Wish I new the answer to your question agility_mom. Just wanted to make sure you knew. A Minnie Royal Cherry tree will not set fruit without a Royal Lee to pollinate it.

I had the same thing happen when I planted cherries in old horse pens. Fortunately I had salt free well water and soil that drains freely. About 12 inches of water later and the issue was gone for good.

If your soil and water are like mine yours will follow the same course. Poorly draining soil would be the worst situation. But if your water is somewhat salty that would be an issue as well.

Sometimes gypsum is add to alkaline soil to try to replace the sodium with calcium. A sodium saturated soil can cause the clay to run together greatly reducing soil permiability to water.

thisisme, I did get a Royal Lee too but luckily, it isn't planted where the horse pens were. It looks much better than the Minnie.
Didn't you get these two Cherry trees on Mazzard too? If so, how are yours doing?

My horse pens were just moved in late January so the stuff in the ground was pretty fresh.
I did dig it down and checked for drainage before planting and flushed it several times but unfortunately, I have to use the salty water from the water company.
I did think about the gypsum but I was wanting something that was quick acting and would reach the roots pretty fast. Maybe that does, I'm not sure. That's why I was thinking about the liquid acidifier. Thanks for the replies.

I have a Minnie Royal and Royal Lee on Colt that are on their second year.

They seem to do well until around May when I start irrigating with city water. At that time some of the leaves start to get scorched on the leaf edges and tips. I am guessing it might be some sort of chemical or salt burn. The Minnie Royal seems to be more sensitive.

My soil is a poorly draining mixture of clay/sand that turns into concrete when dry. I have been mulching with wood chips every year which seems to be helping with drainage. The leaves are not as badly scorched as they were last year.

agility_mom the first two I purchased where on Colt. One died. The three I purchased on Mazzard only arrived in February. They are all healthy. City water here is terrible as you well know. Its alkali and salty. When I water too fast some of my trees suffer from salt burn. I was told to put them on slow drip irrigation and let it filter though a thick layer of mulch. I'm doing my best to get a round to it.

So far, I am watering my orchard by hand. I fill the wells up a couple of times when I water them which is 2X a week right now since they are young. How often do you water yours?
After the problems that I have had with drip irrigation on my many rose plants, I am thinking about skipping that for the orchard and using bubblers in big tree wells.
Where I live, the rabbits like to chew the drip lines. Also, as you say, the water is alkaline and salty so the drip emitters and shrubblers, lime up and the water doesn't come out properly. It's a constant battle.
I do have mulch down as well as shade cloth on the west side of the trees which will be in place the first couple of summers to help the trees along.

agility_mom all of my trees were in pots until late last year so none of them are really established yet. At this time I am watering every 6 days. Growing a tree is a well type planting is old school. Its not done anymore for a number of reasons. What you say about drip irrigation developing lime here is quite true. The system I started installing in my garden a little over a month ago is already showing signs of lime build up. There is a product used by hydroponic growers (Can't remember the name right now.) that is safe for plants. It dissolves lime and other none dissolved solids. I am planning to get some and run it though the system every 1-2 months.

If you ran your drip lines a few inches under ground it may help with the rabbit problem. Having a couple places where they can drink from may help also. In the vegetable forum there are plenty of members who put up fences to keep them out. Others run a short battery powered eclectic fence that cost about $ 170.00 to install. Two "D" batteries last about two months. They say it works great.

What type of emitters are you using? I have had the schrubblers on my roses but they don't stay set at the water flow rate that I want since they lime up and it restricts the flow. Maybe they would do ok on trees since I wouldn't have to belly crawl under the plants to fix the heads.

I did have the lines buried but they still chewed the lines at the plants. They even dug them up in that area.
There is water down for birds and rabbits but they still chew on the water lines. Maybe they just want to wear their teeth down :)

There is rabbit guard fence around the plants that the rabbits eat but I hadn't thought about putting fencing up to protect my watering system.

You would think with all of the snakes that we have around here this year, there would be less rabbits.

I have no idea how well they are going to work long term but I'm installing .25" tubing with emitters spaced every 12" with two circles around each tree.

Drip won't be my first choice with salty water. You want a water delivery system where as much as possible of the surface is wet so that there is always some flushing of salts downward. All you have to do is look at an emitter system exposed to the surface to see salt buildup on the edges of the wetting pattern. A sprinkler or flooded basin would be better choices IMO.

Flooding or sprinkling could be a part time setup with drip in between. Mulch on the surface would help by limiting surface evaporation. It's surface evaporation that concentrates salts in the root zone. That and water use by the plant. Well drained soil is a huge plus because it is much easier to move the salts down below the root zone.

