How to Plant Desert Trees: Pt I

Planting trees and shrubs that have adapted to the desert climate takes a little more care than planting similar species in more temperate areas.

The list of desert-adapted species is long, and includes both evergreen and deciduous trees, as well as herbaceous and woody shrubs.

First, you’re going to need a bigger hole. The planting hole for desert-adapted and drought-tolerant trees and shrubs needs to be three to five times the width of the plant root ball. If you’re going to err, err on the side of bigger, not smaller. For a five gallon pot, make your hole 30 to 65 inches in diameter (with 65 inches being preferred.)

If you actually live in the desert, you are probably going to hit something hard a few inches from the surface. This is caliche (also called hardpan). Caliche is the Spanish name for calcium carbonate which is common to western and southwestern North America. Water cannot drain through caliche.

Unfortunately, you can’t remove all the caliche, unless you have access to a backhoe, and are willing to spend time removing it all and replacing it with topsoil and humus. You should be able to break it up though, or at least punch holes in it with an iron bar or dig deep enough with a poaching shovel. This will allow excess water to drain through to the subsoil and allow paths for the plant roots to expand through.

The next thing you need to do is fill the planting hole with water. This is simply to check the drainage. If it takes more than an hour to drain the hole, you still have caliche preventing drainage. Get the water out of the hole, and try punching through the caliche.

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