How Much Watering

If I had planned this correctly, I would have not started with the back yard transformation project until about mid-September.  Most tree planting guides suggest you plant in October, or is it November?

Anyway, things are rolling now, I've planted three 10-20 gallon trees this month, one more tree this Saturday (the palm) and then the a bunch of 2-5 gallon starter trees will be planted just before the sprinkler installation next week--because the sprinkler guy said he can only set up irrigation for plants that are already there, any future plants will require service calls.  I've already committed to that, so it's too late to turn back.  There are about a dozen explanations of how this got started, but anyway I did.  And better early than not-at-all, which had been the story since I returned to Texas in 1997.  If there are problems, and hopefully there won't be many, I can get replacements.  In some cases the nursery may replace plants free.  They would certainly like to have business year round, regardless of what the planting guides say.

After 3 weeks my Crepe Myrtles have suffered a bit from the 100 degree heat on the hottest days, but are still hanging in their with 95-99% of their leaves still green and intact.  I inspected some trees at a Home Depot store this week, and my trees looked better.

I've been very fastidious about watering, and if you do it correctly, you can indeed plant container trees in the summer, I've read.  But how do you do it correctly?

I've seen and heard about as many approaches as there are websites I've read and people I've talked to.  Here's one website which gives dire warnings about overwatering and suggests you water only once a week (!).  The guy who planted my Oak on Monday suggested every 4 days "but more if it's too hot."  Funny he seemed to be ignoring how hot it was when he said that.  Finally, I've seen a number of sources that suggest watering every day immediately after planting.

I was watering my Crepe Myrtles every day.  When I hadn't watered them the day after planting (there had been a rain storm the night of the planting) they were looking parched afterwards.  Then I got stern warnings from a lady at work about overwatering.  She suggested testing the soil by poking my finger into it.  But how wet is wet I asked?  I ended up buying a soil moisture meter last Saturday.

So this appears to be the way to do it.  Test every other day (at least) and if the meter is below 3, then water.  On Tuesday night the two Crepe Myrtles seemed to need watering so I watered them.  They had been skipped on Monday night.  I also tested the Oak, but it still had moisture, so I didn't water it.  That was 1 1/2 days after planting.

I think one of the issues is not merely how hot and/or dry it is (here it is hot, up to 100 during the day, but very humid at night).  Another issue is how well the soil drains.  Most soils have lots of silt and sand which makes them drain fairly quickly.  My soil is very high clay, and doesn't drain well at all.  If you water an area very well, it could stay muddy for days in 80 degree ambient temps, though less so in 100 degree temps.