One thing you can do is water the trees with the cheapest of all sprinklers.
One of those little two dollar round yellow things, with the holes on top. Nice
large drops come down and soak in rather than evaporating into hot air. Don't
water when it's windy to cut down on water loss, and try to get the ground a
little wet before a rain is expected. That will break the surface tension and
allow more water to leach down. Never let the soil completely dry out and water
out by the drip line of the tree, no closer to the trunk than about two feet.
If you don't now have it, dig away the grass and put mulch on the soil where the
tree is. Invest five dollars and buy a gallon of aerated compost tea at The
Natural Gardener and use it according to their instructions. You can also buy a
few bags of Revitilizer compost while you are there for about 6 dollars. Make
some ragged holes around the drip line of the tree with a garden fork, really
jag up the soil, water it, put the compost down, mulch, water again.

Who knows, you may be able to get several years out of the trees which will
allow you to buy much smaller native species and get them in the ground this
fall. By the time you see too much damage on the pear trees, you will have a
few years jump on the native species and you can cut the ornamental pears down.

Victoria


On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 20:41:20 GMT, "Gourd" wrote:

Thanks everyone.

I'm definately going to bookmark all of the resources that have been pointed
out to me.
Basically I'm going to try to keep these 3 alive until the fall, then
replace them one at a time over the next few years. (my budget is a little
tight at the moment)

Thank you considerably!


"J Kolenovsky" wrote in message
...
Hi there. Victoria's reply to you (great reply, Vicky) was a very good
one with many great points. She points out some goo

psd native tree choices. Bradford Pears are not native to your area. You
cannot go wrong with planting native trees and you won't regret the
decision to do so. And your neighbors will ask what kind of tree is
that? "The kind that is supposed to grow here". She refers to Benny
Simpson's Native Tree Site (Benny was co-founder of the Native Plant
Society of Texas) and its a great site:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/o...scientific.htm

Also, there is a native shrub site:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/o...ndexcommon.htm

You have several Naive Plant Society chapters near you:
http://www.npsot.org/chapters/chapters.html

Their meetings are open to the public and you can get some great info
from them and find sources to buy native trees. I don't know about the
Hill Country chapters but our Chapter has an annual seed swap in
November. Last year I colleted over 20 varities of native seeds.

Investing in a tree requires great research and planting a native is the
best way to go.
(good, hardy, low water trees)

Good luck on your journey and fall is the time to plant it.

J. Kolenovsky
VP, Houston chapter, NPSOT
http://www.celestialhabitats.com

ps - native trees are addicting once you get into this. You'll enjoy
nature more.



Gourd wrote:

Greetings.

Basically, I have 3 Bradford Pears what were planted when my house was
built, back in September last year. They are about 8 foot tall, small
diameter trees.

The leaves are turning brown and curling...

I was told by the contractor that as long as the grass is green, then the
trees should be recieving enough water. In the spring, I also put tree
fertilizer plugs into the ground...

Should I water more around the base of the trees? Is it some sort of
disease or insect infestation? Are they too far gone at this point?

While I have your attention, may I also ask: if these trees die, what
would
be a good, hardy, low water tree for this area, and how much should a
young
tree like the ones above cost?

Thanks for your time.