Our sissoo tree gets watered much less often and and deeper than what yours must be getting. They are quite drought tolerant though won't grow as fast as with plentiful water. Three hours probably doesn't get the water deep enough to encourage deep rooting, which is probably why you have brown tips. I'd do the watering once a week, or even 10 to 14 days, but for longer period of time than 3 hours. Probably more emitters would be good, too.

I have had my sissoo tree for two years and it has at least tripled in size. I am amazed at the growth rate. I live it Lake Havasu where it gets really hot and it is in sun all day long. I have never had a problem with browning on the leaves. It is watered for 20 minutes every other day. When it was planted the landscaper set it up to be watered for 10 minutes twice a day for the first several weeks. Now that is established the 20 minutes every other day seems to work and there it only has one emitter.

See, this is where I'm confused. My neighbor, with the thriving sissoo's, waters his very similar to what sharonlf does. He may have one extra emitter though. I've read that it's better to get in one long soak but then I see good results from some doing just the opposite. That's kind of why I broke it up into two waterings a week. May I ask what type/size emitters you two are using? I would think they would have to put out a lot especially if only one is used. My landscaper originally installed two 2GPH on each sissoo tree, I have since added another and moved them further out from the trunk.

Our other trees, which consist of 2 desert willows, 1 willow acacia, 1 palo verde and 1 Texas ash, are all thriving. I need to get out and trim that Palo Verde because it starting to look more like a bush rather than a tree. The Brazilian pepper we have isn't doing so well but I believe it's too close to a wall thus getting way to much heat from it. I never liked that tree anyway. I'd like to replace it with another willow acacia.

Wade

The problem is impropper watering.

Sharonlf should also change their watering practices.
You really need to water very deeply (at least 3 feet) and near the drip line of the tree (not at the trunk) but I would slowly move where you are watering out to the drip line, otherwise it is as it you stopped watering all together. By watering for a longer period (deep enough for 3 feet) you will be able to decrease how often you water. (once a week in hot summer) once or twice a month in winter etc.

you can get a free printed brochure called
LANDSCAPE WATERING BY THE NUMBERS
or you can visit the website and read the brochure there.

Developed by the Valley water conservation offices, Landscape Watering by the Numbers: A Guide for the Arizona Desert takes you step-by-step to determine how much, how long, and how often to water your landscape plants to keep them healthy and beautiful. Inside its pages you'll find:

How many gallons of water your plants need depending on type and size
Where best to apply the water around your landscape plants
How to water your grass and landscape efficiently
Methods to measure the water output of your irrigation system
An easy worksheet to determine how long to water
Watering frequency guidelines depending on the time of year
How to schedule an irrigation controller
A handy maintenance calendar and troubleshooting guide

I personally like the printed brochure, because it comes with a guide to put with your irrigation timer etc. you can get it from your water company at
http://www.amwua.org/conservation/landscape_watering.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: online watering guide

no problems with brown tips in quite a while.. I was underwatering,,or so the tree arborist said.(good ole Dudley).Now getting 3 hours twice a week...I added that drip line that has the weep holes every so many inches.. each place supposed to give 2 gph..the line is all around the trees' drip line.I have never measured the amount the line puts out..I know it seems like a lot!! 1 thing I'd like to ask re Sissoo..when are all those 'pea pods' gonna fall off?? thx ;-)

Thanks GardenHits for the information. I do have that guide already and it is one of the reasons I started moving the emitters out. After rereading the numbers again it appears for the size of my sissoo's that I should have five 2GPH emitters running for 6 hours at a time. This would give me a good 60 gallon watering which the book states for a 10' canopy. Although the more sickly looking sisso is slightly smaller I should go ahead and add more emitters now rather than later. I need to add two more 2GPH emitters to each tree. I may go short of the drip line as the trees are on a slight hill that the original landscaper built up. I should expect some of the water to run down so I should compensate a little.

I feel like I'm going to be overdoing it considering I see good trees down the street which are watered more frequently and with less emitters.

