Trees Need Our Loving Support

by Lori Palmquist

“Are you one of those tree huggers?”

This was the first thing I was asked as I introduced myself to my fellow students at an irrigation training in Dallas. I was surrounded by a sea of 10-gallon hats and huge belt buckles. The shaded eyes of all peered at me intently, awaiting my answer.

“Well, I surely do love trees!”

This was the only response I could muster, as I felt the searing heat of embarrassment. Not only was I the only woman in the class, but I was the only non-Texan. After an awkward silence, the instructor saved the day by asking the next person to introduce himself. In case you’re wondering, the guys did warm up to me, and that sweet Southern charm and hospitality were all I experienced from then on.

But this article isn’t about learning irrigation design in Dallas, nor about sweet Southern charm. This is about saving our trees during drought.

As if on a planetary conveyor belt, another drought is upon us, right on the heels of the last one. We’ve been experiencing a measurable state of drought 16 of the 21 years in this century. Drought is our new normal. California is a dry state, and it’s just getting dryer and hotter. So, we need to manage our lives and our landscapes with an eye toward water conservation going forward.

Removing lawns, or simply stopping watering lawns, is a popular response to the call for conserving water in our landscapes. Lawns are water-guzzlers and are worthy targets for water conservation. In the last drought we saw a great many people stop watering their lawns.

But there is a sad consequence to turning off the lawn sprinklers that happened during the last drought which we very much need to avoid this time. We lost a great many trees since so many lawns that had their sprinklers turned off also had trees being watered by those sprinklers. The trees were left to fend for themselves, and too many of them died.

Trees that have lived in lawns are used to frequent and plentiful watering. They have shallow roots and suffer quickly after the water is turned off. But they don’t show this stress visibly for a long time. To us, they appear much more stoic and forgiving than they are. Take for example Christmas trees that are harvested and shipped in August, and just start turning brown in January.

I implore you to keep the trees on your property watered and thriving when you cut back or turn off the irrigation for your lawn or landscape. A simple Google search on “Watering trees during drought UC” will yield tons of great information and online references for achieving this. Following are a few suggestions for temporary irrigation solutions.

Life Support for Trees

Soaker hoses are good emergency tree-watering devices. I don’t recommend use of soaker hoses long term, as the laser-small holes get clogged by minerals in the water. To position the soaker hose, start ¾ of the way from the trunk out to the outer edge of the tree canopy and lay the hose in a spiral. Mature trees will need the hose further out from the trunk than young trees.

Tree Ring Irrigation Contraption (TRIC) – The California Center for Urban Horticulture at UC Davis has put together a tutorial for a DIY tree-saving irrigation method, complete with recommended parts: https://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/tric 

The web page also shows the drip-ring spirals in photos. Professional irrigation stores in our county have these parts. I recommend paying them a visit, as they welcome the public, as well as landscape professionals.

Hand watering – If you opt to water the trees by hand, refer to the image below to know where to apply the water.

Image courtesy of calfire.ca.gov

In conclusion, this tree hugger asks you to embrace the notion that ensuring the ongoing watering and care of our trees needs to be at the top of our drought-action To Do list. For the love of trees, please do your best to make this happen.