Joshua Tree Seedlings - when to transplant?

I have three Joshua Tree seedlings that I grew from seeds. They're about 4 inches tall and growing happily in a pot outside. All our lawn/garden area is irrigated and gets watered every day. The soil is kind of crappy - thick and clay-like. My questions are: (1) Can I transplant the seedlings, ever, or will they drown? (2) If it is possible for them to live with the sprinklers, should I keep them in a pot through at least one winter? (3) Should I bring them inside? (3) How fast do they grow?

In the winter we get rain - sometimes a few days of rain in a row. It is rare for nighttime temperatures to go below freezing but once in a while it happens. We also get a lot of wind at times.

Thanks for any advice!

If you're watering your lawn & garden area everyday and your soil is thick clay then you'll kill your Joshua trees (and most anything else) if you plant them there. Once a day is too often for your lawn and other plants too. If you had really sandy soil then maybe it would need to be watered that much but with clay soil I'm surprised you haven't had some overwatering/fungal issues with that much water. Only way I could see it not being a problem is if you're literally watering for just a few minutes a day, but that's not good for plants either, you'd be better off watering for longer periods of time but less frequently (infrequent but deep watering is the best way to go)

Well, our landscaper set the watering schedule and there are plenty of plants growing, like sage and different kinds of palms, Bird of Paradise plants, a few fruit trees, and lots of different flowering plants. Maybe deeper down the soil is better? We do adjust the sprinklers sometimes, trying to not overwater. The grass in the areas that get more shade is fine and the grass in the sunnier areas tends to develop brown spots.

So if the Joshua Trees are in pots, will they survive the winter? How much cold can they take?

I don't grow Joshua trees, I just know they grow in the desert so being watered once a day doesn't sound like something they'd like. They're hardy to zone 6 so your winter shouldn't bother them at all.

Since I haven't seen your property and your soil and everything I hate to contradict your landscaper, but if you have clay soil watering once a day still sounds way too frequent to me (I have clay soil and now that most of my plants have been in the ground for almost 2 yrs I typically water every 7-10 days at most...no lawn right now, but when I did have one it got watered every 4 days during summer). Brown spots in the grass can be a sign of a fungal problem caused by too much water. I'd probably try doing the "finger test"--stick your finger down a few inches into the ground in a few different places in your garden sometime shortly before your sprinklers come on one day and see how wet it feels. If it's really wet, then you're watering too much and it's just a matter of time before you start to have problems. But if it feels dry then you're probably fine (although it would probably still be better to water less frequently but for longer periods of time)

The brown spots in your lawn could also be dog or cat urine. What type of grass do you have? If you have St. Augustine grass, it's very thirsty, so it could be using up any excess water, too.

With the heat in Granada Hills, your soil MAY drying out fast ENOUGH in proportion to how much you're watering, so your watering could very well be OK. If you're not losing sage plants, you're probably ok there as well.

Palms can also suck a LOT of water from soil, due to their extensive root systems, so that could be another way the water is being used up quickly.

Do you have "sandy clay" soil? If so, it usually drains much better than hardpan clay. 1/2 of my garden is sandy clay and it drains very well, even in winter.

Either way, Joshua trees are from the desert so they rely on just rainfall for survival...but if you have them in containers, that's another story altogether.

Thanks so much for the advice! I will try the "finger test", that sounds like a great idea. I assumed the brown spots were from a combination of the hot sun and not enough water - but maybe not. It could be animal urine, although it seems unlikely animals are in the yard often enough. We don't have pets and the yard is fenced in. Which doesn't stop cats, or rabbits, or the occasional coyote.

I dug up another portion of the garden area the other day and the soil was much less dense than the previous portion. Maybe that part would be "sandy clay".

The sage plants seem to do fine anywhere. They get more flowers in the sunnier areas but grow big even in the shady areas. Lantanas also grow happily anywhere.

I think I'll keep the Joshua trees in their pots this winter and maybe try planting one in the ground next spring. Maybe there's a way to turn off some of the sprinklers.

So my husband & I have been talking about the brown spot issue and I told him maybe it's too much water. It's hard for us to think of that because it gets so hot here! But over the weekend we did test the lawn and what do you know, it is very wet. Even the parts that are under bright, hot sun most of the time. So tonight he just turned all the sprinklers for the lawn area off. We'll let it dry out and then turn them on again and try to regulate the water better.

When I used to live in the Hudson Valley in New York this problem didn't exist. There was plenty of water from the rain and snow, almost all the time, and during the rare dry times people watered their laws. And then it would rain again and the whole issue disappeared.

Here in Los Angeles we're trying to get the environment to do unnatural things, you know?

Boy, there's an understatement !
The Palm Springs area (and environs )is a classic example of how they're doing just that. They're over-irrigating the desert.

Yes, definitely, Palm Springs is a great example. So is Vegas.

I'd be happy to have more plants that are natural to the climate but have to admit I don't want *all* the plants to be that type....but I'd like to release part of the yard from the sprinklers (lol).