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| Pomegranate rescued by watering every day |
A. I realize your comment
is not really a question but I want a chance to discuss it here. Yours is an exception.
It depends on the soil, its drainage and how much water is applied. Daily
watering can work under some circumstances and under these circumstances it
might be the right thing to do. However, it can be dangerous to recommend it
for plants particularly in our environment.
Pomegranate is a drought tolerant fruit tree compared to
most other fruit trees. You can search any posting on irrigation and pomegranate
and all posts from knowledgeable growers will say the same. I would hate to
tell people who to irrigate pomegranate based upon one person’s success.
It is well known that shallow, frequent irrigation of
woody plants, trees, shrubs and fruit trees for instance, cause the roots of
plants to grow close to the surface of the soil where there is a good mixture
of water and air. When plant roots grow close to the soil surface, they lose
their potential tolerance to dry conditions or drought.
If the soil surface is dry, the roots of plants will grow
best at depths in the soil where roots find a happy balance between water and
air. Allowing the soil surface to dry discourages roots from growing there but encourages
them to grow deeper in the soil.
Deep root growth provides a “buffer” during times of
“drought stress” when water is not freely available. Deep root growth also
provides a more stable plant during high winds or when they have a heavy fruit
load.
Sometimes watering this way does not
seem to “pan out” but homeowners find that watering daily with shallow
irrigations is easier for them. I agree that under rare circumstances, such as
very sandy soils, shallow frequent irrigations are needed. But most of
landscapes should not be watered this way.
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