lauridutch, the real question is, how much are you going to have to water it and is it legal or a good idea in your part of the world.

Here we dam up the rivers like there isn't flat land available for cheap all about the state and build shopping centers in the flood plain so we all fight nature I suppose.

If I were watering it, I'd water under the canopy with the thought being that is the part of the world your tree dominates.

the real question ..... is why are you presuming it needs water??? ... as that probably has little to do with interior rot ...

it did NOT get as large as it is... in what looks like the middle of a field ... because it is lacking anything ... so why think you need to fix it ... [i dont quite understand the street tree story.. based on this pic]

ken

Thanks for this, Caldwell: "Roots are 2x the spread of the crown on ANY healthy/non-root-bound plant."

Toronado asked, "how much are you going to have to water it and is it legal or a good idea in your part of the world." Probably once a month during this 5th year of drought where there has been no rain for months at a time in the very hot summers. Yes, it's legal on two days of the week during restricted hours.

Ken asked: "why are you presuming it needs water???" No rain for several months during the last 5 hot summers.

"why think you need to fix it ..." Lately some oak trees are dropping branches. Locals say that watering the trees may help. We will water once a month. We do this for our pine trees too, to help them produce sap to fight off the bark beetle.

"i dont quite understand the street tree story.. based on this pic". The pic attached earlier was of the oak trees we are concerned about on our property. Attached to this message is a photo of the tree that dropped a HUGE limb on a public road; the limb landed on a passing vehicle; driver was okay but his vehicle was not.

Just be careful with your water. I know the farmers use alot but California seems at its limit for farm and human habitation far as H2O goes.

Back in 2012 we actually had a 3 month drought/heat even not seen since the dust bowl era. I was amazed at how long I had to water a 30 foot tree.

For us, I can turn on the hose, the water leaves the Mississippi and the run off goes back to it, and maybe even the evaporation if it rains in Illinois or Indiana. 79 out of 80 years its a bigger deal providing welfare and saving Stan Kronke and the fools who subsidize him building things besides farms in the flood plains.

Guys, how much water will it take to help that tree? Maybe less than I think because it is adapted to an arid environment?

I think its normal for some trees to drop branches from time to time. We have a healthy large Maple tree in front of the house that's at least 50 years old and branches drop to the ground pretty often (small and large). We get rain weekly and the longest we go without rain in the summer is about 2 weeks.

"Just be careful with your water. I know the farmers use alot but
California seems at its limit for farm and human habitation far as H2O
goes."

That's why we only water them once a month. Also, we have our own well here but still do everything possible to conserve water in all respects. We only have native and naturally growing trees, shrubs and grasses here so hardly any outdoor watering to do. In non-drought years, it rains here in summer, so it has been stressful for the trees to have no water at all for months on end over 5 hot summers.

Thanks.

"Roots are 2x the spread of the crown on ANY healthy/non-root-bound plant."

Technically, that's not really true. It's probably not a bad average generalization (maybe a little conservative for many trees), but some plants will have root systems that exceed three times the spread of a plant's crown and others will have root systems that may not even extend the full distance of the crown. This is all being picky, but I think it's best of avoid the certainty suggested by the "ANY" in the above statement. Type of plant, type of soil, moisture availability, and other factors determine how far the root system will extend.

I would guess that many of the roots of Lauriedutch's tree extend out two to three times the spread of the crown of the tree.

With the slope the trees are on, the water is going to run off and some of the water will reach past the canopy. I'd start at the top with a bubbler, frog eye sprinkler or a slow trickle from the end of the hose, really low pressure and monitor the hose frequently. When you see run off, move the hose to another area. Do you have clay or sandy soil? We have clay here, near Denver and it's tough to get the moisture to penetrate once it dries out, it's like peat moss. it seems reasonable to water trees you want to keep once a month. We just re-entered a drought phase in our area and are watering with the trees being the first priority.

Some of us, not being west-coasters, do nevertheless know that there are some sections of California where one should not irrigate under many of the native oaks and other woody plants. I think that's what Caldwell and some others is/was getting at-the fact that for some west-coast landscape combos, it can then bed difficult to keep one grouping of plants adequately moist without causing root-rot in the oaks, etc.

treebarb wrote "Do you have clay or sandy soil? We have clay here, near Denver."

Lived with Colorado clay soil for a few decades; really glad to be away from it ;-). The Sierras soil is very different, and so far we've encountered three different types (rich brown soil, red dirt, and sandy granite). In any case, we use a soaker hose which delivers a slow drip-feed of water to the soil. There is no run off with this, plus as mentioned, just once a month so nothing gets over-watered.

With this thread, I wanted to find out if the trees are getting the water via the soaker hose. I place it some distance from the trunks (8-15 feet) and within the canopy's reach. Sounds like this is effective.

I'd move it around some.

Thanks for clarifying, Tom. I probably should have refrained from commenting with no experience with the area, plant and soil types. I do have a lot of experience, unfortunately, in watering trees on a slope in clay soil in drought. I learn something from every post, especially when I have it wrong!

I'm glad you have real soil now, lauriedutch! After a wet spring, moisture fizzled out here and the summer monsoons skipped over us. We're at 9 inches of precip. so far this year. I hope you're faring better and the drought ends soon, for both of us.