DIY Yards and Health

DIY Yards and Health
Helping the Do It Yourself home owner in making themselves and surroundings healthy

Monday, October 21, 2013

TOO DRY a Fall

forecast
DRY...DRY...DRY...Make  sure you are watering your evergreens well in this long Fall dry spell so they are hydrated for the long winter where they will still be transpiring and working.

The best way to do this  is with a soaker hose
watering trees
 
When a plant waters in nature it usually is with rain or snow. Both of these will move slowly into the ground. Rain falls on the leaves and slowly drips down to the ground, the design is to slow down that water drop and let it move more gradually onto the surface. Flooding or pounding water is not what a tree wants.
 
I like soaker hoses because we can leave them on for two days and let the water seep into the ground. Keep in mind the tree roots are no more than eight to ten inches below the surface taking advantage of organic material and oxygen. Great link on Tree Roots and how they work. That is where we want the water. If it goes below that level the tree will probably not get it. Trees are not like perennial plants in that they do not send down a tap root to get water. They want it from a net work root system all around the drip pattern of the tree canopy.
 
When checking how wet it is around your tree, go down the first six inches and see what your reading is, then another four inches. You'll see a big difference the deeper you go in that it is wetter the deeper you go. Wind desiccates the upper two inches quickly so do not test that area when determining how much you've watered.
 
As a general rule you can deep soak for that twenty four hours once a week but check the gauge and make sure it is drying out during that time.


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