Watering Trees in the Summer

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Horticulturist Skip Richter shares all about watering landscape trees - new or established landscape trees - during the summer. Additional resources are available online at: aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/f...
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension - agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/
Texas Tree Planting Guide - texastreeplanting.tamu.edu/
Trees of Texas - texastreeid.tamu.edu/
Best Plants & Trees to Grow in Texas Landscapes - agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/so...
Texas Superstar Plants - texassuperstar.com/plants/ind...
Water My Yard - watermyyard.org/
Texas Evapotranspiration Network - texaset.tamu.edu/
A team of horticulture agents were available during the premiere of the video on Facebook to answer questions from the audience. / aggie-horticulture-268...

[@skylights1365]

I came just to learn how to water my newly planted trees, but i ended up learning so much about root systems and plants in general. Thank you! Amazing video.

[@ericpierce3660]

You're like my favorite professor, I could listen to you all day. I learn so much.

[@janetwm1891]

You, sir, are an excellent teacher! You've answered all the questions we had about our new trees! Thank you!!!

[@cg741graf5]

I loved your video and boy it sure is spot on from what my Great Uncles and Grandma taught me. Nice to know tried and true still holds. 🙌🏻👍🏻⭐️ just planted 32 trees, 154 boxwoods, hundreds of perennials to create a natural habitat pollinators and wildlife can enjoy.

[@toosense]

Sounds awesome!

[@scottwebber652]

Water is the most important ingredient for growing anything I’ve found along with the mulch.

[@strouty]

Thank you, this was new info for me, no one talks about the amount of water, at least you are the first one I meet. Thank you again!

[@ingridgould3089]

This is a great video! Gardeners beginner or advanced can benefit from it. Watering trees, plants is always a challenge, hence this video is super helpful. Ingrid G

[@RichardGilbert2727]

What great guidelines! Clear, accurate, sensible. I have learned the truth of this watering advice in planting many trees and shrubs, but this guide indicates I've been doing the bare minimum for hot weather. Just this week, in our July dry spell, I watered some plants that had been established in winter or spring, and the next morning several had put new growth! They had been waiting for water they needed to grow.

[@PoteetStrawberryville]

Poteet Texas Strawberryville Evergreen Forest 👋🏼🍓👍🏼 Thank You! 07/08/23

[@tennesseetexan1957]

I grew up in Pleasanton, not far from Poteet. Both places are dry, dry, dry! Lucky to get 20- 30 inches a year & summer lasts forever. I now live in southeast Tennessee and 65-75 inches is not uncommon. Love those Poteet strawberries grown in that rich red soil! Go Aggies!

[@BudFuddlacker]

That looks like such a nice calm neighborhood

[@patricksalembier7352]

Thank you for the great information. Your info is appreciated here in the Metro-Detroit area!

[@MrWaterbugdesign]

Excellent. Particularly liked the explanation of root depth. I live in Phoenix so our watering is very different. Any tree that can survive here has ways to deal with rare rainfall. Mesquite trees, my fav here, will send a tap root down more that 100' looking for ground water (Univ AZ dug down following a tap root and gave up at 140'). Many people here believe in "deep watering". Completely wrong especially here. We get very little rain so plants have to have very shallow roots to get that rain as so as possible. Dig down 4' here and all that soil is bone dry. The Mesquite doesn't rely 100% on a tap root. They also send out surface roots very far ( 50 yards or more) and if one of those roots find water the root becomes very big quickly. I grow trees very fast (5' to 30' in 5-8 years) . I create a much bigger water pan (berm) to get those surface roots spreading. More surface roots the more water and nutrients it can take up. That takes a lot more water...but if fast growth is needed, that's what it takes. The first 2 years I'll water daily in summer (1-2" of water in the water pan). Plants can only take up nutrients via water. No water, no nutrients. For my other landscape plants I'm doing a light watering 2 times a day. That's 2x the nutrients the plants can take up and growth is much faster. That's just Phoenix. I've lived in NY, FL, TX, AK and gardening is very different.

[@davidvillalpando1709]

I live in Surprise and I water everyday in the summer at 5am for half an hour. All plants and trees (mainly ficus).

[@adi5224]

Great video 👍🏼 thank you!!

[@richardmajewski3815]

Very informative and I have followed your lead on watering a new tree in the north country. I need to berm my new plantings though/

[@phillipblades6784]

I live in southern Oklahoma. I suppose it’s the same soil as northern Texas. I’m about to plant three newly purchased trees on my property. I’ll risk the early summer weather (June 2022). These are all a memorial for my late father. Thanks for the clear information about watering. I’m watching all the KZbin videos I can find about planting and later care for young trees. It’s not so easy as I first thought it would be.

[@rayr4320]

Great lecture.

[@rosiegold8562]

Great info! Thank you for your video.

[@eleonorabartoli2225]

Great helpful video!

[@hycinth5371]

Very informative, thank you.

