[Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page

[worthr@msn.com]

I have a seven year old Brazilian Pepper tree and live in Tempe. I water it every 10 days in the summer with both slow trickle for 5 hours and a deep rooting water device around the perimeter of the tree for about an hour. For the last two summers, whole branches/leaves have died overnight, mainly on the side facing west. Some nurserys say I water too much and others too little. I fertilized the tree using the deep watering device but it has not helped.  Others say to spray water on the leaves at dusk/dawn?  It did not help.  Eight brances/leaves have died and I cut them off.  They also seem to have split, sometimes all the way through and dark spots appear on the branches/limbs.
Any ideas on how to stop the problem  Could it be a disease?

Bob Worth