My recent attempts to transplant trees in my yard and at the farm where we go deer hunting have been met with mixed results. The mix mostly involves the lack of opportunity to provide supplemental moisture to those on the property we only visit about once a month this time of year.
I was thinking about those trees and even the giant red oak in my front yard as we slogged through the past few weeks of high heat, low humidity and scarce rainfall. Like all living things on earth, trees require water for their survival. The biggest and the smallest are most at risk.
“A mature tree can lose hundreds of gallons of water a day,” states a list of facts on the state Department of Conservation website. “About 99 percent of the water taken up by tree roots evaporates from the leaves through transpiration.”
Five of the 10 flowering dogwood tree saplings I bought from the George O. White State Forest Nursery a couple of years ago are surviving, and I might even say thriving, based on the difficulty forecast for transplanting the state's official tree.
The 10 wild plum trees I planted at the same time are down to six. They had a good first year, but I think I located them in too shady a location. I haven’t given up on them, but they are begging for a little more TLC since I can’t do too much for them in terms of additional sunshine.
The pawpaw trees I replanted at the farm this spring are my latest Arbor Day effort. I have them in the moist bottomland that they prefer, but without being there to give them extra water on the hottest days of the summer, their prospects are not strong. Fortunately, some of them were surviving at last check.
Newly planted trees are most in need and should get supplemental water for at least three years after planting. Water should be concentrated around the primary root system, but the best method for watering trees involves soaking the ground beneath a tree’s entire canopy. Most of the roots that absorb water are near the surface and extend far beyond the trunk.
“Apply water across the soil surface and let it soak into the soil. Surface soaking allows tree roots more chances to absorb any water,” the state site suggests. “Take care to water the surface beneath the tree’s canopy but keep water off the leaves. Foliage that is watered can be sun-scalded or develop fungal foliage disorders.”
Trees can be over-watered, but that trouble is rare especially for established trees. Soil that is mostly hard clay and compacted can trap moisture that displaces necessary oxygen in the soil causing the tree to essentially drown.
“Many more trees are lost to dryness than from over-watering. Keep your soil moist but not soggy.”
Overnight and late in the afternoon are the best times for watering trees during the summer. The water that is applied is less likely to evaporate and trees utilize nighttime hours to refill their moisture stores. Evergreen trees need additional moisture through winter droughts, but they should only be watered when the ground surface temperature is more than 40 degrees.
One of the best tips from the state came from a video interview with urban forester Ann Koenig. She suggested a watering method that included a five-gallon bucket with holes drilled in its bottom to provide a slow soaking for a newly planted tree.
“You want about five gallons per inch of diameter of tree trunk,” Koenig said. For established trees, the soil beneath the entire tree should be soaked to a depth of about 12 inches during the hot and dry periods of the summer.
“If you don’t have time to do that, it’s best to soak the top 12 inches in one area under the drip-line rather than just spread a little water all over and say only get the top inch wet,” she said.
The summer heat will eventually break, and we will be complaining about the cold before too long, but on days when it is especially hot and dry, adding extra water for the roots of your trees is always a good idea.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.