Denny's Soapbox

Protect Large Trees from Drought Conditions

The last two weeks has seen extreme hot summer weather set in. We’ve experienced very warm and dry weather, both day and night. Rain has been very spotty with some local areas receiving up to 2 inches of rain to other areas receiving none with still others in between. These hot, mostly dry conditions are having a negative affect on many of the plants in our landscape including the lawn. In fact it’s the condition of our lawn that most homeowners pay attention to during hot, dry weather.

What should our #1 concern be?

A dry lawn does catch the owner’s attention along with everyone else. But on a priority scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the most important, the #1 concern should be our trees. The larger the tree the more important they are. You can replace a lawn that has dried up due to drought very inexpensively. A large tree that becomes drought damaged is impossible to repair or replace.

Trees suffering from drought stress are easy to detect. Symptoms include trees like maples which have some leaves on certain branches turning their fall color early. Smaller leafed trees like lindons and birch have started to have some of their leaves throughout the tree turn yellow and drop to the ground. All of this early leaf color and leaf drop is the tree’s way of reducing the need for water. They shed to compensate for lack of moisture. Take a look around and you will see that the majority of trees have leaves that are at least droopy and wilting.

What to Do

Water, but don’t overreact. I’m talking mostly about trees in your landscape that have been in their location for 5 years or more. These trees have a well-established root system. These trees should be watered using a sprinkler that will apply water not only under the tree but will also water 25% beyond the drip line to place moisture around all the feeder roots. Set up a straight sided glass in the area the sprinkler is covering and water until 1 inch of water has collected in the glass. Repeat this once a week until the temperature cools down and the rain returns.

Trees which have been installed less than 5 years should have the soil around their roots checked for moisture with a garden trowel. Dig down 3 to 4 inches and if the soil is dry, water using a root feeder, water bag or soaker hose until the moisture reaches 6 to 8 inches down around the roots. Just use that trowel and check. Be careful not to keep the soil too wet. Let the soil get on the dry side before adding more water.

This type of overall tree watering will also help our grass plants recover and green up the lawn. Be sure to keep moisture around all your other landscape plants to help them through these dog days.

Remember though, it’s the large trees that are impossible to replace and the large trees that become the most stressed making them very vulnerable to future insect and disease problems. Please, for their sake and your property value WATER!!!

P.S. I’ve found in the past when writing about drought it will usually bring on timely rain to make the writer look really stupid. Let’s hope so!