I would think watering once a week in the summer would work out. Peaches are hardy here, even when young. A few plums like western shade when getting started but SR should do fine.

I'd want to know how you watered (how many gallons delivered)?

How well the hole drained?

What rootstock?

How you planted?

Mulch?

The tree didn't survive how? Symptoms?
Did you paint it?

Anything you did to it after planting?

I get flood irrigation every 2 weeks and I hose watered (about 2 hours on a pretty steady flow) in between.

I just dug my new hole for the new peach tree and at about 15 inch deep a filled hole took about 1.5 days to drain.

I'm not sure what the rootstock was. I bought the first one from Moon Valley and had them plant it. I planted the new one (Florida Prince) myself, which I purchased from Whitfill Nursery. When I dug out the Moon Valley Desert Gold I could tell they did not dig a hole 2x diameter of the container (which I did). It looked like it was just barely larger than the container (judging by the compost layer).

On the new Florida Prince I dug a hole the depth of the container and 2x diameter. I mixed in 50-50 composted mulch with the native soil and watered it in between being filled and compacted. Then watered for 3 days in a row. I have put up wood wind stakes next to it and tied it to the stakes. I'll try and post a picture soon.

I put a layer of the same composted mulch on top but I plan to get some more and add to it.

The Desert Gold lost all of leaves in July. Once the leaves started looking bad I started watering more frequently but I didn't see any improvement. I kept watering but by August I tried scratching the trunk and it was dry as can be.

I did not paint the trunk. Should I do that?

I didn't do anything to it after planting besides putting in wind stakes around it soon after it was planted.

Thanks.

This is just what I do, but I try to mix more like 20% compost from my compost "bin" with 80% native soil.. I've talked to people that insist not mixing any and using all native soil is the best way. I've done that as well but I usually feel better mixing a little in when the area has really heavy soil. In my experience a lot of fruit trees love fairly heavy soil (probably not *too* heavy though).

Your desert gold sounds like my attempt a few years ago at an Anna apple tree (I planted another one last year and it's doing fine now). I doubt the extra compost you put into the soil caused its demise (or the bare trunk). Since you were manually watering it part of the time, it might have been a combination of late planting with inconsistent watering. It's very hard to get consistent watering doing it yourself, and a struggling plant really needs consistency with its watering. It's hard to judge how much water it's getting when you have an arbitrary flow, and if you're like me, I would occasionally forget to water (or it was so hot I didn't feel like going out). If it's really dry and hot out, you can't really make up for a few missed waterings by watering more.

Automatic watering can help with a tree its first year. You can set that up with a hose and timer and that's it. If you want to water more than 1 plant automatically, you could get the 1/2" tubing that connects to the timers, then attach the 1/4" tubes to it. Once a tree has been living in a spot for about a year you can become much more carefree with watering, and after a few years some trees can live on just rain (although extra water helps with fruit).

By the way, in your first post you mentioned building a shade structure.. this forum taught me a really cool method for making a small one for new trees. Just get 4 pieces of 1 foot 1/2" rebar, then 2 10 foot 1/2" pvc pipes, hammer the 4 rebar into the ground around the tree and then put the pipes onto 2 of the rebar pieces, then bend the pipe over to the one across from it. Then you can attach any kind of shade material to it (I use burlap for light shade, or sun screen for higher shade).

Sorry it took me so long to respond. Thanks a lot for the discussion. The shade tip sounds like a great idea. I may try that for this first summer with them. I tried to attach pictures of the peach and I the plum (just planted this weekend), but for some reason the photo wouldn't upload. I did use more of an 80-20 mix in the soil for the plum. I read on several university extension websites that they do not recommend mixing anything with the native soil. I may be able to set up some drip to the trees. That would be a lot easier than running the hose to it every few days this summer.

I'm still on the lookout for a 15G black mission fig this fall. I've been to both Whitfill in Gilbert and Moon Valley in Mesa without much luck. Moon Valley only had brown turkey and Whitfill's mission's looked like the size you'd see at home depot. Moon Valley in Chandler said they have them but I haven't gotten over there yet. I'm not sure why I am set on the black mission. I have read that it is the best all around variety and if I had more room I'd plant several.

Thanks again.

15" depth was likely too deep. Your present planting sounds good.
Would have preferred loosening the soil out to five times the container
diameter with that drainage. I would have confirmed the root crown was
at the top of the container soil before digging.

I would have just used native soil adding finished compost only to replace the discarded grass volume that you removed. Any amendments to the soil must be homogeneously mixed into the soil or water impermeable layers will form.

1.5 days to drain is too long. I would classify that (>24 hours) as a
drainage problem. Most likely the water you kept applying to the old
tree was just piling (layering) up and going anaerobic. I would
consider drilling/digging a hole down nearby to punch through any layers
of soil. 4 feet deep would be ideal but sometimes it is hard to do
much beyond 3 feet deep. People refill with all sorts of stuff. I am
not convinced that any is any better than simply refilling the hole with
the material removed having broken through the layers (compressed,
clay, caliche). With flood irrigation I assume the soil has been
compressed by heavy equipment while the soil was wet at some time in the
past. It is unusual for flood irrigated soil to not be well draining. Mound or raised bed planting is an alternative.

With flood irrigation on a new tree, I would water once in between. Soak long enough to hit 3 feet down.

But here is the strategy. New in ground. Water every day for 3 days.
This is to collapse any air pockets in hole. Replace any collapsed
pockets around hole with more soil. Then stop until it needs more
moisture.

In a fall planting (from container) this will be infrequent. Your flood
irrigation should keep up. Maybe in a hot/dry Sept or even Oct. I might
water once in between irrigations.

For a new tree, I like to put 5 gal right around the roots for the first
few weeks. I use a cheap Home Depot type bucket with a couple of
1/64th" (?) holes in them that allow the buckets to drip out fast enough
to not pool up on the surface. Then I double up with a similar
watering on the other side. That can last from 8-12 weeks post planting. By then I assume the roots are established and start with the watering schedule found in the bottom link below. Hopefully the canopy reflects this. With flood irrigation adjust watering accordingly. There are differences between containers in Sept/Oct and bareroots in Jan/Feb. And flood irrigated property versus basin irrigation.

I never stake trees without a reason and I've never had a reason on a newly planted tree.

I paint mine but truthfully on peaches it likely makes no difference as
their bark handles the sun pretty well. Though paint and keeping it
painted as it expands may prevent borers overwintering their eggs down low in the
trunk bark.

http://wateruseitwisely.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/az1022.pdf

http://wateruseitwisely.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Landscape-Watering-Guide.pdf

Great info, Fascist. I really like the bucket with holes idea. I create basins most of the time with new plants but sometimes the area still drains too fast to really hold enough moisture for shallow root plants.

Does any paint work for trunks or is it best to buy the "trunk paint" like they have at The Home Depot? I have a good amount of indoor latex paint (water based) left over from some projects this summer.

Good question. Any indoor or indoor/outdoor latex paint that is water based (ie, states you can clean the brush with water). Dilute it 50% with water and apply. Best to use white or a light pastel. Cheap dollar store paint works well and makes me smile, so yes, leftover is even better.