A bit of transplant stress is to be expected.

Did you really soak them when you planted? I don't think they need water every other day, but I have never used drip watering on trees so I don't know how it works. I water my fruit trees once a week or so in the winter and twice a week in the summer, and I think that's more than most people do.

I agree that it looks more like transplant shock than underwatering, and lack of water would show up as wilting of newest foliage, rather than yellowing of oldest/inner foliage. The larger sized leaves of kiwis did probably burn from the combination of newly planted/hot weather/moisture stress, but is probably not an issue if new growth looks in good shape.

The amount/time of irrigation really depends on your soil type and temperatures, and the best way to know how to adjust your timing would be to check how deeply this timing is actually wetting the soil, by physically checking it. As plants mature, it is more usual to water less frequently but for longer time, to wet the root zone at least 18 to 24 inches depth, where most feeder roots are located.

I would also recommend you look into watering the grape vine on a specialized forum. I have overwatered them in the past. My dad had one growing through a crack in a concrete patio that never got supplemental water and it got the most delicious grapes I have ever eaten.

My grape vine is one of my healthiest plants - and it is the most ignored, except when I have to pull it up onto a trellis or something else to keep it from creeping along the ground under the apple tree. It gets no special watering and no special feeding - it came with the house, but only started making grapes last year, after we had had the house for three years. I've left it growing because I do not think I could grow anything else where it is, except for maybe cherry tomatoes, which I used to have growing mingled with the grape vine.

I have some of the same problems as you with new citrus trees, and sometimes I think that I merely got a bad specimen. I had a bad (i.e. weak) Meyer lemon tree that eventually died after a couple of years, and I have replaced it with one that is thriving in the same place. As a backup, I planted a Eureka lemon tree, and it is not doing well, but I'm getting Meyer lemons almost all year now anyway.

Lars

antilogic,

The California Backyard Orchard is an outstanding resource for aspiring home orchardists. The section on irrigation in the sidebar might be helpful to you.

Be aware that bud and fruit drop is very common and totally normal with newly planted fruit trees, young pomegranate trees are especially prone to it for the first two to four years. I know how disheartening it is to see spent buds and small fruits all over the ground with only one or two ripening fully, don't worry, the tree will grow out of it.

Ryan