almost like rock lawns are bad for trees.