hanabananaman

I am also in Phoenix and agree with what has been said by the others. In extremely hot conditions the water needs are huge and if you don't have a soil that can hold water like a sponge you will need to water every day. My mats are each filled with 50 to 70 bags of cactus mix. The amount of water it took to soak that mix was stunning. Hours of moving the sprinkler all over and back again wondering where the water was going, we rarely ever get enough rain at one time to soak down more than a few inches. A friend recently had flood irrigation reestablished on his property and his bananas are growing like wildfire. I was stunned when I saw the difference. I will soon be moving and would like a flood irrigated lot, it would save me a lot of money on water. My current water bill for 2 months would more than pay for a year of flood irrigation. And the biggest thing is mulch, when I started getting bales of straw or alfalfa for mulch my watering was cut in half, it made a huge difference.