How to Water Your Trees This Summer

A slow-release watering bag filled with water.

You know to give your trees 25 gallons of water per week, but how do you get the water to them? Here are some tips for moving water to trees this summer.

Transporting water:

• Use a hose. If you have one of these connected to a water supply you're in great shape. Conquer any distance by attaching hoses together.
• Get creative. Use old buckets or water cooler jugs to transport and pour water.
• Carry water in a wheelbarrow or wagon. Hand-propelled vehicles lighten any load.
• Use teamwork. If you work together, you can accomplish a lot more. Bring your friends or your family along to help you water trees.

Delivering the water to the tree:

• Install a slow-release watering bag (such as an Ooze Tube). Use bags that hold the recommended 25 gallons of water. Watering bags can be purchased at most home improvement, garden and nursery stores.
• Use a funnel. Funnels effectively pour water into watering bags and reduce waste from spilling.
• Turn a hose on a low trickle for half an hour. If you don't have a slow-release watering bag, set up your hose to run on a low setting. You can stick around or walk away, but remember to turn the water off after you are finished so that you don't waste water or over-water the tree.
• Make your own slow-release watering device. Add holes to the bottom of a bucket and place at the base of a tree. You can fill it up and then walk away.

Our watering tips in action.

Remember to take care when watering trees, especially young ones. They will need 25 gallons of water per week on average, delivered slowly and carefully. Street trees in your neighborhood may also need water as they tend to not have much permeable ground nearby to gather water for their roots. It is the responsibility of residents to take care of watering street trees near their property.

Ready to water your trees? Take the 25 to Stay Alive Pledge and receive a rain gauge to determine whether your trees are getting enough water. We send them free to anyone who signs the pledge and lives within 25 miles of Washington, D.C. Casey Trees announces the watering recommendation for the coming week every Monday morning to let you know how much watering is needed. If you need a quick update on the current watering conditions, visit our homepage (this week it is very hot, so your trees need the water!). Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates on tree watering and other news from Casey Trees.

HOT HOT HOT; WATER WATER WATER

Whew – it’s hot! I know you are all too aware of this. But it is not only very hot – it is very dry. And that spells trouble for trees.

Here at Casey Trees, we believe it is important to not only plant trees but also to care for them. And watering during very hot, dry spells is one of the most important things we can do for trees.

In order to keep you informed, we have created a Tree Watering Guide. Each week on Monday, we issue a watering recommendation. The recommendation is based on a number of sources, primarily from the National Weather Service and the U.S Geological Survey.

These sources tell us that we are in our sixth straight month of below average precipitation and that we are presently 17.5 inches below average since the end of November. For the period of the past seven days, the entire DC metro area is greater than 75 percent below average precipitation.

Beginning next Monday, our High School Summer Crew will go to work watering trees planted by Casey Trees and our volunteers. Our Water By-Cycle Team, along with two additional Summer Crew teams, will visit these trees with supplemental watering over the summer. But DC is a big city and there are many, many trees. We need your help!

As we enter the 90 and (it seems inevitable) 100 degree days of summer, trees will show signs of water stress. And just as we cannot go without water for extended periods and then drink a lot of gallons at once to catch up, neither can trees go long without adequate soil moisture.

Please help us keep DC’s trees alive by:

• Following the Tree Watering Guide weekly. It is posted on our home page, Facebook account and on Twitter Feed
• Practice 25 to Stay Alive - give your trees the recommended 25 gallons of water per week during dry times
• Pledge to water your trees and get a Casey Trees rain gauge to help you monitor rainfall at your home
• Contact Casey Trees to get a free 25-gallon Ooze Tube drip irrigation bag to provide slow-release watering to your tree.

Thanks for helping us tree DC!