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Community Corner

Give the Trees some Water

Give the Trees some Water

UPDATE: hold that thought. Today's rain did the job for this week.

It is hot out there, and the city just put out yet another plea for residents to consider watering the trees in front of their houses and businesses to give them a better chance to make it through the heat of the Summer. Newly planted trees need more water while their roots establish, and are most at risk. Parks suggests the following basic guidelines when watering trees:

• Water each young tree 15-20 gallons once a week between May and October (that’s 3-4 large buckets).
• Using a hand cultivator, carefully loosen the top 2-3 inches of soil to alleviate compaction and help water and air reach the roots.
• Do not dig any deeper or use large tools. These will damage the tree roots.
• Water slowly so the water penetrates the soil and does not run off of the surface.
• Water at the soil level, not through the leaves of shrubs and groundcovers.
• If it rains one inch or more in a week’s time period, you do not need to water.

Additional suggestions include:

• Poke small holes at the bottom of a large trash can. Fill it with 15-20 gallons of water and leave the trash can next to the tree overnight.
• Ask building maintenance staff to water trees while they are hosing off sidewalks.
• Ask street vendors and merchants to dump water from their containers (coolers with melted ice or flower buckets) into nearby tree pits at the end of the day.
• Make sure water with detergent or bleach is dumped into the gutter, not the tree pit.

A MillionTreesNYC is a cornerstone of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, a blueprint to fight global warming and create a more livable city. MillionTreesNYC is a joint initiative of the City of New York and New York Restoration Project, through which one million new trees will be planted and cared for throughout the five boroughs by 2017. For more information, visit www.milliontreesnyc.org.
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