I think it's fine - what you call needles are actually the leafstalks of the leaves, and I'm pretty sure paloverde trees easily lose their leaves. Not entirely sure though.

But it seemed to rebound once established,

==>> a plant that size.. will become ESTABLISHED.. in 2 or three years ...

and until that time.. it will not be drought tolerant ...

see link on proper planting ...

i am sure those stones.. that retain heat.. deep into the night.. are not allowing the soil at the trunk to cool and recover at night ...

dig a 3 to 6 inch hole at the edge of the root mass planted.. and FIND out .. what moisture is down in the root mass ... water according to link ..

according to the link... planting two months ago ... was probably the worst period in time.. to be using bolt cutters to cut off large roots and planting ... talk about stress ... BTW ... i walk buy such poor stock.. that its roots are so large.. outside the pot ... think about that next time ...

how it does in spring.. will be the time to know how it will do.. next summer ...

no plant ever need deep watering every day ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

"how it does in spring.. will be the time to know how it will do.. next summer ..."

I'll just go with that...

If it's that green, I doubt there's any problem....

I think you are watering too much. I have two planted at the beginning of summer here in Texas. I watered regurlarly everything but these. They were watered only once a week and still are full foliage in fact they held the flowers most of the summer as well.

I dont think the root cutting had any effect. You'd still have plenty of small feeder roots in the container. Our temps were near or at 100F and little to no rain. It is true the trunk/branches can photosynthesize so cut back on the water and give it time to bounce back.

I think I'd swap out the rocks around the trunk for mulch, too, so you can check the soil moisture properly and not guess.

I have a drip system underneath the rocks/mulch/landscaping fabric, so I'm aware of how much it's getting watered. I only recently have been manually watering in addition to the scheduled drip watering (as directed by my landscaper), because of the excessive heat we're having.

It sounds like you have a good handle on it, Ryan. As beng said, it's certainly green!

You are having quite a heat wave, aren't you? We broke a record yesterday, 89 degrees, the humidity was 8%. We've had .25 inches of precip in the last 40 days. I'm hoping for good El Nino moisture this winter.

My information says it should not be with a drip system.

deep water 4x a year.

any agreement?

how much did you water it immediatley after transplanting.... we had the exact same situation and I am worried that I am overwater it.

@ Jef Wassom: We have it on a drip system, along with all of the other 'drought-tolerant' plants. It gets watered 3 times a week, for approximately 50 min on a SLOW drip.
It also drops all of it's leaves/needles, at least twice a year. But she's full of lovely yellow flowers! Hope this helps!

Curious how much water everyone is putting in when transplanting. Are you keeping the soil dry or doing an initial deep water?

Deep water until established. What they don't like is to be cold and wet at the same time. So here in NoCA where it is wet in winter, it can be a challenge. I plant them very high, even in large containers, and I plant them in very poor, well-draining soil. Summer water is overhead, maybe 1-2X/mo. So far, so good. I have about 10 of them. Mine only drop their leaves in autumn.

my tree has MANY noths is that ok