How to deep root feed your trees.

Climate change will cause many trees to die. They will die because the lack of ground water will kill the root systems and a tree without roots is not a tree at all.

If you happen to own property and have trees on them that you want to keep alive, here is what you should do.

You can help your trees survive this drought by providing them with a regular deep watering once or twice a week. Run a drip line around the tree(s), starting at about 6 feet out from the trunk with the second line around another 6 feet out, which should be around the trees drip line. The tree’s drip line is a different type of drip line. It is basically a description of the area that the trees leaves cover. How far out the tree reaches with it’s branches and leaves is the drip line. This is where it will drip down when it rains.

The different types of trees each have different types of root structures, but usually I like to say As Above So Below. If you look at the top form of the tree, the root system mirror that form but below ground. Therefor a Redwood say, would have a very deep tap root system going straight down, while an oak tree would have a wide root system with a very deep tap root.

It is the deep tap root that collects that underground water. While we cannot get water down that deep, we can get down a few feet below the ground and if we provide it in a slow way (drip is best), it can slowly seep down and expand out and thus prevent the soil from drying up.

By adding a fertigation unit (an inline fertilizer applicator) to your drip line, you can then add liquid organic nutrients to the water which will in turn be applied to the ground and if applied deep enough, it will help the root systems of the trees.

It is important not to over water as this will also kill the trees. Many of you are watering almost every day when it is hot, just to keep things alive. It is more important to apply rock dust, compost and then a good amount of azalea/gardenia mix as a mulch. By protecting the soil, you will also be helping your plants to survive.

You should bury the drip line under the mulch.

Use a deep root feeder which gets attached to a hose, to water below ground around your trees and lawn. You want to find a few right places under the tree. This place should be in between root systems and out far enough from the tree trunk to avoid smaller surface roots.

Once you have found a soft spot, turn the water on slowly and see if you can slowly push the deep root feeder down into the soil. The unit is about 3 feet tall so it should go in all the way. Just be careful with pipes, and other things, like electrical, etc.

Start off with a slow amount of water and turn off as soon as the water flows back out. Try to slowly increase the length of time the water runs before it starts flowing back out. The length will slowly increase over time so that eventually you will be able to slow water for 1 or 2 hours. Start at once per week and see how the tree does. If it still looks like it is not doing well, or can do better, then increase to twice per week. Do not do more!

You should also be organically fertilizing the tree as well as adding rock dust, compost and mulching it over.Do not over fertilize!

Equally as important is to protect the soil from the heat. If you had been watering almost daily, the roots will stay close to the top 6 inches and when it gets hot, the heat will destroy all of these fine roots. You can protect them by first applying a small amount of rock dust, then a small amount of compost and then you can mulch over it. Apply at good 4 inches of mulch stopping at 2 feet away from the trunk. Never mulch up to the trunks of trees as the extra moisture will destroy the trunk and that will eventually kill the tree.

This year, you will find that Malibu will be hotter than ever while at the same time it will not have that underground water which the trees rely upon. While this underground water will take years of regular rain to refill, we must be extra aware of this resource and work on rebuilding it. With all the water the state, government, business, waste: you would think that by now they would have realized that we cannot be wasting that water and should work on retaining it for use down the road. The homeowner should get rain barrels, or even bigger to catch any rain that comes their way. Yes it will rain again and millions of gallons of precious water will go into the ocean (good for the ocean, not so much for us except cleaner oceans are good.). Lawns are not the water wasters as the big guys make it out to be; compared with fracking to just pick one. A lawn goes a long ways to protecting our environment, simply for no other reason than to save what trees you do have. I would put the trees on a drip system and tree vents immediately and allow the lawns to survive by watering twice a week, to encourage deep roots. Water the trees will the drip for about 1 hour per week, longer if the soil is really bad. use 2 gal per hour drip heads. A tree vent is a clay drain pipe (sometimes called wine holders because wine bottles fit into them and they make great wine holders!). Using these will allow the water deeper into the ground. Place them in middle of drip line. Place 4 tree vents around the tree with a drip head attached to the top to allow the water to drip down. If the pipe fills up with water and doesn’t go down then your soil has hard pan. More next issue.

Any questions? Email me andylopez@invisiblegardener.com response next article

Andy Lopez

Invisible Gardener