To water street trees?

[FinanceLPlates]

I’m in an area that hasn’t had any rain fall in what seems like forever. I‘m starting to see more and more trees look really stressed, and several that have died completely.
Apart from being beautiful, trees in urban areas are vital for providing shade, cooling down air, cleaning up pollution, capturing carbon…
AIBU to think it’s important we look after them? I take out a watering can to the ones near me, it seems like water well spent.

Are they young, recently planted trees? If yes they are probably struggling. But they will need loads of water.
I reported the struggling recently planted trees near me to the council and they did come and water them. I knew I couldn't take enough water via a watering can.
Older trees will drop their leaves to prevent excess water loss and we'll have an early 'autumn'.

I do the younger tree with a plastic pipe next to it to pour water down. My water takes ages to run hot, so I’ve been saving that water in a bucket and taking it out to the tree, when I get a chance.

Such a good idea. I hadn't thought. I'll save our grey water and water the ones near us.

The council planted 10 trees close to me last year. 2 are still alive. That's a 20% success rate. Big trees, which must have cost four figures in total. The dead ones are still staked and standing. Utter ridiculousness. Trees need LOTS of water to establish, yet they get to pat themselves on the back by hitting their targets. Makes me mad

YWBVU to use fresh water to do this. By all means save grey water.

Why though?

I do actually mostly use water that I capture in the shower etc.
However on balance watering trees that might otherwise die seems important. Trees are among the single best “technologies” to counter climate change and the effects of it. They actually improve rain water capture and retention as well.

As PP said, young trees that don’t have deep roots yet are especially vulnerable. A dead tree is much more of a waste than a watering can full of water.

And I agree with PP who said councils also need to do more to keep trees alive. Quite apart from anything else, planting new trees costs hundreds if not thousands!

However on balance watering trees that might otherwise die seems important.

More important than your community having adequate supply of drinking water during a time of shortages?

A single watering can of water every couple of days is useless though, a young tree needs 4 large cans a day every day in weather like this 🤷🏻‍♀️ Is that feasible for you? 2 in the morning and 2 at night? Every tree?

A watering can full of water will encourage shallow roots that spread on or near the surface, it will be weak and unable to withstand winds, if these small amounts are done regularly it will discourage natural deep rooting down to the water table and will do more harm than good long term.

Trees need much water fed down deep (hence the trees planted with 1m long pipes beside them.).

You're doing a good thing, OP. I'm noticing how stressed (wilted) street trees are, too. I've reverted to washing all our dishes by hand so I can throw the used water on plants/trees in my garden, too.

They are all dying in a park near where I work.... an elderly volunteer was trying to drum up support to help keep at least some alive.

I'll do what I can.

@BeyondMyWits You seem to know what you’re talking about. What do you think is the best way to ensure street trees don’t die?

The ones I water do have pipes next to them, so hopefully it reaches far enough down.

If the trees have a water pipe next to them, give them 20 litres in a single watering.

For newly planted trees, Street Trees for Living recommend 20 litres once a week from March-October, increased in hot weather to 20 litres two/three times a week.

www.streettreesforliving.org/water-a-tree

@FinanceLPlates if you are pouring it down the pipe rather than just around the trees that really is a great first step. The pipes usually go a metre down to encourage the roots to get deep. You just need to pour a lot to encourage strong deep root growth. 3 or 4 watering cans once a day rather than 1 can 3 or 4 times a day.

Thank you @BeyondMyWits and @Plexie that’s really helpful. I’ll collect my grey water give it to the trees in one go.