Ash trees need more and better watering
Drip system should be repositioned and expanded to keep trees healthy and stable
Q. We planted several young 8-foot-tall Raywood ash trees this spring, and they seem to be doing OK. The trees are planted about 10 feet apart and we’ve run a dripper system to water them. Each tree has a dripper that we run for 15 minutes every third day. How often should we run the system this winter? H.A., West Side Albuquerque
A. Boy, I’m truly afraid for your young trees. You didn’t say what size emitter you have dripping for each tree, but most often it’ll be a gallon per hour emitter. OK, let’s do a bit of simple math. You run the system for 15 minutes. Through a gallon per hour emitter you’ve offered a fourth of a gallon of water — just 32 ounces — to each tree. That’s only 4 cups of hot tea or a large root beer from a convenience store every third day! Not much, huh?
Granted you’ve been doing it consistently, but take a good look. The water is delivered in one spot per tree. Then the water is absorbed straight down — not dampening the soil all the way around each tree. You say they’ve done “OK,” but I think they’ve been lucky. I believe you need to add to the dripping system. Use three drippers per tree and run the system for an hour at a time. Then consider the placement of the drippers.
Know what the tree’s “drip line” is? No? Here you go. I want you to stand up. Then extend your arms out to the side of your body so you are in the shape of a cross. Now with your arms still extended, point your fingers straight down. Standing? Arms out? Fingers pointed down? Good. Now pivot in place, drawing an imaginary line on the ground to where your fingers are pointing. If you were a tree and all your branches were as wide as your extended arms are, you’ve just created —visually — a “drip line.”
The rain as it falls is funneled by the tree to that area, the drip line, below it. Why does it do that? Because that’s where the tree’s roots that pick up and disperse water into itself are — at the drip line.
So why am I going into all this? Bear with me. When you laid out your system did you place the drippers really close to the trunk of the trees? If so, that could be the only thing that saved your young trees this growing season. But as the trees mature, settle and expand their root systems, having one emitter near the trunk won’t keep those trees healthy and stable. Add to your drip system, run the system for longer periods and place the emitters along the drip lines of your trees.
This winter, considering the trees are still young, I’d run the system every 10 days, at least, throughout the dormant season. Better yet, build a moat wall encircling each tree, as wide as the drip line, and slowly fill each moat with water every 10 days this winter.
Then consider offering a properly diluted dose of root stimulator monthly to each tree as you use the system or fill each moat.
That can help your young trees regroup, developing a healthier root system, that could very well have been maimed with the errant watering practices employed earlier this year.
Please take these recommendations to heart. Your trees will thank you in the long run.
Happy Digging In!