leinie:

I would tend to agree with your friend that you are overwatering. Twice a day every other day is too much water, even in conditions of no rainfall. The soil around fruit trees should be allowed to dry out a little between waterings. Trees will not die from a little dryness, but they can certainly suffer from excess moisture. I don't think you have to worry about watering deeply with young trees, whose root systems are not that deep yet anyway.

Mulching around your trees with a heavy layer of wood chips, stable manure, shredded leaves, or anything else you have around would also be helpful to your trees. Mulch conserves moisture, helping to smooth out the extremes of dryness and wetness, and gradually breaks down to feed the trees. I credit much of the health of my tree to annual applications of a thick blanket of stable manure in a wide circle around the trees every winter.

definitely what jellyman sez - think of the root ball that "tree" had when you planted it just a few months ago, how is that small a root going to deal with gallons and gallons of water continually washing them down? certainly can't make use of it all, and can't take up much nutrition from saturated soil, and surely can't use water 2 feet down!

sprinkle a bit of bone meal around the tree and water it in [ocassionally], it'll help with root growth, which is what you want the first year, not top growth .... the leaves that are dying are not getting any nutrition from the roots, cuz damaged or drowned, the leaves that are still there are sending energy down to grow roots, give it a chance

Bill

When I planted my apple trees, I watered deep the day of planting, then I did another deep watering 5 days later. After that, I stopped watering them; except when they got water because I was watering my lawn. My trees have done great without any care on my part. I just need to prune now.