[@steveo_o6707]

Much of N. Tx has heavy clay which will become a problem if you water too much. In my area I also have a lot of limestone. I dig a 3 ft square and fill with easy drainage soil, sand, and compost. Since Lime will alkanize the soil humus is important.

[@kregchapman6981]

thank you for the video!

[@ethanvlogs9717]

Big thanks from Houston!

[@rosiegold8562]

Wonderful video! Thank you for the terrific explanations!!

[@darkandfair]

Wow!! I did NOT know that about tree roots. This blew my mind. Thank you so much!

[@kenshinhimura9387]

The secret to growing trees fast is to put them in a pot with a mixture that drains rapidly. You should be able to pour as much water as you want through that pot without it getting oversaturated. This will allow you to water the tree every single day and get rapid growth. You also need to use a high-quality water soluble fertilizer and use it every single time you water the tree. If you are worried about the fertilizer burning the plants you could give them plain water once per week but it's really not necessary if you know what you are doing and do not mix the fertilizer in too high of a dosage. My plants grow 2 to 4 times as fast as another person who just puts their plants in the ground and water them regularly.

[@effthegop]

I lost you at 12" deep roots. Im in the desert and our roots tend to be several feet deep. I tred to dig up and transplant a little 12" mesquite tree that popped up and the tap root was longer that the tree :). I have dug out a few stumps and they were 3' deep. We get 7" of rain a year so desert trees are different. :)

[@javierjimenez6156]

Excelente explicación sobre cómo aplicar agua a los árboles

[@JoseVazquez-bv2hf]

very educative, thank you!

[@BigDaddy-eu4yy]

i wud love to know about planting an apple tree in upstate new york ... we get alot of snow and i just planted a smatt tree a week ago today is aug 28, 2023

[@sandraburki-ug7sy]

Great video, thank you for some good info on new trees ❤

[@ranchoelbamboo4068]

Thank you. Best video I seen.

[@doraw7766]

Thank you.

[@jlaw8882]

What would be interesting to know is how the roots grow in relation to the above ground tree growth and drip line.

[@markhoffman]

He should explain the root system will depend on tree type and the available water system

[@Pepeekeo808]

I use an 18 inch piece of re bar to measure soil moisture depth. If I can't push it 12 inches down, I water.

[@SouthallTN]

Does a weed barrier go under the berm? Is is okay to use a mulch ring with the berm watering method?

[@aishataviator]

Hello is it ok to use 25 gallon ooze tube for slow drip watering for newly planted 3-4ft height thuja green giant trees? I just planted 13 today and due to the green giant pyramidal shape, its fit kinda snug from the bottom. My landscaper thinks this should be fine. But I wanted an expert opinion.

[@christineribone9351]

Thx. I live in ABQ. NM it very hot and dry. I bought a small Emerald Green Arborvitae in a quart size pot. Then transplanted to gallon pot, watered, and left in full sun. Next day lower leaves wilted dead dry (but not brown), upper leaves are dry but not dead.. Gave it 1/8 tsp "Thrive" for shock and moved it to shade. Will it survive?? Did I kill it? Should I return it to small pot? Do trees need hardening??

[@juliebear5351]

Can this be applied to palm trees as well? (Flamethrower Palm)

[@chivas_gold]

Amarillo winter mild ?

[@williamjordan5004]

Research the work of Carl Whitcomb PhD on the establishment of trees and shrubs in the landscape.

[@M.Born007]

Ouch i planted RED Maple now in June, in Dallas -its already DRY, i wonder if its gonna survive

[@fit4ya1975]

I planted 23 total Red maples, 1/2 of em are Autumn blaze Maples. I don't think i'm watering them enough from what i have been watching on here. Leaves are brown but the tree is still alive. Im going to keep watering every 2-3 days 5 gallons per tree. By hand too!

[@guidedbygreen1480]

@@fit4ya1975 buy home Depot buckets and drill a small hole in the bottom, placed on top of the root ball and fill it up every few days

[@michaelcolbert7547]

😊😅😅😮

[@MariaRodriguez-gc9jk]

I wish you were standing in better light, cuz its too dark to see your pot!

[@kimfroman2023]

I am trying to dig up a 5 year old plum tree and it definitely does not have a pancake root structure lol.

[@wiktorpoliszczuk1372]

😂🤣😅😆😁

[@Expert50]

For a tree expert you don’t have a clue what your talking about . Tree roots can go down as far as 15 feet or more depending on the tree species ! Maybe the trees grow that way in Texas but not in my state ! The roots follow the water, and it will go as deep as it has to to retrieve water !

[@lostpony4885]

First have some soil.porosity. mines zero so i struggle to get my oldest young fruit tree at 5 yrs to keep its fruit on. I added a lot of charcoal chunks and pruned constantly to get my first ripe fruit from it this summer and it was all worth it. Porosity improvement plan on its way.