Spring Watering Requirements for Fruit Trees

I would like to preface this article by saying, the amount and frequency of water required to maintain optimal health in fruit trees is determined by several factors. Temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, and soil type play an important role in your tree's hydration.

The question I get a lot is, "When should I start watering my fruit trees in the spring?" The simple answer is, when they need it. In some climates, you should never stop watering your fruit trees, even in the winter. Fruit trees will do best when they receive the perfect amount of water. Not too much, not too little. I know this sounds complicated, but it's the truth. Let me elaborate.

In the spring, melting snow from the winter and "april showers" can really set your trees up for success. The key is to capture and retain as much of that moisture as possible. And where do you store it? In the soil of course. Clay soils and soils with high organic mater will do better at storing moisture than will sandy, mineral soils. If your soils are not good at absorbing water, don't fret. Covering your ground with a generous helping of wood mulch out to the drip line of your tree will protect your soil and minimize the evaporation that occurs when temperatures start to rise. The mulch itself will act as a sponge and retain some of the early season water and allow your tree to access that water as spring progresses.

Last year, I never watered my fruit trees and it was the hottest, driest summer I've ever experienced in my area. In addition to retaining water, mulch helps keep down competing weeds from robbing water and nutrients from the soil. Mulch offers a safe haven for beneficial insects, and other microbes. As the mulch breaks down, it slowly releases nutrients that feed your trees throughout the summer. If you have a healthy ecosystem around the base of your trees, you might not ever need to fertilize your trees again.

So why is it so important to capture and retain moisture in your soil? In the West, soils are alkaline and full of dissolved minerals. Even if you amend your soil to correct pH problems, alkaline water will quickly negate the improvements you made. Think about it, if you have alkaline soils and you get your water from an aquifer or a spring nearby, that water spent thousands of years leaching through your alkaline soil, so it will likely have a similar pH.

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Do you want to grow blueberries in the inter mountain west? Good luck! It can be done, but you will need to use acidic soils, rainwater, and acidifying amendments.

If you expose your soil to wind and sun, it will dry out quickly and you will need to water more often. When your soil experiences frequent cycles of irrigation and evaporation, it is not uncommon for salts and other minerals to build up on the surface of your soils. This will make it hard for your tree to get the water they need. How well can you hydrate drinking salt water? When this happens you might notice chlorosis and or leaf margins drying out in the late summer.

When snow melts and spring rains fall, this will often push salts and dissolved minerals deep into the soil, out of reach from fibrous roots near the surface, allowing these roots to access the nutrients available from the mulch ring around your tree.

So when should you start watering your fruit trees in the spring? I would wait as long as possible and check the soil moisture regularly so that you know when it is ready for supplemental water.

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