It’s raining heavily, super windy and now your beautifully newly planted tree is falling over because the ties broke from the stake holding it up, or worse a large tree is uprooted and causes major damage to the rest of your property. Hopefully that hasn’t happened to you yet, and I want to make sure it never happens to you in your future gardening experience. Let’s get into how to protect your trees this Monsoon Season.
If you have newly planted trees that typically grow at a faster pace than other trees. They grow so fast for their own good that they end up being so top heavy that they want to tip over, and they will without help from you or a professional. The fast growing trees we have observed having this issue are: Mulberries, Figs, Bananas(not a tree), Moringas, Mangoes, mesquite, and Palo Verde. Lets begin with the first precaution; make sure your newly planted trees are supported stakes, this includes newly planted bananas as well. Make sure your trees are tied down by either of the two methods. The first method is to have a stake up to the stalk of the tree pierced into the ground and tied up to the trunk of the tree using tree tie. I prefer this tree tie, I find it to be flexible and non-abrasive to young plants. Now, the other method to staking your trees I recommend for trees that are tall with a large canopy, and for bananas. Take two stakes and pierce each into the soil across from each other. Each about 1-2ft away from the tree. Then tie the tree tie on to one stake then wrap it around the tree, do not tie the tree tie to the tree, then tie it to the other stake. Repeat the last step one more time except wrap the tree tie around the tree in opposite rotation. Now your tree will be secure but have room to grow it will stretch the tree tie.
I personally try to avoid stakes to allow trunks to stiffen quicker so if you’re like me you may not have many tree stakes in the ground supporting your tree. So What do I do to make sure my trees do not fall over? What I’m about to share with you works for even your larger trees that get uprooted. I prune unnecessary weight off the tree so it doesn’t lean over or worse uproot. Pruning for most gardeners seems to be a scary part of gardening because the foliage is so green and the tree is so happy, I mean look how big and beautiful it is and then before you know it the tree is on the floor. I can think of trees in a client’s yard that are next on my list for a pruning before I get a call to fix them. To learn more on how to prune your tree during monsoon season you can click this link. We made a video with those exact trees from my client’s yard, here is a link so you can get a FREE pruning lesson.
Now how often are you watering your trees and how much water are you giving them? This will determine the type of root growth your trees have and whether or not the tree’s roots can even support the large canopy above it. Now this is a subject I can speak immensely about however we are going to keep it short. You need to make sure your tree is getting water no more than twice a week with a lot of water for a short time. The less often you can give your trees, providing them large amounts of water that keeps the soil moist in between rains. Here in Arizona we get most of our rain during the monsoon season. So If you’re in a desert-like climate you may be watering every two weeks in the summer. However, your rule of thumb with watering trees is less frequent, more water. Here is a link to the system that works best in desert-like climates, for those who have similar conditions, I recommend you watch this video.
Make sure to prep your trees correctly during the monsoon season. Remember, stake your trees when they are young when necessary. Staking your trees will eliminate any issues during the heavy winds of the monsoons. Prune your younger plant, they like hair cuts. If you do not feel comfortable even after the video I left for you, then I recommend hiring a professional permaculture landscaper. As for your larger trees (20+ft) that need pruning I recommend a professional arborist. For those that are realizing you may not have the best system to water your trees, I highly recommend you have a permaculture landscape company get you set up with the correct irrigation system. If you are in the Valley Area of Arizona I’ll leave a link here for you here to get you a free quote on a new irrigation system.