Soil Soil Soil

First off, Thank you all so much for stopping by and telling me your questions and how much you all love my column!  Kool.  I am glad you all are enjoying my column as much as I do writing it!

So let’s continue with our soil lessons.

Several times this week, I have been talking with folks with similar tree problems. These are Olive and Redwood trees, and they are decaying in health. The Olive trees are starting to get the disease and lose more and more branches while the redwoods are showing definite signs of stress. They all say the same thing: They are watering four times per week for about 3 minutes each time. One of them told me that she had an arborist come over and told her that the olive tree does not need watering at all and to remove the drip lines. Well after a few weeks of not getting watered, the olive tree almost died, and they went back to watering, and everything came back again. They also have a lawn which also gets watered four times per week at four mins each. The lawn too almost died and dried up in just a few days.

Then this one person had the arborist fertilize the olive tree and other trees which almost killed them.

Now I am not saying that arborists do not know what they are doing, I am saying that chemicals are not the answer to these problems.

No amount of chemical fertilizer will help these trees or the lawn.

Why?

First off, the biggest problem is the soil. I have been talking in past articles about how important the soil is in the health of plants, and it is the same and more important with trees.

The arborist was correct in pointing to the water use as incorrect but wrong in telling her to stop watering it. When they stopped watering it and the lawn, the soil turned into hard clay. Do you know what you get when you mix clay, water, and heat? You get porcelain or hardened clay( great for clay pots not so good for soil).

So by watering frequently, both the olive tree and the lawn had developed shallow root systems.

Not what they need. The over watering of top 3 inches of soil, soaks the soil, and it becomes water logged killing off all beneficial bacteria, microbes needs for plant and soil health.

The main problem with water and trees is that we always over water trees! Trees need water just like everything living thing on this planet. We can drown in less an inch of water.

So if you are having a tree problem, you must first look at your watering and make sure you are not overwatering your tree to bring it back.   Both of these trees and most other trees have developed deep root systems that reach down deep into the earth and go into the ground water sources. Climate change has not only made Malibu hotter, but it also has reduced the ground water (let’s be clear, humans have reduced the ground water, not nature). Then the trees have to look deeper for water, and if it runs out, their root systems will start to die back. Yes, you can keep the tree alive for a while by watering on top but that will not last, and the tree will die.

Therefore, to keep your trees, you must start them on deep watering. They should get once a week deep watering first until the soil gets softer and hold more water then move to twice per month or even once per month. With a drip, it should get 1 hour per month easily at four one gallon per hour drip heads per tree. Best if you use my Tree vent system. I use clay drain pipes about 1 1/2 foot long, 4 inches wide. Available at Bourget Bros in Santa Monica. You can get a green grate that goes on top. Has a place where you can hook a drip head. Inside the tree vents, you’ll want to add a similar mix:

1 lb live compost

1/4 lb rock dust mix

Try to get as many sources of rock dust as possible to provide a broad range of minerals. Gypsum is a type of rock dust. Green Thumb nursery sells Azomite as well as gypsum. Azomite is one of the best rock dust available. Agri-Win in Southern California also has a great rock dust (theirs is %30 calcium!).

1/4 lb Microbes, fungi, try Myco Gro fungi

any good organic fertilizer will have lots of beneficial microbes.

add 1 oz superseaweed or any other type of microbial products on the market will do.

Blend together and fill tree vents. The water will drip thru and flow to where the roots are and encourage them to rebuild. Eventually, this will become a microbial colony which will spread.

Then I would foliar spray the trees to get rapid absorption of nutrients into the tree. This will help then get them nutrition they need. Do not use any chemical fertilizers especially with high nitrogen (wait, that all of them!). This is bad for the soil, bad for the trees.

Find a good local source of live compost (ask me) and apply around base of tree about 4 feet out from the trunk to about 10 feet out from the drip line. Break up the soil at little for better absorption. Cover with an azalea/gardenia mix to help soil get more acid.

The importance of having a living soil cannot be understated, Especially now that Malibu will be getting hotter and drier we must protect out soil from the conditions . Otherwise, it will revert to its natural state of being wild. Trees live and die in the wild so if you want to keep em alive, take better care of them.

any questions send me an email at andylopez@invisiblegardener.com

andy Lopez

Invisible Gardener