My Home Grown Joshua Tree.

[INresponse]

In 1993 I bought a pack of seeds from a local tourist trap road side store here in Utah. At home in Nevada I planted the seeds in a flower pot and one seed actually grew and did well. In 1995 when I bought my new house I planted the small tree in the side yard. It grew to about 15' tall.

The house will be selling soon so instead of leaving the tree behind I drove down Sunday morning to get the tree and bring it to the new home here in Utah. The night before the ground was soaked well to soften the sandy, rocky soil and surprisingly we had the tree dug out and lying on the ground in 20 minutes and wrapped in canvas and placed into the trailer within 45 minutes of arrival.

Monday afternoon (yesterday) I dug the new hole and had the tree planted and stabilized within 2 hours. Rain is expected this evening and the next several days, the daily temperatures here have steadied off between 70* and 80* and with winter coming soon it is the ideal time to transplant Joshua trees. With a little luck the tree will take and continue to grow and beautify the front of the house. If it doesn't survive I would have lost it when the house sold anyways so it's worth the effort to try and keep my tree.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Good luck on your transplant success. I recall seeing Joshua trees for the first time on a deployment to the National Training Center in the Mohave desert and marveled at them. I always assumed that they grew more slowly than yours did.

Again, best of luck for success!

 

[Neb]

In 1993 I bought a pack of seeds from a local tourist trap road side store here in Utah. At home in Nevada I planted the seeds in a flower pot and one seed actually grew and did well. In 1995 when I bought my new house I planted the small tree in the side yard. It grew to about 15' tall.
View attachment 73332

The house will be selling soon so instead of leaving the tree behind I drove down Sunday morning to get the tree and bring it to the new home here in Utah. The night before the ground was soaked well to soften the sandy, rocky soil and surprisingly we had the tree dug out and lying on the ground in 20 minutes and wrapped in canvas and placed into the trailer within 45 minutes of arrival.
View attachment 73333
Monday afternoon (yesterday) I dug the new hole and had the tree planted and stabilized within 2 hours. Rain is expected this evening and the next several days, the daily temperatures here have steadied off between 70* and 80* and with winter coming soon it is the ideal time to transplant Joshua trees. With a little luck the tree will take and continue to grow and beautify the front of the house. If it doesn't survive I would have lost it when the house sold anyways so it's worth the effort to try and keep my tree.
View attachment 73334
View attachment 73335

Congratulations.

For most trees around here watering it daily is critical for transplants this time of year.

Ben

 

[INresponse]

Good luck on your transplant success. I recall seeing Joshua trees for the first time on a deployment to the National Training Center in the Mohave desert and marveled at them. I always assumed that they grew more slowly than yours did.

Again, best of luck for success!

Thank you. They do grow very slow, about 1/2' to 1' a year if you are lucky. So being it is 28 years old the 15' is about right. I did have a drip line to it so it did get regular water but with the sandy soil and the high Vegas summer temps the ground never got too wet. And, I did give it very small amounts of fertilizer every few years. I stopped at the local nursery store and bought a small bag of fertilizer meant for cactus and yuccas and used that in and around the hole for the transplant.

 

[Peanut]

Wish you luck! I really like Joshua trees, can't grow them here. My favorite get away when working in LA was going to Joshua Tree National Park or 29 Palms for a day or overnight. I especially liked the south rim, 2000ft below was Indio CA(10ft below sea level), looked amazing at night.

 

[INresponse]

Congratulations.

For most trees around here watering it daily is critical for transplants this time of year.

Ben

Thank you.
The suggestion is to water the Joshua trees about once a week until the roots are established. It was well watered before I dug it and I watered in the dirt when planting it. We should have rain here this evening and over night and possibly the next few days. For spring and summer it will have a drip line near by so it will survive the hot months.

 

[Bacpacker]

Good luck with it. That is a cool looking tree

 

[joel]

Never heard of it, but they say it will grow here in zone 8.

"Yucca brevifolia, better known as the Joshua tree or Yucca palm, is native to the Mojave Desert in the American Southwest. It is an evergreen perennial capable of growing in hardiness zones 6a to 10, with plants generally being hardier the more sandy and poor the soil."

 

[INresponse]

Their native range is between about 3000' to 6000' elevation. They can handle 100* temps and freezing temperatures, too much nitrogen may cause them to grow faster but it will greatly reduce the chance of them sprouting branches. They do better with weekly water until the roots are established but you can keep the roots wet or they will rot and the plant will die so well draining sandy/rocky soil is best and periods of dry soil are necessary.
But they do grow very slow, that is why I am excited that I was able to finally bring it to my new home.

 

[Cascadian]

So how is your Joshua Tree doing?

 

[INresponse]

It is still looking good. It was watered when I planted it, the next week it rained, we also had 4" of snow and a couple more occasions of rain. I only had to water it once so far a month about a month ago when it was hot for a couple weeks. I think it should survive. I don't see any signs of stress so far.