Sorry if this is not the right forum to post this message, but I couldn't find a better one.

I live in Corrales - house was built about 14 years ago. I am part way up the mesa close to Intel and had to have fill dirt brought in from Rio Rancho to level the lot. (Lot's of caliche in the soil, if you can call it soil.) Within the first year or so, I planted 3 Raywood Ash. They are within 30 - 40 feet of each other, but due to the slope of the land and the amount of "fill" to level the area, one was planted in deep fill, another in medium fill and the other in light fill. The trees were about 6-7 feet tall when first planted, and I dug HUGE and DEEP holes with lots of gypsum and peat/compost (whatever) filled and mixed in with some of the dug up fill.

They have all been doing fine for the last 13 years, however the one in the deep fill has grown the slowest (several inches per year) the one in the medium fill has grown about 6 inches per year and the one in the light fill has grown over a foot a year.

2 years ago, the slowest growing (in the deep fill) took off. It put on about 12 inches of growth that year. Last year it did the same. I finally thought that eventually it would catch up to the other two. I figured it had hit the limits of the original hole I had dug and the roots were now breaking through the caliche barrier and the tree was taking off.

This past spring, the tree never leafed out. There are no noticeable traces of bugs or insects on the tree. It finally started suckering at the base and I have pruned all the suckers back except one to try and grow the tree back. Just this summer, the single sucker has grown 6 feet (half the size that it it was before this happened. I have continued to trim the suckers (except the one) and am hoping that it comes back next spring.

My question is "What the heck happened to this tree?" Any ideas on what would have caused this? Any explanations would be greatly appreciated. Please don't sy it's because I live too close to Intel ;^)

cmd1v3r