I have just transplanted an Aloe Bainesii and was wondering what a good amount to water it is?

I have read that these plants in their wild range can get anywhere from 3 in. of rain per year to 60 in. This seems like a very wide range. Is anyone familiar with the rains of the wild habitat? Are they monsoonal? Upon transplanting I probably gave it 4-5 inches of rain so far but wanted to let it dry out before another "rain event"...

What is the typical amount I should water?

What would be a safe amount on the high side? Does anyone give theirs 40+ in of rain per year in irrigation?

Right now its a little top heavy after transplanting so I'm hoping to safely encourage new root growth into the soil so to minimize the chance of a "tip over" in case of a strong Santa Anna wind event.

Trans planting..
is it in the ground ... or potted?

It was just recently planted from a 24 inch box into the ground. Plant is ~ 6ft tall nursery warned it could be a little top heavy.

The bainesii is well balanced and stood on its own before soil was put back into the planting hole.

I gave it ~50 gallon drink when first planted 2 weeks ago. I was going to give it another 20 gallon drink this weekend followed by another 20 gallon 2 weeks later and then let it fully dry out in October and let mother nature take over in November when the rain arrives.

Nursery recommended using the manufacturer recommended dose of super thrive when watering?

Giving a succulent a drink right after potting/planting is a big nono in my book.
You want to promote root growth. So, best start off with small amounts a week after planting, and increment later on .As long as the soil isnt too muddy/clayish it should be fine.
On a side note, forget about habitat. The nursery should have provided you with basic watering instructions. Someone with a tad more experience here could disagree, but cultivated plants are watered more often than their wild counterparts, at least as far as ive seen.

Stefan makes good points, but given the size of this plant and that it came from a box there are some considerations.

I assume you witnessed the planting - did the root ball pretty much come clean out of the box? If yes, then I think that in this case the plant needed to be watered in immediately rather than left dry. So while 50 gallons sounds like a lot, as long as it did not pool too long around the plant I'd say it was probably fine.

How much water to give how often is always a big question. Your soil type really comes into play, if water drains quickly and the soil dries out quickly, then these kind of sized plants probably like the large amount of water you plan give them.

My main experience watering a large Aloe tree has been with Aloe 'Hercules' which was really hard to over water when it was hot, which I assume it now is in SoCal. However my plant was well established while yours is probably still figuring things out beyond the box sized root ball it came with. I still think you are fine watering it that much every two weeks, but if you decided to be a little bit more conservative in terms of frequency it would probably not hurt the plant.

I would think that watering deeply immediately after installation is probably not a good idea. You run the risk of rotting any roots which may have been damaged during handling. This may not matter very much if the roots did not break much, but there is certainly no rush to water at that juncture, and waiting a week is not any problem whatsoever for the plant. It would be waiting about that long in the nursery, most likely. Anyway, what's done is done, but I would think waiting 2 weeks to water again would be prudent.

Your aloe should respond well to regular water. It's drought tolerant, too, and will simply slow down during times of drought. But if your goal is a large tree, you'll benefit from giving it some attention during our dry summers. You're in San Diego, right?

My approach to watering aloes is more about frequency than quantity. Watering a tree deeply is a good idea, for sure. But the limiting thing is how long the plant may sit with dry soil in between watering. So I might water 5 gallons at a time, on a weekly basis. That's a good rule of thumb for the San Diego area during drought season, given soil that drains reasonably well. When the winter rains resume, you can take a vacation from watering. After a year or so of regular water, you can cut back as far as you like, to every 2 or 4 weeks maybe, and after a couple of years you could stop watering completely (though the plant would definitely slow way down during the summer as a result).

Skip the fertilizer for at least a year or two. I have never fertilized any of my landscape aloes, including trees, for going on 10 years now and they seem to grow and flower just fine. I mix some fresh compost into the hole when I plant (our soil is extremely sandy and rocky) and that seems to last a good while. You might try a light layer of organic mulch instead.

Firstly, thanks everyone for the information this is really helpful and I'm learning.

Yes the nursery did recommend a good deep water when it was first planted, although the landscaping crew was also using the drip irrigation system to water the rest of the plants as well, so the aloe likely did get more water than desired. I promptly stopped using the drip for now. I think the main reason the nursery said a deep water at first would be good is so a little weight could be added to the root ball at first to be sure the plant settles in? (I did get it at a discount with the caveat it was top heavy for a 24 inch box...so yes, I'm assuming some risk here.)

