For Immediate Release:

Thursday, January 25, 2018

My Coral Trees are really looking bad. What is going on? I tried to ration water as I was told, so I have been watering less and only as needed. Can you help, please?
Hi
Water rationing is not meant to kill your trees. Losing your trees is very bad for the overall environment. Causes more heat and more damage to the soil!
Here is Malibu and probably in most places, folks have not been paying attention to their soil. They have either taken the earth for granted or just never thought much about it. I have been getting calls from all around, and they all are telling me the same thing: I stopped watering my trees figuring that just watering the lawn would be enough. Last year, I was told to replace the grass with natives that do not need watering. I thought my coral trees would be fine since I keep reading that trees do not need to be watered?
Now, my corals appear to be dying. My gardeners have tried everything from chemical fertilizers to watering more and nothing seems to work. I am afraid that this year, they will die if I do not do something about it! What is going on?
In trying to save water, you have been damaging the soil and in turn, damaging the trees. Trees without roots will not live long. Roots without live soil will not live long.
I often tell folks what do you think happens when you add water to clay and then add heat? You get a hard pan. A rock layer that keeps water, air, and nutrients from reaching the tree. Many folks water the lawn and expect the trees to be fine.
Here is what you need to do if you are going to save your coral trees and any other trees you may have:
Set up 4 “tree vents” per tree. These can be clay drain pipes or pic pipes with drainage holes alongside. Should be 2 feet long at min (preferably 6 feet long ), these are buried 1/2 way out from trunk and drip line of the tree. Placed at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock.
Place a drip line around the tree at the same mid-way location. Add ten drip head (2 gals per hour) with a drip head dripping down the tree vent.
Each tree vent will get a grate cover.
Inside each tree vent goes the following:
1. Mix equal amounts of live compost and azalea/gardenia mix. The mix is actually earthworm castings and shredded aged tree bark. The acid helps to bring the soil ph down. The earthworm castings are rich in minerals.
2. Add any of the microbial mixers available on the market. Try Green Thumb or Anawats. They carry BioLive.
3. If you are lucky enough to have animals, mix is some fresh animal manure.
4. I add my own Superseaweed, but you can buy fish emulsion (without urea) or any of the compost tea products or microbial products. Just follow instructions.
5. This mixer should be replaced every four months.
The water will flow thru the mix providing the soil with live microbes which will help the soil and in turn the tree roots and then the tree to recover.
This is a slow process.
You should at same time at a nice layer of live compost around the base of the tree about 2 feet out from the trunk to about 6 feet past the drip line. Then cover with azalea/gardenia mix.
Make sure you water this area once a week only. The drip should be on for at least 1 hour maybe two. You will need to see how fast the water is going down and not allow runoff.
6. During this time, it is essential to foliar feed the tree. This is done by spraying compost tea along with n organic liquid fertilizer to give the tree nutrients it needs to survive.
7. The drip line should be on its own program and water just for the tree. You will need to monitor the amount of watering since you can get over water it which is just as bad as under watering it. You need to let the tree dry out in-between watering. Once a week for the first month is good and then try watering once every other week. I would check the tree’s soil to see if it is holding water and not becoming waterlogged. You will need to add compost and azalea mix several times per year until the soil is back to normal and then add only once or twice per year. I would do the whole property this to better protect the soil.
I used to be able to get mushroom compost in Ventura. This stuff was amazing as to what it did to bring the soil back to life. They are sadly not around anymore. There are many soil companies selling earthworm castings and maybe even mushroom compost. Do not use wood chips as a mulch as it does nothing to the soil and is a fire hazard.
Control the urge to trim the tree everything it gets big. You must understand that by doing this, you are weakening the tree and exposing the soil to direct sun which will heat the soil up more. Allow the trees to protect themselves by having this great canopy. One person keeps cutting this wonderful trees because she wants the ocean view. These trees are part of the view, and they protect your property from sun, from Santa Ana winds and hold water and keep the soil alive. Once these trees start to lose their soil, the roots and then the whole tree will decay and die. Please do not wait until it is too late to help these wonderful trees. Act now as soon as you see that they are not happy.
any questions?
Please leave in comment and I will answer asap.
I will also answer in more detail on my next radio show
Thanks!
andy Lopez