How to spot and care for trees with drought stress

If your trees have yellow or brown leaves, it's not an early fall. It's drought stress - severe drought stress. Some leaves are green in the center with yellow or brown margins. The trees are struggling valiantly to carry on photosynthesis, but they need help.

It's not too late to save your trees, but the situation is dire. They need water in a big way. You might consider deep root watering with a device you plunge into the ground. Don't water at the trunk. There aren't any feeder roots there to take up moisture. Water at the dripline - that's the furthest extent of the branches. That's where the roots are.

Trees are dying all over the metro area. Many are in hot, brutal parking lots. Or their roots are buried under sidewalks and paving with small openings for the trunks and little opportunity to get water.

It's just as easy to kill a tree at home by putting plastic or landscape barrier down and covering it with rocks. That's a terrible idea and a sure tree killer.

Meanwhile, pay attention to the needs of your container plants. By now, they're just big root balls. They've done their best to find every bit of nutrients left in the soil. They need a boost. Use a bloom booster fertilizer to reinvigorate them. Concentrate on the plants that have slowed down or stopped blooming. We have a lot of beautiful weather ahead, so let's keep them beautiful.

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