Water Pine Trees Year-Around

To keep pine trees healthy and provide many years of beauty and shade to your landscape, you'll need to water them during the winter. This segment demonstrates several easy ways to give your pine tree the correct amount of water.

Produced by the Department of Communications at Kansas State University. For more information, visit our website at: http://www.kansasgreenyards.org

Transcript:
Water Pine Trees Year-Round

To maintain the health of our pine trees, it’s important to water them often. We’re very good at watering our trees during the spring, summer, and fall, but oftentimes we forget to water them adequately in the winter time or when it’s exceptionally hot or windy during the summer.

One tip to ensure that you apply the proper amount of water to your pine trees is to use a five gallon bucket. Drill a small pin-hole in the bottom of the bucket and place the bucket next to your pine tree. If you fill the bucket up two times, you’ll apply 10 gallons of water to the tree – which is about the amount of water the tree needs for one week’s use.

If it’s exceptionally hot, or extremely dry, fill the buckets up twice per week. Or, you can put your hose on a small trickle and let it run next to the tree for about 10 to fifteen minutes. On small trees that are newly established, it’s important to do this for at least the first three year’s of the tree’s life in order to get it adequately rooted into the ground.

It’s especially important in Western Kansas to keep your trees watered to reduce the stress load on them. Keeping them properly watered is one of the best things you can do to help prevent other stresses from taking over – such as insects and disease.

Oftentimes, trees in Western Kansas are in irrigated yards or gardens where they receive proper water during the spring, summer, and fall. But pine trees don’t lose their needles like other types of trees in the wintertime. So, they’ll need regular watering in the winter as well. It’s important that you water these trees anytime that the temperature is above fifty degrees during the wintertime. Proper watering throughout the winter, spring, and summer will help improve the life and vigor of your tree.

This feature story prepared with Chris Petty, Kansas State University Research and Extension Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent, Southwind Extension District. For more information, visit your local county extension office or visit our website at KansasGreenYards.org.