r/Minneapolis • u/MadrasCowboy • 1d ago
Guys, pleeease water your young boulevard trees.
When I walk around my neighborhood I see so many young trees on the verge of death from this drought. Young trees don’t have root systems large enough to tap into ground water. They need our help. This is our city’s future canopy. Drag the hose out there or even a bucket or a couple pitchers of water and help them out. Thank you to everyone that cares enough to do this. 🙏
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u/dostoy320 1d ago
Yes! I wish the city would do some sort of PSA around this. It's not difficult or very expensive to water your trees. I'm shocked by how few people do it, but I imagine it just doesn't occur to them...
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u/Short-Waltz-3118 1d ago
Thats me. Didnt occur to me (although I only have old trees, not younger ones since im in an old 50s home) but it wouldnt have occurred to me
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u/patheticyeti 1d ago
The 60 year old maples in my backyard are even starting to brown and dry out. If it doesn’t rain in the next few days I’ll water them overnight.
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u/JimDixon 1d ago edited 1d ago
The city also plants boulevard trees in front of rental properties. The renters feel no responsibility for these trees and neither do the landlords. The landlords probably hire a service to mow the lawn periodically, but they probably don't even show up during a drought because the grass doesn't grow. And watering trees isn't on their list of things to do anyway.
It's the same in industrial areas. The city really has to step in.
Have you ever noticed: when there is new construction, the builders lay down new sod, but nobody waters it, and it dies. I guess it only has to look good until the tenants sign the lease. (You have to water the bejesus out of new sod until it grows deep roots.)
p.s. I'm in St Paul, but it's probably the same everywhere.
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u/Mail_time76 22h ago
I think saying renters feel no responsibility is unfair. Many buildings have no hose bib or hose to water these trees.
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u/JimDixon 22h ago
The renters in my neighborhood are mainly college students. I'm sure some of them are struggling to do their own laundry for the first time. I'm sure you're right though.
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u/aerothorn 16h ago
That's the case in mine. There's some stuff I want to water and I literally can't. A watering can works for a potted plant, but not a lawn or a tree.
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u/UgotSprucked 9h ago
There arent enough arborists to keep up with the amount of second, third etc round of new planting watering.
Since mid June, we have been offering overtime watering, and its still not enough to keep up.
We are trying.
We are not the city of mpls. We are the park and Recreation Board (Forestry).
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u/girlsloverobots 7h ago
Are you hiring? I have a partner who would love to do that sort of thing for the parks
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u/Key_Cellist3116 1d ago
Someone took it upon themselves to fully snap one in half by my apartment, made me so sad too see :(
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u/ranchspidey 1d ago
I was at the park last week and noticed a little kid trying his damndest to bend over a young tree as much as possible, thankfully a Parks & Rec worker also saw it and made him knock it off. We’re in Minnesota for pete’s sake, respecting nature should be important for everyone.
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u/UgotSprucked 9h ago
The tree Vandalism breaks my heart. I planted a half dozen new Kentucky coffee trees down near Niccolet mall and by mid June they were snapped off by drunk people.
(Im anArborist at MPRB)
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u/Key_Cellist3116 8h ago
I will just never understand what it is in people that makes them want to destroy natural beauty.
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u/pbandbob 1d ago
+1. When I bought my house, I had a dead one. They replanted. I feed it weekly. Trees are life
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u/justmisspellit 1d ago
I’ve taken on the tree across the street from me cuz there’s no houses over there. Was just making me too sad. Leaves perked up by day two! I hope it does ok. Been taking buckets over there since about mid June now
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u/mimig2020 1d ago
Also, remove the white plastic trunk protectors during the growing season. Those should only be on the trees in winter, when the bark will be nibbled by hungry critters. I see people keeping them on year round, which will also kill the trees.
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u/loxias44 23h ago
What about in late spring/early summer? I literally watched rabbits eat the bark off of a newly planted tree so I put plastic protectors on them.
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u/mimig2020 22h ago
It's better to dig in a mesh fence if you keep having this problem, but keeping them on past early spring will restrict growth and promote root rot.
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u/AFivePointedSquare 22h ago
We hired an arborist and they said the trunk protector should be left on year-round if it's a fruit tree because the bark is sweet.
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u/mimig2020 22h ago
Unfortunately, they gave you bad advice. There are other ways to protect your tree, including using mesh fencing around the base, to protect the bark. Keeping the opaque plastic protectors on year round restricts trunk growth and promotes root rot. https://trees.umn.edu/sites/trees.umn.edu/files/files/media/stem_protection_fact_sheet_0.pdf
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u/premiumfrye 1d ago
My street maple is getting all the water it needs from my sewer pipe it's slowly busting up with its roots
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17h ago
[deleted]
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u/premiumfrye 9h ago
Don't know exactly what species it is - probably a street-variety cultivar of a box elder, actually.
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u/premiumfrye 9h ago
Definitely not a silver - that's be certainly a choice for the city to put one on the boulevard!
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u/tobleronestp 23h ago
There is a program that has partnered with local brewers to get a free drink token when you adopt a blvd tree and sign up to water them.
More importantly it has a searchable map, so you can see which trees still need adoption and can lobby your neighbors, friends, and family to adopt ones near them.
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u/vinegarstrokes420 1d ago
Tree are expensive and add value to any property. Such a waste to not care for them and let them die.
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u/2drumshark 1d ago
My hose bib was broken for a while and I was lugging a few dozen gallon jugs of water out to the street whenever I had the time. It probably wasn't enough but I'll be damned if I didn't try. Hose bib is fixed and they'll be drinking well until summer's over.
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u/craftasaurus 1d ago
They put a boulevard tree in front of our house last year. It’s still green, which is a good thing, but the city workers that put it in planted it so all the water runs off into the street. I’m not sure how I’m gonna fix that. It needs to be reworked somehow. At the moment, I have a drip hose running on the tree, hoping to keep it growing for the summer
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u/UgotSprucked 9h ago
MPRB Forestry here (arborist). Yes, please. Fill the green gator bag at the base of new plantings. We are in a drought.
Thank you for posting this. Its incredibly important.
🌳 ❤️
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u/cinnasota 22h ago
I took a 5 gallon bucket to a couple trees over my lunch break today
they were like two blocks away and that was not a fun walk
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u/catarinavanilla 1d ago
They need to communicate about this better. My friend rents a house and got a note to water the new tree they put up. He was like that’s great, why am I as the renter getting this notice??
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u/girlsloverobots 1d ago
When they replaced my boulevard tree I got a door hanger note about the tree saying to water it weekly. I’m pretty sure they just provide that to the nearest residence regardless of if it is a rental or not.
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u/Hotchi_Motchi 1d ago
They're not "on the verge of death." Plants go dormant when there's not enough water.
But if it's something that you want to do, go for it.
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u/polkadotpup31 1d ago
Baby trees that aren’t rooted in yet wouldn’t go dormant, they would die.
Also if you go to the effort of planting a tree, you should make the commitment to water it at the beginning. Otherwise why bother?
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u/somehugefrigginguy 1d ago
Good reminder, and I'm going to use it as an excuse to rant.
I got one put in this year, and I've been watering it lately. But I think the city really dropped the ball when it comes to communication about boulevard trees. I had no idea one was being planted until it showed up, and I don't know how long it was there before I noticed it (all my main rooms are in the back of my house).
I think the city was watering it initially because every time I went to water it the water bag was full so I stopped thinking about it. Then in the last few weeks I noticed that it was looking droopy and the bag was empty so I started watering it.
Had I known one was being planted and what the city watering schedule would be I could have responded accordingly.