Watering a maple tree

November 6, 2024 5:09 PM

It's been at least a month of drought in Philadelphia. Maybe rain next week, but I'm not counting on it. I have a maple tree, 30 or 40 feet tall in front of the house, and I think it's past time to water it. The ground is very hard, and It's on a section of cut-out pavement. I'm wondering if it should be mulched, and if so, with what?

I'm extremely ignorant about what's needed. Water, obviously, but how much? How often?

posted by Nancy Lebovitz to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

I doubt a mature maple tree that has presumably now lost or is losing its leaves needs any water at all (because trees lose water mostly through their leaves and once they go dormant, their water needs are minimal). Mulch is used to reduce loss of water from the soil due to evaporation, but at this time of the year, there isn't going to be a lot of evaporation going on (and most of the tree's roots are underneath pavement or concrete anyways).
posted by ssg at 5:42 PM on November 6 [9 favorites]

Ugh, what a drought we're having, right? And the long warm October/warm November so far has meant that many maples in the city still have green leaves and are growing.

Usually, like ssg says, mature maples don't need extra watering. But due to how long this drought has gone on and how complete it has been, the tree would probably appreciate a one-time watering of 15-20 gallons delivered as slowly as possible from from a garden hose. But if you're using ye olde bucket, then I'd do as much as I could, poured slowly at the edge of the tree pit to keep from washing dirt away.

As a side note, I wouldn't put wood mulch on there, mostly because I imagine the trunk of a 30-40 foot tall maple probably takes up most of the usual Philly tree pit and tree-people usually advise against putting mulch right on a tree trunk, as it can invite insects and mold and fungus.
posted by joyceanmachine at 5:49 PM on November 6 [2 favorites]

If the tree is losing its leaves for fall, it's not using too much water (plants use water to turn sunlight into food, so less sunlight = less need for water). And the root ball of the tree is REALLY BIG, probably 2-4 times the radius of the canopy, so it's able to get water from a really large area. Plus, it's very likely also got some roots dug into the sewer lines of the surrounding buildings. So I wouldn't worry too much about it. Mulch probably isn't needed as the soil around the tree isn't really losing water anyway, since it's already so compacted / cemented. Maybe a few buckets of water over the course of a few days - you can water at the bottom of the trunk, or you could water any actual soil areas under or near to the tree's canopy (for instance if there's a flowerbed or lawn within 15 feet or so, the tree for sure has roots under there.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:48 PM on November 6 [5 favorites]

Call your Philadelphia Penn State county extension https://www.landcan.org/local-resources/Philadelphia-County-Extension/7773/
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:16 PM on November 6 [4 favorites]

Soaking the water in gets it deeper into the soil profile, and often gets more water into packed soil. You’ve probably seen green conical bags zipped around young trees. But any old leaky bucket or milk jug or ??? will drip-water.

If you can guess where the rest of the roots are, if there’s any patch of dirt maybe with a root-knuckle in it, you can soak that too.
posted by clew at 8:45 AM on November 7