Should we start watering? MANY are asking with these warm temperatures. There are many reason to be concerned about our trees. First is the drought and hot weather we’ve experienced the past couple of years which affects new trees and established trees.
This hackberry is well over 50 years old – they commonly live to be 150 – 200 yrs!
Generally, established trees have a much better opportunity for recovery. BUT (uh oh) the fact that this winter (2023/24) has had a streak of very cold temps with little to no snow cover to insulate their roots and now with several record-breaking high temps, there’s just a murk factor here.
Ideally you would have watered your young trees, those 3 and under, up until ground freezes, but let’s face it, almost NO ONE does that at least with any regularity. And those big, old, beautiful trees hardly get anything outside of rain.
So should we start watering?
The short answer is no. To get the most accurate information I spoke with my friend, fellow Master Gardener and Certified Arborist, Faith Appelquist of Treequality. Here is what she said:
Trees lose water from their leaves and they do not have leaves now so they are not losing/needing water. With our trees still in dormancy, roots and shoots are not growing. The subsoil will be frozen, and water can only saturate and freeze in the top, which may not be good for roots to be in direct contact with frozen water. Frozen soil is “normally” insulated by snow currently and stays just below 32 degrees. Again, “normally”, the above ground parts are exposed to way colder temperatures. With the insulation gone, the subsoil could get colder than 32, which is bad for roots. We don’t want trees to be tricked by the water and bud out now only to be killed by freezing weather later (although that doesn’t look likely).
If you’re questioning the frost depth, here is a link to NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Yes, we still have a frost depth.
2-5-2024
Many of us have already seen budding happening. My lilacs, my little “Tree of Life” pussy willow and a friend’s rhododendron. If we don’t get nipped by temps dropping below 32 degrees, they will be okay. Fingers crossed!
My “Tree of Life”pussy willow tree 2-5-24
Faith added:
The best thing we can do for our trees (new & established) is to water them during the growing season all the way up to ground freeze. Then add hay bales around the base of the tree for insulation and wrap maples/fruit tree trunks in paper to prevent splitting.
Here’s the one good thing, we did get rainfall in the fall of 2023 that was able to be absorbed into the soil before freeze up.
Backing away from the hose (for now),
