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Fruit & Orchards

How to water young loquat tree in S. CA summer?

16 years ago

Hi all,

I have killed two young loquat trees "champagne" in tree years in the S. CA's summer (Zone 10, or 22).

I planted the first one early spring in my front yard under the full sun and watered once a wk. It was dead in the summer.

Someone here suggested that I may not give enough water to help the tree against the S. CA's hot weather in summer.

I planted my second one in the back yard under the less sun than the front yard. And I put a patio umbrella over the tree to protect from the strongest sun in the summer. How did I watered it the first year? I couldn't remember. It survived first summer. The second summer (this year) here is hotter and lasts longer than ever before. I forgot to put the patio umbrella for the tree in the earlier summer (I did put the umbrella in the middle of the summer). I watered it every other day in the hottest days. However, in late summer it started to die. The new leaves curled (won't grow larger)and the edges of the old leaves became brown and finally died.

The professional people in Amstrong Garden Center said that I watered it too much. If that was the case, how to explain the reasons of my first one?

Yesterday, I got a new one, 5 G, ~1.5 feet tall. I will plant it onto the ground (back yard) in one or two wks.

How to water it? And were there any other steps I did wrong killed the two trees?

Please help... I love the loquat tree and like the fruits it give.

Thank you very much in advance!!!

Jim

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Comment (1)

luvgardening2
16 years ago
Jim, So sorry to hear about the trees. I live in the San Gabriel Valley and it is HOT here too. I planted 2 Loquat trees at varies times during the spring and I did not have any problems. The variety is BIG JIM and Gold Nugget. I have them planted in a very HOT area of my yard, I have never shaded them or took as many precautions as you have. At the beginning, I had some of the leaves turn brown and fall off but I saw new growth. It has doubled in size in just a short amount of time. I guess I am doing something right.

I water my trees about every 9 days to 2 weeks when they are established. I DEEP WATER. Something else you may want to try is mulch like crazy-3-5 inches. I use Garden and Bloome compost/mulch. I do not like this product in my vegetable garden but I love it for my trees. Also, make sure you do not plant too deep into the ground.

I am starting to ramble, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Catheaven2000@yahoo.com

Nancy
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