Among the common factors affecting the survival of newly planted trees, under-watering and over-watering are the top two. Providing water to newly planted trees for the first 2-5 years is critical for their survival and growth for the promised benefits. We all have seen and probably participated one of the tree planting projects “Million Trees…

Sodium Chloride, the most predominant salt used on streets for melting snow and ice, is the lubricant of the modern lifestyle in northern climates during wintry weather conditions. These same streets and parking lots are also the battleground where urban foresters strive to build green infrastructure for canopy coverage, stormwater management and aesthetics. It is…

Urban trees are vital to our urban ecosystems. Green industry professionals understand the benefits large mature trees provide and their effects on health and quality of life of residents. However, urban trees face various challenges, including soil degradation, pollution (including deicing salts and pesticides), invasive pests, compaction, extreme weather conditions and many other stress factors. …

The most common cause of death of newly planted urban trees is under- or over-watering. To battle this problem, there are many guidelines written to prescribe how much water for newly planted. However, none of these prescriptions addresses the watering application efficiency: How much water evaporates, runs off, lost via drainage in porous soils, and…

Green Stormwater Infrastructures (GSIs) are typically built for multi-purposes: stormwater treatment and green space. Established vegetation is used to achieve the designed functions. However, plants often fail before established. When plants die, GSIs become a not-so-good sand filter. The main reason is that plants undergo constant stresses: either too wet or too dry. By design,…

The COVID 19 pandemic exposed the limited and unbalanced access to green infrastructures (GIs). There are many publications about the benefits of GIs. Interestingly, most of the audiences/readers are the believers. It is more of “preaching to the choir”! At the same time, a significant percentage of population does not (or does not want to)…

Newly planted trees need 2-5 years of watering to grow back the lost roots during the transplanting process for farm-grown trees. Container-grown trees need similar time to be weaned from the irrigation system. Different watering methods can be used. But all methods will have to deal with the reality: Plant Available Water (PAW) as the…