The water did not pool too long an hour later is seemed to be gone. Also, it has been hot here (yep I'm in San Diego) > 85 F last two weeks as well and the area around the root ball seems to be dry again.

I think I like the idea of watering less, thanks everyone. I hate to think at this early point, a strong wind may knock the plant over, but an even worse scenario would be that the roots rot and it falls over due to my over watering... So far even in the drier state it seems pretty stable in the ground. I'll try just 5 gals this weekend.

Maybe a separate thread but the soil pH here is around 8. Does anyone add amendments to the water? I noticed that the super thrive that the nursery recommended is mostly 2% acetic acid along with some kelp powder... I'll measure pH of the water before I put it on the plant. Thinking around 6.5 to 7 should be good.

There is no need to modify the water.

Super thrive does not contain acetic acid, according to the label I saw on the net. It contains 1-Naphthyl Acetic Acid at a much lower concentration (0.048%). This should not change the pH of the water appreciably. I doubt any of the ingredients in Super thrive make any difference whatsoever for your aloe, NAA included.

Our tap water is over pH 9, buffered by carbonate, and I have never acidified it for plants in the ground. For container plants yes, but that's a different thing. My landscape plants have not complained one bit. I don't think acidification of the water or the soil is necessary or even makes much of a difference. If you're measuring pH values, check the pH of your tap water before adding anything. If it's like ours, it may be rather alkaline, and the pH of the water may override the pH of the soil around your aloe after repeated watering. But like I said, not a problem for the aloes that I have grown.

I think that if you were going to water less, I would lower the frequency rather than the amount. for a 24" box sized root ball 5 gallons of water is way too shallow, this leads to a lot of surface evaporation and if you water is alkaline you are just asking for the formation of shallow level salt deposits and with time caliche... if the caliche develops above your plant's roots they will have hard time seeing water. Shallow watering is just asking for that.

I think a significant deep watering will serve this plant way better than more frequent shallow waterings. If this was a potted or much smaller Aloe plant I would agree with Baja's post about the amount and frequency of water, but this thing is pretty much already a tree. You want the roots to start questing out from the root ball for water source, shallow watering will not accomplish that.

From my perspective fertilization is really not that important especially for a plant that is still rooting in. I have used super thrive when potting up plants I had received barefoot that clearly had been out of the ground for a while, and I think it helped, but I am not sure I can say with 100% certainty that it did.

I think you have a good point about the amount of water relative to the size of the plant. I have never watered any landscape plant more than 5 gallons at a time or less often than weekly during its initial establishment period. Something as big as a 24" box might require double that volume, though. I have never gotten nearly that big a plant.

If you're concerned about evaporation, water in the evening (my preferred time). I cannot imagine caliche as a consequence of watering a plant during its initial establishment, but I suppose anything is possible if your water is hard enough.

I guess that may be the difference between living in AZ and living in Baja... I learned the hard way to water at dusk. Very easy to start creating unwanted deposits by too shallow watering and fast evaporation even when the gravel layer over the soil is >4" thick...

Well I was able to water this weekend. I ended up going with 10 gallons which by the time I got towards the end did seem to give the immediate soil a good soaking. It was still very damp the next morning when I checked it.

I did take the pH measurements:

The pure tap water here is ~7.8. I did add the super thrive since I had it it lowered the pH to ~6.7 at the recommended dose.

I'm also less concerned about tipping now since the plant did seems quite stable when dried out before watering. It's going to be another hot week here so I'll keep an eye out...

Thanks again everyone for the help.

Good news everyone. The tree did not blow over in this year's santa ana's.
So all the suggestions on water really worked great.

Also in the last month or so it has really woken up and is growing quite fast now. I hope this can only mean it has grown some new roots as well.

I even noticed that one of the heads is branching. It looks at least a double maybe even a triple branch.

I'm probably done with watering until June, from now until then I'll let nature do the work.

Looking good!

I would continue watering (not terribly deeply, not terribly often) through the coming months. Maybe once a month when there has been no serious rain.

That's a good idea. I'll keep on the lookout for rain. On the news tonight they said we might get our first 0.25 inch next Wed. We'll see many times these early storms disintegrate.

If it hasn't rained by December I'll give it another go...