Tree Spacing For Colo. Spruce

zweg171

I am going to be planting some 4' Colorado Blue Spruce trees. I live in Central Nebraska, and water will not be an issue. But i do have another question about watering. I was wondering if it is alright for your lawn underground sprinklers to water your trees, instead of a drip system. If it is ok for the water to hit the needles. Thanks!

Zeb

Ekka

Well, I'll have a stab at it. This is what happens when it rains so generally yes.

However, there are good and great times of the day to water. In the heat of the day is not so smart. Also at night is better but still perhaps not the best.

Ooooh, watch them come out of the woodwork for this one. Yes water has the cool of the night to soak in however wet foliage overnight on a regular basis isn't that great an idea, bugs and fungus come to mind and those trees have a propensity for foliar fungal infection.

The best would be early morning, real early, like a few hours before sunrise. But that depends on the neighbours for many.

As long as the water isn't hitting the foliage with a great deal of pressure I say it's OK.

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I try to get irrigators to place sprinkler heads in such a way as to spray away from the trees instead of at the trees - if that makes sense.

Absorbing roots start several inches to several feet away from the trunks of trees (depending upon the size of the tree.)

A sprinkler head should be placed 2 to 3 feet from the trunk and directed to spray away from the tree. Sprinklers which spray tree trunks cause a variety of problems which I treat as a professional arborist every day.

If you think about it, when it rains on a golf course, people head for the trees - because it's drier beneath the trees. As it rains harder, they move closer to the trunk where it stays driest , longest.

Timing? I'll disagree with Erik here in that I think the optimum time starts at sunrise and ends around 10 to 10:30 AM. Stomata in the needles (or leaves of angiosperms) are photo sensitive and open when the sun comes up. Plants most efficiently absorb water during daylight hours.

Pat Wentworth
Austin, Texas

osb_mail

I was always told growing up which I pretty much did at a nursery (grow up)Water in the morning early as early as possible try to avoid leaves or needles as much as possible . One problem we had in the nursery was iron in the water turned orange did not color did not hurt plant to much but made them hard to sell .As far as space goes I would say 15 to 25 feet I would also suggest staggered if you are using for a screen .