water. Avoid watering near the trunk and instead aim for the dripline of an established tree. The dripline is the area away from the tree trunk that creates a circle around the tree from the farthest extension of the crown to the ground. Water here deeply and thoroughly with a hose, or if the tree is within reach of a sprinkler, move the sprinkler around the outer dripline. When using a hose, place the nozzle around the dripline and away from the trunk. Tree Montgomery has excellent resources on their website for watering trees. How to Use a Soaker Hose “A soaker hose is designed to let water slowly seep out along the length of the hose. This saturates the soil around the tree by mimicking a gentle day-long rain. It’s convenient because you can leave a soaker hose in place during the summer. You can also cover the soaker hose with mulch to hide the hose and help disperse and conserve water.” i “If you are using a soaker hose, leave the water dripping for about one hour on one side, then switch the hose to the other side of the tree for another hour. You might want to use timers to automatically turn your outdoor faucet off. They are available online or at lawn and garden shops. Check the hose regularly to make sure the water drips out gradually along most of the length of the hose. Water should drip, rather than spray, from the hose; if it sprays, reduce the water pressure by turning back the faucet.” ii How to Water Properly with a Garden Hose “There are at least two ways to water using a garden hose. You can water with a slow drip from the hose. Turn on the water, then turn the pressure down (nearly off) so that the water slowly drips out – literally one drop at a time. This mimics a slow gentle rain. For recently planted trees, place the end of the hose in the mulch ring and leave the water dripping for about an hour. Watering from Your Garden Hose Without the Nozzle
This method mimics a summer rainstorm. Remove the nozzle from the end of your hose. Using a watch and a bucket, determine how long it takes to fill the bucket as many times as needed for 25 gallons. For example, if you have a 5-gallon bucket, how long does it take the garden hose to fill the bucket 5 times? Once you know how long it takes, then water each tree, within the ring of mulch for a new tree and within the dripline for a mature tree, for the time
needed for 25 gallons. This generally does not work on hillsides because the water runs down the hill too quickly. Do not water with a spray nozzle or sprinkler from your hose – this gets water to the surface but very little gets below the grass to the tree roots.” iii
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