Ask an Arborist: How do I Know if my Trees Need Water?

[Music] hi I'm Mary Clooney I'm a certified arborist with the Arbor Day Foundation and today I'm going to talk to you about how to know if your tree needs watering tree watering is a key component to the care of any new tree and it's difficult to recommend an exact amount due to a variety of reasons agent species of the tree the soil type weather and the time of year as a general rule newly planted and young trees will require more frequent watering than older trees because their roots haven't yet established today we'll talk about how to tell when to water new trees and wave to water them one way to check if your tree needs watering is to dig a small hole into the ground with your finger depending on the size of the tree will depend on how deep it needs to be but this one would be probably 2 to 3 inches into the ground [Music] there's a variety of ways that you can water your treat the first is a drip system where you either have a bag or a bucket with small holes in it where the water will slowly trickle down into the soil this is the preferred method because this allows the water to slowly seep down into the soil where the roots are so that it develops a more established root system a couple of these systems include booze - they're Gator bags if you don't have those at home you can always use a five-gallon bucket poke a hole or two in the bottom fill that up with water and set that beside your tree do that about once a week during the hot summer days and your tree should be just fine soaker hoses are portable and can apply water slowly to sites where runoff may be a concern they lay on the soil just under the surface of the mould so they're perfect for landscaping a watering can or gardening hose are great because most people have them just make sure to add the water a little bit at a time so that it doesn't run off but rather seeps into the soil where the roots are lastly one of the most important things you want to make sure you do is after your tree is planted or you've cared for it spread a layer of mulch across the top because that's going to make sure that the water is retained in the soil water only when necessary over watering can be just as big of a problem as under watering your tree may show symptoms of over watering if it starts to display these signs yellow leaves on lower branches at the inside of the canopy brittle green leaves fungus or algae growing on the surface or on the surface root black or dark brown roots which can be a symptom of root rot thank you so much for watching you have any questions just let us know [Music] you

Channel: Arbor Day Foundation*

Views: 27,382

Rating: 4.7142859 out of 5

Keywords: tree watering, tree care, tree health, summer tree care

Id: ZJ1nS9_GUkE

Length: 3min 18sec (198 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 13 2017