I believe that mistakes really do happen especially if it's a first-time experience, I planted a Neem plant but nearly blow it up on the first day because of watering and soil mistakes.
It has been more than a year since the soil hasn't been water so one of the problems is it did make the soil a water repellant and hydrophobic or resistant to water. The weather condition in our location is very hot and reaches about 40 degrees Celcius.
What happen is the water that was sprinkled was not absorbed by the Neem plant resulting in drying the next day.
The two small Neem plant was most damaged, fortunately, the more mature plants were all okay.
This was good but I guess if I haven't done anything to solve this, it will die too. The problem is the lack of water on my end, I have no good source of water before and only depend on the limited source of water. I did manage to insert a water system.
What is Hydrophobic soil?
Hydrophobic soil is a soil whose particles repel water. The layer of hydrophobicity is commonly found at or a few centimeters below the surface, parallel to the soil profile. This layer can vary in thickness and abundance and is typically covered by a layer of ash or burned soil.
This can be solved by adding organic material and continuously watering to activate the dead bacteria and fungi.
I would highly suggest before using the dead soil, we should constantly water it just to activate the bacteria and fungi in the soil and if we can add some organic material.