HOW TO WATER TREES
C.L. Eaton, County Extension Agent - Agriculture/Natural Resources
Throughout the summer I have gone on several site visits of folks who are having problems with their trees in their yard. The majority of the time, the problem is either A) the tree is not getting watered enough/at all and/or B) the tree is not being watered properly.
West Texas is hard on Trees. The average life cycle of a shade tree in our part of the country is 15 years. Many trees that are planted here are natives of areas that get much more rainfall than Ward County does, and therefore need ample irrigation.
One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to watering trees is that you need to water the tree at the trunk. Tree roots shoot our horizontally from the tree trunk and expand out to about where the edge of the canopy of the tree is. This is called the drip line. This is where the tree absorbs most of the moisture it needs to sustain itself, therefore this is where you should apply irrigation.
FIGURE 1: Drip Line Illustration
For more information on the proper technique of watering trees, watch this video from our colleagues at the Texas A&M Forest Service:
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