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It's the thought that counts?
By adamg on Wed, 05/23/2018 - 8:40am
When city workers plant new street trees, they usually equip the tree with a bag to hold water and a couple of posts to steady it for awhile. John in Eastie wonders how much he should water the post next to this new tree on Sumner Street in East Boston.
UPDATE: Turns out there's a good reason to do this - see the comments.
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Comments
Not the first watered pole
There is a newly planted tree by the school at Carolina and South that has a well watered pole.
I don't know what's at the bottom of the bag...
Does this alternative installation not succeed in making sure the tree pit is watered?
wonder if this is better for the tree
Any tree professionals on the board?
There could be a logic here - gets water into the ground, doesn't leave the trunk soaked.
I'm curious.
There are trees here in
There are trees here in Cambridge that I see with 2 bags, one on each poll, so *shrug*
Maybe not a mistake
May not be a mistake. It's still getting water to the roots, so not wasting any water.
Tree Gators
This was on purpose. It was the decision of the Parks Department this year to place the gators on the posts rather than on the trunk of the trees. The gators are a haven for large earwig populations and other insects that could be harmful to the young trunks, In addition they hold moisture on the trunk which can cause rot and other problems.
The point of the gator is to slowly release water into the tree pit wasting no water that might be running out of the pit by just putting a hose on the ground. Anyone with a tree with a gator should make every effort to water the new tree, just put the hose in the slit in the top--takes about 5 minutes to fill with 20 gallons of water once a week.
Parks has put a nice sign on the new trees this year with instructions. The Garden Club of the Back Bay is going to put a second gator on the new trees in our neighborhood to make this system even more effective. You will see the same arrangement on the Comm. Ave. Mall new trees at the advice of the Friends of the Public Garden's arborist.
Thank you Parks Department for this smart decision!
Does the bag have to go on
Does the bag have to go on both sides? If the water is on one side will the roots and tree lean in the direction of source of water.
And thank you Margaret!
For those of you who don't know - but have enjoyed strolling down the Comm Ave mall, Margaret is the driving force behind all the care and attention for the trees, the grass, the sculptures, the benches and more. She's been doing this for decades and we all owe her a giant THANK YOU for everything she does to make this one more of Boston's beautiful spaces! This was originally a tie in to the Neighborhood Assn of the Back Bay but several years ago they joined forces with the Friends of the Public Garden (who is increasingly helping out with the Boston Common) to take advantage of the economies of scale in caring for these green spaces.
So THANK YOU MARGARET and Friends of the Public Garden!
hmmm
maybe the young tree is too fragile to support the heavy bag of water?
This debate is arborist porn and
amusing to those with lives.
Well
Thanks to these folks, you get to live your life under the fantastic trees of Boston.
Now about the mulch...
Covering the base of trees with mulch will smother the root crown and foster rot, killing the tree. Best to pull the mulch back from the trunk, exposing the root crown.
More interesting than it first appears.
This is an interesting thread. The town in which I live has a program where it will plant trees (for no additional charge) in a designated location on your property so long as it is within 20' of a public way (the idea is to increase the tree cover over streets). I had them do this earlier this month to replace a 70-or so year old sugar maple that I had to take down last year (now *that* was expensive).
The interesting aspect of this is that I have a contractual obligation to care for the tree for the first 2 years and I am on the hook for the cost of the tree (and perhaps the labor to plant it) if I do not. The instructions that were issued to me indicate that the bag should remain around the trunk for the first year, not just for watering, but to protect it from scrapes etc. I'm going to raise Margaret's points with the folks who oversee this program and see what they say.
More useful info courtesy of UHub! Thanks!