Thanks again,
Wade

is a great site, garden hits.. ty for the post.. much appreciated!

Thanks for mentioning that drip line. Is it a 1/4" or 1/2" that you used? I was wondering if this would be a better solution for me rather than having to add new emitters as the tree grows. I'll have to look into this approach a little more.

Wade

You are welcome..I had emitters on four different lines and this seemed a better idea for the larger area..it is 1/4 inch line... I have not seen it any larger... this line was 50ft. came with a few assorted connectors...I am quite happy with this application and so is the tree!

Thanks again,

I ended up just adding more emitters to both trees and watering the trees for a longer period of time once a week. Each tree now has four emitters equally spaced around the tree and just short of the dripline. This new setup coupled with the monsoon rains appears to have helped the brown leaf issue. Still have brown leaves on the trees but the new growth is coming in quite nicely. Too bad one of the trees got knocked over during one of the heavy rains. It was uprighted right away and it appears to be doing just fine.

Wade

I have 2 - 15 gallon Sissoo trees planted about 20 feet apart. I planted them in MArch and both seemed to be catching fine. Lately one of the trees' leaves are turning yellow and it's grow looks to have stopped. The other is green and a good 8 inches taller. What could be the problem and what can I do to save this tree?

I have had the same issue with 2 trees, one green the other yellow. It turned out to be chlorosis, and I fixed it with some liquid iron. They were getting the same amount of water and have the same exposure too. Now both are growing great guns, and the yellow sisso has lots of pretty green new leaves on it. Even the yellow leaves have green veins through them now.

I think drainage probably has a lot to do with it. Layers of clay can appear at different depths even at close proximities. When builders make an area ready for a house they dig up and move dirt everywhere. The ficus that is doing well with more water, less often may have deeper soil and the other one has a layer of clay-or something else keeping water from soaking deep. It could be they dumped extra concrete in an area and covered it up or an piece of roofing. Hell, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff my friends in new developments dig up.

Sharonlf.. I was intereted in your sisoo in Havasu. Sounds like you're doing great with yours. Mine is 4 yrs old, at least 30 ft and I live in Bullhead. I'm always interested in anyone who gardens in our area. At this point am wondering how tall the Sisoo can get.
PS: what else do you grow?

My trees have grown like wildfire for 3 years and all of a sudden all their leaves are turning brow and dropping! I din't know what the problem is. Watering too much not enough? I've never changed the watering soo....HELP! I need them.

I had two sissoo trees removed and tried to kill the stumps but now I have hundreds of small trees coming up in the lawn.What can I do to get rid of them. The two stumps have been removed and two small orange trees are planted in there place. Tks John

Welcome to the southwest, bbnax45! We hope you'll post in the forum often. We love pics and updates on gardens and plants.

Topping trees isn't usually good for the tree--they respond with really weak, angry growth. If your tree looks happy and is growing, I wouldn't do anything other than make sure that it's not bound TOO tightly to any support poles--trees do best with at least a bit of room to bend--that will help the trunk toughen up and be strong. It sounds like it's a nice young healthy tree that just needs more time? The parking lot where I work has planted them in a central walkway and they've really filled in nicely. I know they can sucker etc but I do like the look a lot of times. Keep us posted, happy gardening!

Reading about how much water many people give their Sissoo trees I'm really confused. I thought this type of tree is drought tolerant that's why I had that tree planted . The guy who planted the tree put in three drip lines ( I think that's what they're called ). The tree gets watered every 4 days for 1 1/2 hours. I keep a long bamboo stick in the ground that allows me to see how much water is at the roots. With the strong monsoon winds we get out here in the West Valley, would it be wise to thin out some of the branches and leaves to allow more air to pass through the entire top of the tree or just let it be. I've seen what has happened to the palo verde trees in the area after a monsoon and I'd hate to lose the entire top of this beautiful sissoo. Thanks again for any advice for this Midwesterner now living west of PHX. :)