In this instructional video, Charlotte city arborist Lori Reid explains how to properly water newly planted trees, especially during hot, dry summer conditions. She demonstrates three simple methods to assess soil moisture—using a moisture meter, a screwdriver, or a finger—to determine when watering is needed. Reid then shows how to create a low‑cost, effective watering system using a standard 5‑gallon bucket: drill three 1/8‑inch holes near the bucket’s rim, aim the holes toward the tree trunk, and fill the bucket so water slowly soaks into the soil, avoiding runoff that occurs with a high‑pressure hose. She provides dosing guidelines—approximately 5 gallons of water per inch of trunk diameter—and recommends watering once or twice a week, rotating the bucket’s position each time to distribute moisture evenly. Finally, she mentions the City of Charlotte’s program that offers free buckets to owners of trees planted in the right‑of‑way within the past 2–3 years, directing viewers to charlottenc.gov/buckets for registration and more information.
Chapters
I'm Lori Reid, arborist in the City of Charlotte, the City of Trees. We have a lot of trees here in the city. It's really important to take care of them. One of the easiest things you can do for a newly planted tree like this one is to add water to it, especially in the summer when it's really hot and really dry. And I'm here to show you how to do that. So how do you know when to water? There are a couple tools you can use. If you have a moisture meter like this one, You'll want to put that into the ground underneath the tree and look at the soil. If it's on the blue side, it means the ground is wet. If it's on the red, you need to add some water. You could also use a screwdriver. All you want to do is you want to put the screwdriver into the soil near the tree underneath the leaves. If the screwdriver won't go into the soil, if the ground is really, really hard, that means you probably need to water the tree. Or my favorite method, use your finger. So what you want to do is you want to pull the mulch away to get down to the soil, put your finger in a couple inches, and touch that soil. The soil's pretty dry. Tree needs some water. So all you need to begin watering your trees is a 5-gallon bucket like this one, a drill with a 1/8-inch drill bit. So what you're going to do with that drill is you'll You'll put 3 holes in the side of the bucket. You don't want to put it on the bottom because that could get clogged up with dirt, mulch, or other debris. So you'll put about 3 holes right at the edge. Take your bucket and aim those holes that you just created towards the trunk of the tree. Fill up your bucket with water and just let it slowly soak out. You want that nice slow soaking so the roots will get the water. If you were to just use a hose on full blast, that water could just run off and not actually get to the roots where our trees need it the most. So a nice slow soak is what we're looking for with this watering method. A newly planted tree like this one, you need about 5 gallons of water per inch diameter. So if this tree is 2 inches in diameter, I need 10 gallons of water. You want to water once or twice a week using this bucket method. You fill up the bucket, you let the water drain. The next time you go to water, move it to a different side of the tree so the water won't just be concentrated on one side of the tree. So that's it. Really simple and really important way to help take care of the trees in the City of Charlotte. If you recently had a tree planted in the right-of-way in the last 2 to 3 years, you can go to our website to register to receive a bucket just like this one to water the trees. Or if you just want more information, please visit charlottenc.gov/buckets.
