Page 20
— Property Management Quarterly — November 2015
I
n much of Colorado, winters
can see extended warm, dry
and windy spells. Warm win-
ters without snow appeal to
people, but this weather can
cause winter droughts. Trees and
shrubs that are at risk from dry
winters include recent transplants,
evergreens and shallow-rooted spe-
cies, such as lindens, birches, and
Norway and silver maples.
In order to fight drought, it is
important to water trees and plants
when the leaves start to fall in the
autumn. This will ensure that you
send them into winter with ade-
quate soil moisture.
It is recommended to water
underneath the branches within
the circle bounded by the drip line,
said Pete Evers, Terracare’s ISA cer-
tified arborist. You should water
to a depth of 12 inches. Deep-root
feeding and winter watering should
be done within the drip line of the
canopy.
It is important to deep-root feed
and winter water in the dry winter
months after the irrigation system
has been shut down because the
trees are used to getting watered
every few days, especially trees
in turf areas. When the irrigation
system is shut off, the trees get
stressed. Our winter months can
be extremely dry – we are in a high
desert – and trees still need mois-
ture even when they are dormant.
Trees should receive five to 10
gallons per inch of trunk diameter,
measured at breast height. This
amount of watering can be reduced
if you do general lawn watering, or
if rain or snow is received. Ideally,
you want to water
trees three times
per month in Sep-
tember. Then you
can cut back to
one or two times
per month from
October through
March. However,
continue at two
times monthly for
young trees and for
evergreens.
By watering at
least once per
month, you will
help prevent
winter desiccation (dehydration).
Evergreens lose moisture on sunny,
windy winter days because they
retain moisture in their needles,
which makes them more suscep-
tible to moisture loss. If the soil
doesn’t contain enough moisture
to replace the needle moisture loss,
the needles – starting from the out-
side and moving inward – dry out
and turn brown.
Sometimes, however, the soil is
moist but the roots can’t absorb it.
The ground might be frozen or the
roots damaged. To avoid winter des-
iccation, provide adequate moisture
to the plants throughout the year
in addition to watering during the
winter.
Another helpful watering tip is
adding Yucca extract, which has
many benefits. We add Yucca extract
to the water we use because Yucca
plants are good at sequestering and
using water. Yucca is high in natu-
ral wetting agents called saponins,
which are steroidal-based natural
chemicals that actually make water
wetter, breaking the polarity of the
water molecule.
When yucca extract is added
to the water, the water can bet-
ter penetrate the soil surface and
effectively spread to all of the roots
in the root zone. Since the water is
dispersed more evenly in the root
zone, your plants will be able to use
water more efficiently and should
be able to go longer between irriga-
tion cycles without adverse effects
on the plant.
s
Maintenance
Jason Holley,
LEED GA
Business
development
manager, Terracare
Associates, Denver
Deep-root feeding during the dry months is important to the tree’s long-term health.
