Wondering about watering my Phoenix orange tree (fertilizing, trees, Arizona)

[Voebe]

Lots of citrus in Phoenix, Arizona, which do fine in the desert heat, and a while back, a neighbor told me that beyond briefly weekly watering my orange tree, I should occasionally "deep water." What she would do was to leave the hose trickling overnight.


I was wondering, would it make more sense to give up the regular waters and just do the less-frequent deep-watering? Maybe once every two weeks? Or more? I have no idea.

[lewdog_5]

Really depends on the soil type and how they are being watered. Ours are on a drip system and them seem to need a bit more frequent waterings then compared to when they are watered with a hose. Still, you should always do long but infrequent watering, even in the summer. Do not water daily even in the drastic heat. Let the first few inches of the soil dry before watering again. You can go weeks in the winter without watering them.

You should be consistently fertilizing as citrus are heavy feeders. I like to do frequent (once a month) smaller fertilizer loads starting in February and into early October. You can put more fertilizer on your trees and only do it every 2-3 months if you choose.

This has some great information.

AZ Citrus

[Voebe]

No, I never watered daily, but used to water about once a week, and then deep water every couple of months.


I could go weeks in the winter without watering? How many weeks?


It would be nice if I could skip the weekly, and do one deep-water monthly. The problem is that when I'm not there and a neighbor is doing it, I worry that she'll forget to come back a few hours later to turn it off.