Last week we addressed how native conifers are efficient in their use of water and can survive extended dry periods better than many broadleaf trees such as Birch or Cottonwood. An example of this is at the south east corner of Ramsey and Hayden Ave. This is just down from our shop, so I drive past it daily. There are several cottonwood trees around Great Escapes Espresso stand that are dropping yellow leaves in this hot weather. This is not an early fall sign. It is a way of surviving however, when a tree is not very efficient in using water and has little or none to draw from. A mature Cottonwood can pull up and evaporate off its leaves between 250 to 500 hundred gallons of water on a single hot summer’s day! That’s amazing! Understanding this it is easy to see that the little water the sprinklers are providing for the grass at the coffee stand is nowhere enough for those Cottonwoods, thus the leaf drop. So now that we have some knowledge about mature Conifers and Broadleaves, how should we be watering them? Acknowledging that the Blue Spruce in your yard can be watered less frequently than the River Birch, I still suggest watering them in hot weather in the same way. I call it deep watering. I prefer the inexpensive little metal circular sprinklers. Most of them are yellow and about ten bucks at any hardware store. They lay flat against the ground and spray water up in a circular pattern. The amount and spread of water can simply be adjusted by regulating the amount of water flow through the hose. This sprinkler can easily slip under the difficult to reach trees like the low handing and poky crown of a Spruce tree. It delivers a good amount of water over the entire root plate of a tree in an even and gentle manner preventing run off and soaking the soil deeply if left on for a few hours. More next week on the frequency and is all this even necessary if you have sprinklers reaching your trees? As always, for further questions, quotes and consultations, give us a call today!
