GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The city of Grand Rapids is asking homeowners to water their trees to keep the city “cool and green.”
The city’s Forestry Division says that dry conditions, especially this early in the summer season, can have devastating effects on trees and other landscape plants.
“You look at the ground and it will tell you how dry the soil is because the plants, where their roots end, that’s basically where it’ll start turning brown,” Grand Rapids Parks Superintendent Joe Sulak explained. “What you’ll start seeing if trees are stressed, especially young trees, they’ll start showing wilting symptoms and they’ll start showing drying of the leaves from the outside in.”
Younger trees, along with those planted in the last two or three years, have a higher risk of devastation, but the city says established trees can benefit from an extra soaking, too.
For young or newly planted trees, you should thoroughly water the root ball and surrounding soil.
“A good recommendation for water is anywhere from up to 15 gallons of water on that root ball, especially of newly-planted trees, for every week,” Sulak said. “Watering just the turf doesn’t do it because the water’s not infiltrating to the tree itself. So you really want to focus on making sure that the root ball is moist through this weather.”
When it comes to watering established trees, water under the tree canopy by moving the hose or sprinkler every few hours.
"On larger trees...you're gonna want to water at the drip line and really soak the ground. Slower watering is better than all at once," Sulak added.
Grand Rapids officials say while it’s important to consider water use conservation, watering trees helps maintain the city’s tree canopy which cleans the air, absorbs greenhouse gases and carbon emissions, provides shade, reduces heat and creates breathable air.
The Forestry Division shared the following tips for helping trees survive extremely dry weather:
- Water your trees with a slow, steady stream so that the water will reach the roots.
- If not using a hose, use a five-gallon bucket with a 1/16-inch hole drilled in the bottom— This will trickle water slowly into the soil.
- Dig down six to nine inches to check the soil’s moisture— Continue watering if the soil is not saturated.
- Repeat watering periodically through extremely dry weather— Soil type, slope, amount of sun and temperature will affect how often supplemental water is required (e.g.: sandy soil requires more frequent watering than clay soil).
- Reduce the flow of water if you see it running off the site.
- Wilting and leaf shedding are natural responses to drought stress— Don’t give up! Keep adding water and your tree should recover.
"Any time you can water a tree is good whether it's dry or not. Now that it's dry we really want to focus on making sure that the trees are getting water as well as everything else," Sulak said.
