Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[ArizonaPalms]

At our home in Chandler, AZ we have 120+ palm trees requiring irrigation and fertilization. Over the years now I've settled on a system and routine which is efficient and grows healthy vigorous palm trees. Curious to know how other palm enthusiasts in the Phoenix area differ from what I do and what are your results.

Irrigation.
Two of the stations on my irrigation timer are used only for the palm trees. By keeping all palms on these two stations I don't over water or waste water on desert adapted trees and shrubs. Each drip head on the palm tree water circuit is a 1gph flag dripper. Each palm tree has from 2 to 5 drippers. The number of drippers is based on the size, age and water needs of the tree. For example, my large queen palms have five 1gph flag drippers around the circumference of the tree. I always water each palm tree station for 5 hours Winter or Summer. That means each dripper is potentially delivering 5 gallons of water during each watering cycle. By example, my large queens each receive 25 gallons of water each water cycle. While I never change the length of irrigation, I absolutely do change duration every few months. Peak summer duration between waterings is 5 days, mid winter is 14 days with spring and fall in between.

Fertilization
I've never been happy with the results achieved using spikes, granular or liquid fertilizers. In my opinion, spikes are too localized and require above ground irrigation, preferably pop-up spray heads to wash the fertilizer into the soil. Same issue with granular, without rain or spray irrigation the granular ferts just sit on the surface. Liquids are great but require a lot of work and are short lived as they pass through the root zone. My solution was an inline fertigation unit. The cost was a few $100 dollars and it was installed in an afternoon. With fertigation I add a small but continuous dose of water soluble fertilizer into the irrigation system each time it waters. Benefits include a constant low level of fertilizer being constantly available for the palms. I service the fertigation unit and add new fertilizer about every 2 months in summer and less often in winter. My fertilizer choice is water soluble GrowMore Palm Food 18-6-18 in 25lb bags. One bag is used each time I service the system. Cost for fertilizer is about $200/yr for 120+ palm trees. I have a simple and inexpensive hand held TDS tester so I can check the water coming from the drippers. I do this to tell if there is still fertilzer coming through the system or if I need to refill. With fertigation the palms continuously get what they need and fertilizing the palms takes me about 10 minutes every few months- win-win.

Our Arizona climate and soil requires innovative solutions to watering and fertilizing palms. What are your tips and techniques?

[MKIVRYAN]

That is a pretty sweet setup. I just have a plain old system and my hands and hose

[ArizonaPalms]

[MKIVRYAN]

I really need to get another line run for just my palms. I struggle to get them enough water as they are on the same line as everything else and I have things that I cant over water. Always another project.....

[MKIVRYAN]

I need some more pictures of your 120+ palms

[pfancy]

azpalms-what is the device you have for fertilizing? where did ya get it? thx

[ArizonaPalms]

I use and recommend the Ez-Flo brand inline fertigation system. I installed the model EZ 005-FX which has a 5gal capacity reservoir. A smaller size would be less expensive and easier to install. I like the 5gal reservoir because it completely holds one 20lb water soluble 18-6-18 Gro-More bag of fertilizer. This way I don't have a partial bag of fert lying around after a system refill. Also, during mid-summer at max utilization, a smaller capacity system would require too frequent a refill.

I also use the system to disperse a liquid soil biotic designed to improve the conditions for healthy bacteria growth while lowering soil PH.

I operate the system at the lowest dispersal rate possible. I think it's 20,000:1. I can easily measure whether or not the system is working, and if it's time to refill the reservoir, with a small inexpensive battery operated Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) tester. I measure and compare the TDS of a sample of water from the the house spigot (baseline) and a sample collected from one of the irrigation drip heads. I like to see the irrigation water measurement 200PPM to 400PPM higher than the clean water tested from the spigot. The higher PPM equates to a very low flow of fertilizer coming through and out of the drip heads. When PPM difference drops to less than 50 or so, it's time to refill the Ez-Flo reservoir with a new bag of fert.

Fertigation is the way to go when growing ornamental landscape palms here in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

[pfancy]

what soil biotics are u using? i usually slap down liquid worm and N'rich for kelp additive. the liquid worm us expensive-$20/gal- so anything else might be worth a try. i also put down a humate product called terra pro

[ArizonaPalms]

[pfancy]

[quote="ArizonaPalms"]

[ArizonaPalms]

Great 8 is available at Sprinkler World.

[allynrigby]

I install and maintain the EZ Flow injectors. I have been installing for over 12 years. They are the best for landscape under 15 acres.

[MKIVRYAN]

Gonna put an inline fert system in this spring. Just need to find the time. I'm getting too many palms to be able to keep up. Yours still working good?