Watering Schedule

Overview

New trees require manual watering in addition to sprinkler systems for the first year. We provide two methods to manually water the trees (garden hose or Tree Gator). Our watering schedules are based upon seasonal average temperatures and rainfall not extremes, so use good judgment and vary your watering based upon current temperatures and rainfall.

Tree Gator

Treeland sells Tree Gators for $15 ea. + tax and customers can add them to their tree order anytime before their delivery date.

Using a Tree Gator is an excellent way to water your newly planted trees. Customers often prefer to use Tree Gators rather than watering by hand because it is quick and easy to install and once the bag is filled you can simply walk away and not worry about when to turn off the water. Tree Gators also allow 100% of the water to be absorbed which enables the entire root ball and surrounding soil to be completely saturated. When the watering is complete we recommend that customers remove the bags because Tree Gators that are left on over extended periods of time can cause problems with insects and fungi along the trunk. It is made of a green UV-protected plastic that holds up to 20 Gallons of water which is released via two small holes at the bottom of the bag. This allows trees to be slowly and continuously watered for up to 9 hours with no run off. Tree Gators are not suitable for trees and shrubs with branches less than 30” from the ground which is the height of the bag when filled and customers faced with this situation should use a garden hose. On larger trees we recommend applying more than 20 Gallons of water and in those circumstances we recommend zipping two Tree Gators together which is equivalent to 50 Gallons of water. Huh? 20 + 20 = 50 Gallons? Yes. When two Tree Gators are zipped together back-to-back, it allows each unit to expand more than it normally would just zipped to itself around the trunk of a tree. For customers that decide to use Tree Gators we recommend only using them from May 1st – September 31st and outside of this period customers should refer to the garden hose schedule. During cooler months Tree Gators super saturate the soil because they water for 9 hours. During these months the air temperature is not warm enough to sufficiently dry out the soil between each watering which leads to root rot.

Tree Gator Watering Schedule

Garden Hose

Garden Hose Watering Schedule

1. Skip one watering only if it rains more than 1” in a 24 hour period.
2. Reduce the flow rate to ¼” width and double the number of minutes if there is a significant amount of water not being absorbed.
3. Before any freeze of 32° F or lower be sure to water your trees in order to protect the root system. This will create a layer of ice on top of the rootball which will prevent freezing air from penetrating and then damaging the root system.

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