How to Care for Your Tree During a Texas Summer

The days are getting longer and warmer. There’s no doubt about it: summer is right around the corner. In North Texas, summer means days and weeks of full sunshine, sweltering temperatures, and little or no rain. If you’re a property or homeowner, you might be worried about your trees — and rightfully so! Texas summers are tough on even our toughest trees. Fortunately, there are some things you can do in the spring to prepare your trees and help them weather the upcoming heat and drought. Read on for our summer tree care tips and tricks.

Tip #1: Soil conditioning boosts your tree’s health

Spring is a great time to think about soil conditioning, one of the best proactive measures you can take with your trees. Summer heat and drought are stressful on trees and can cause serious damage. A healthy tree is less likely to be negatively impacted by harsh weather conditions, which is why we suggest you consider soil conditioning before summer strikes. Trees are living organisms, and, like all living things, they need a healthy diet to thrive. TreeNewal has a maintenance program that can assist you in this area. An ISA Certified Arborist can visit your property to assess your trees and soil and determine a customized soil conditioning solution for you. Trees soak up nutrients from the soil through their roots, ensuring they have a healthy root system is also key to their success. We use a special soil health blend that we highly recommend to all our customers. It’s a natural plant growth stimulator designed to boost your tree’s ability to absorb nutrients and develop a deeper, stronger root system, bark, and canopy. With this blend, your trees will be significantly better prepared to handle stressors like hot temperatures, drought, disease, fungus, and pests.

Tip #2: Supplemental watering helps your trees thrive

Most trees will need supplemental water during the summer months when Dallas-Fort Worth can go for weeks at a time without any major precipitation events. Young trees are especially vulnerable to harsh weather conditions and will need special attention during the worst of the summer, but even your mature trees will need to be monitored. If you haven’t already, you should start watering your trees now in preparation for the upcoming heat and continue throughout the summer to boost your trees’ and shrubs’ health levels from surviving to thriving. Below are some tips for how to water your trees in spring and summer:

• Young or newly planted trees will need a lot of water to kick start their lives. The first three years are the most critical. As a general rule, you will need to keep the soil moist but not water-logged.
• You must understand your property’s drainage conditions. If your soil drains quickly, it will require more frequent watering. To check the drainage, check the soil at six inches below the surface and water when it’s dry.
• Depending upon site location, soil type, drainage, and rainfall, a young tree should get five to ten gallons of water per week per caliper inch. To determine the caliper inch, measure the diameter of the trunk six inches from the ground.
• During the spring, plan to provide five gallons of water per caliper inch. Once summer hits, increase the amount of supplemental watering to ten gallons per caliper inch.
• When you water your young tree, water the root ball and just beyond. Water it twice a week to give the soil time to dry between watering. We suggest every Monday and Thursday.
• During a week of heavy rainfall, skip the supplemental watering. Be wary of water sitting at the base of the planting hole and water-logged soil. Over-watering can also kill a newly planted tree.
• For established trees (three or more years after planting), irrigation schedules and amounts may vary. Research your tree to understand its specific watering needs. Many native trees in Texas are drought-tolerant and might not need as much supplemental watering. For example, if you have a Red Oak tree in your yard, you’ll need to determine the oak tree watering needs for that specific tree because it will be different from the watering needs for a non-native tree.

• For large trees, water the area under the canopy, extending a few feet beyond the dripline, which is the outermost circumference of the tree’s canopy. Do not focus the water at the tree’s base, as most of the tree’s fine feeder roots are located a few feet away from the tree’s trunk.
• The best way to water your mature trees is with a soaker hose or a drip irrigation system. The best time to water is in the evening or at night to reduce evaporation loss.
• If you have questions or concerns, reach out to TreeNewal. One of our ISA Certified Arborists can visit your property to determine a customized tree care plan for your landscape.

Tip #3: Mulching protects your tree’s roots

Hot, dry weather can damage your tree’s roots and cause lasting effects. To protect your trees and shrubs, you should ensure they have a fresh layer of mulch before summer weather strikes. Mulch acts as a protective layer over your tree’s roots, keeping the soil moist and cool. Just make sure to use proper mulching techniques. You don’t want to over mulch, as that can cause a host of other issues. Put down a layer of mulch about two to four inches thick and keep the mulch a few inches away from the tree’s trunk.

Have questions? TreeNewal can help!

If you have questions about summer tree care and you’ve been Googling “tree doctors near me” to find some answers, you’ve landed in the right place! Our ISA Certified Arborists are available to visit your property and assess your tree’s health. TreeNewal is a certified arborist tree service with certified arborists on staff and a team of highly qualified tree care experts. If you need professional tree care, our tree doctors in Dallas are the best in the business. They can make knowledgeable recommendations for optimizing your tree’s health. We care about tree health care at all stages of the tree life cycle. We are experts on both young and mature trees, and we offer a variety of expert tree care services, such as tree planting, tree trimming, tree pruning, pest and disease control, root aeration, and tree removal. For more information about our tree care services, go to our website at treenewal.com. To set up an appointment, call us at tel:(817) 592-6846.

To learn more about How to Care for Your Tree During a Texas Summer, call our Argyle and Southlake-based teams

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