Treegator™ Watering System

In fact, if you were to water in too shallow a manner, the tree's roots could turn upward in a search for the lightly sprinkled water. When the soil then dries, the new, shallow roots will die more readily. Over-watering can be just as bad as under-watering. Do not water if there has been adequate rainfall. If you over-water, you can drown tree roots, which then cannot take up moisture and the leaves start to wilt. If you water more, it won't help because the roots are not functioning anymore. Let the soil get somewhat dry between watering to avoid "drowning" your trees.

A new system that is being used by tree wardens and some landscape contractors for the water of new trees is the Treegator™. The Treegator™ is a portable drip irrigation bag that can be used to apply 20 to 50 gallons of water over a 6 to 10 hour period of time. This slow release system allows the water to seep down into the root zone. The time to fill each Treegator™ is about two minutes, depending on your water source. The Treegator™ is basically a large polybag that is porous, allowing the water to drop out of the bag. Tree wardens have not reported vandalism problems with the Treegator™ and have been used succesfully on college campuses. Information on the Treegator™ is available toll free at 866-TREEGATOR or www.treegator.com.