Fruitnut the Arizona Master Gardener Website recommends drip irrigation and I think they know our growing situation here. I have been told it causes salt to build up on the surface rather than getting down into the root zone. I think thats why the Arizona Master Gardener site also recommends deep watering once a month to leach the salts out. With all the salts building up on the surface a lite rain could send them into the root zone which would not be a good thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paragraph number 3

this:

That's exactly what I said. Drip is not good by itself.

fruit exactly but it is what is recommended along with once a month flushing/leaching. It allows the tree to get less salt all month. Then the surface salt gets flushed and the tree once a month gets the kind of salt it would otherwise receive all the time. Its not perfect but here in the desert its about the best we can do. Although I did check into a system that would remove the salt. It involves a 600 gallon tank filled with activated charcoal and a pump to maintain water pressure. It was just a little bit out of my price range.

This:

Can you show me something that says drip plus flooding is better for salt management than flooding every irrigation? Because I just don't believe that. Drip is useful to save water nothing more.

I also don't believe that activated charcoal will remove salt.

Fruit I was just repeating what I was told by an expert here in Arizona. Here we have both salty water and salty soil. I can't find it as concise and strait forward as I was told in any search. Here are some links and excerpts that may help.

Arizona has salty soils just like Nevada plus salty water. What I posted was strategy to remove the built up surface salts that accumulate do to (SDI) Surface Drip Irrigation.

Here is a paragraph on Salt Management where (SDI) Surface Drip Irrigation from the click-able link at the bottom.

"Salt Management

Nevada's desert soils have a high concentration of soil salts. SDI systems normally concentrate salt at the outer edges of the wetted soil volume. What this means is that salt concentrations will be greatest near the soil surface, in between rows of tape/tubes, or near the bottom of the wetted soil volume. Producers will need to keep this in mind and devise strategies to deal with excess concentrations of soil salts."

You will find the same almost everywhere you look. Including in the link to AZ Master Gardener site. The Leaching/Flushing is simply one of the strategies devised to deal with the excess salts on the surface which also may reach into the root zone over time though the process of Surface Drip Irrigation. Even worse when the built up salts move all at once to the root zone though rain.

Last paragraph new link...
http://www.waikailepe.com/Watermarkconsult/Piet/3Chpt1.htm

"A salt accumulation problem can occur in drip irrigation, when only a portion of the root zone is wet and saline water is used for irrigation. In such cases salts may accumulate along the edge of the wetted zone during irrigation and be moved into the root zone to cause severe damage during rain, when the drip irrigation system is not working. Operating the drip irrigation system during the rain season can normally solve such problems."

As I said rain can be the culprit that moves the built up surface salts into the root zone.

One more, the paragraph pn Water Quantity and Quality.....
http://www.wateright.org/880105.asp

"Water Quantity and Quality

Trickle irrigation uses a slower rate of water application over a longer period of time than other irrigation methods. The most economical design would have water flowing into the farm area throughout most of the day, every day, during peak use periods. If water is not available on a continuous basis, on-farm water storage may be necessary. Trickle irrigation can be used successfully with waters of some salinity, although some special cautions are needed. Salts will tend to concentrate at the perimeter of the wetted soil volume. If too much time passes between irrigations, the movement of soil water may reverse itself, brining salts back into the root zone. Salts concentrating on the surface around the edge of the surface wetted area can be a hazard should a light rain occur. Such a rain can move the salts down into the root zone, without applying enough water to leach the salts through and below the root zone. When rain falls after a period of salt accumulation, irrigation should continue as normal until about 50 mm of rain have fallen to prevent salt damage. In arid regions where annual rainfall is insufficient (less than 300 to 400 mm) to leach the salts, artificial leaching may be necessary from time to time, requiring the use of a supplemental sprinkler or surface irrigation system."

Of course I was told all of this in person. I can find it online but not as concise as I was told in person. Not that it can't be found but I can only find it in bits and pieces like in the links and quotes provided. Much of the salts builds up on the surface when using salty water with Surface Drip Irrigation. You don't want that built up salt to reach the root zone. So you have to manage it by flooding the root zone. Rain can move the salt into the root zone and damage crops and trees. Therefore a heavy watering would be a good thing before any potential rain when growing in an arid environment. If you don't want to see it then it may not be clear enough for you. However I live here. Its been explained to me and its clear enough for me..

Here is a link that might be useful: Subsurface Drip Irrigation Fact Sheet 97-13