You may recall that I have a bit of a "thing" for lime trees, and am currently the proud parent of twins following the demise of "old faithful" after 20 years.
The twins are probably about 2 or 3 years apart, with the one in the courtyard having a "trunk" about 3/4 inches wide, while Bearss #2 has one more than double that.
In fact, #2 had a stake bigger than its trunk - and that just proved quite useful.
#1 in the "courtyard" has flourished, with tender words, soap spray and shelter. #2 started wilting almost from the moment of planting. We watered it every day, but the leaves were curling and it was looking pretty sorry for itself.
Yesterday I went into "last chance" mode and decided that I would ensure it was getting enought water by pulling out the (huge) stake and putting a water pipe in in its place. The plastic tube has an internal diameter of about 2 inches and is about 70 cm long. (Don´t worry, they still use a combination of imperial and metric for hardware in spain) - and that probably works out at a capacity of between one and a half and two litres (there I go again).
Anway, we have refilled the tube a few times already and this morning I could see a change as the lower leaves were starting to recover.
Now why the water applied in the "bund" around the tree is not getting through is a mystery. I soaked the "pit" that it was put in to before planting (which may prove to be the only thing that saved it), but for some reason the top watering is failing.
I have often wondered whether tube-watering was a possibility - now I seem to have discovered that it does work.
** Dani the gardener, who is never short of an opinion, assumes that any expat has zero knowledge of anything to do with a garden (in fact anything at all) in Spain.
When he came last week, he reckoned the tree hadn´t been planted deep enough and was all for digging lime#2 out and replanting it, until I pointed out that his idea was probably more traumatic than just adding more topsoil. (Me knowing that the roots which were showing had been pulled up by the removal of the stake). Anyway we compromised on more soil and some rocks.
Now I have reinstalled the summer watering system, so the poor little tree will probably drown.
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