Saving Water During a Drought and Problems With A Kwanzan Cherry
Taun Beddes 0:01
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Homegrown Horticulture podcast.
On today's episode we talk about what's wrong with Kwanzan Cherry. Then also we have two interviews from Savannah Peterson, a horticulturist with the Central Utah Water Conservancy District. She talks about irrigation and programs to get money back for re-landscaping your yard.
I was recently called to look at flowering Kwanzan Cherry at a neighbor's house. The tree was 78 years old and in the past has looked relatively healthy. And when it bloomed in the spring was quite pretty. But this spring, only about half the tree flowered. And once it was done flowering, it only had a couple of healthy branches. And so when I look at a tree or a shrub or another plant, I have a rough checklist I go through to help me narrow down what might be wrong with whatever I'm looking at. Oftentimes, just look at the yard in its entirety. How well is it maintained? How green is the grass? Are there weeds everywhere? This can give me some clues as to what might be going on. The first thing I noticed is that the grass is very green as compared to the neighbor's. It was recently fertilized but I don't think this has much to do with why the cherry is struggling. The next thing I noticed is that there's dandelions in the lawn, and so they haven't used a lawn weed killer. This can be important because a lot of times we see problems with trees and lawns where a weed and feed or another lawn weed killer has been applied. The next thing I checked was irrigation. The lawn is very green, and when I knelt down by the tree trunk, both of my knees were wet. This could indicate that the tree is getting too much water. When that happens, the water penetrates into the soil and drives oxygen and atmosphere out. This is bad for roots and can make the tree unhealthy and more susceptible to a number of root diseases. I next looked at the overall health of the trunk and branches. The first thing I noticed was that there was a lot of Southwest winter injury. This is where the sun heats the trunk up on the south and west side of the tree in the winter. As the bark heats up, it causes sap flow and at night the sap freezes and bursts the cells in the conductive tissue and over time the bark will start to slough off. Even though the bark hadn't fallen off yet, I noticed that when I cut some of the bark off that the conductive tissue underneath was in fact dead. I also cut some of the bark off at a very shallow angle on a couple of different spots in the tree. In both cases, the conductive tissue was either brown or light green, which wasn't a good indication that the tree was really healthy. With how many branches that had not leafed out, the Southwest winter injury, and the condition of the conductive tissue underneath the bark, I recommended to the homeowners that they might give it another couple of weeks to see if it forms any more leaves. I really don't think it will. But if it doesn't form any leaves, the silver lining is that fruit wood, especially cherry wood, makes great wood for smoking meat. And so the next best use for the tree will be smoking some meat for the summer so that the neighbors can enjoy it. I recommended to the homeowners that they dial back their irrigation a bit, especially since we're in a drought. Should they want to replant the tree, there are many species that would work. But some off the top of my head included many varieties and cultivars of crab apples because they're so adapted to our soils and they bloom so beautifully, and newer ones actually don't produce a lot of fruit. Or hawthorns because they have the same characteristics in being very strong trees. Thanks for listening, and I hope we do it again sometime.
And there's certain things you recommend that people do so that they can be successful. And the first one starts with the sprinkler clock.
Savannah 4:17
One term is sprinkler clock. Another term that more people might be more familiar with is the smart controller. This is something to make sure, that you are not watering when you don't need to be, and that you're watering or irrigating different parts of your landscape in effective ways. So you don't want to be watering something that is drip for the same amount of time as you would water something with overhead spray. So a smart controller can help you have a little bit easier time managing those different areas.
Taun Beddes 4:45
One thing I like about them, at least the more modern ones is that you can actually download an app to your phone.
Savannah 4:53
Those are pretty nice too because there's some features with, say it rained yesterday, and you were scheduled to water today. Your Smart Controller might have access to weather data. And it'll know to delay that watering until it's actually needed in your landscape.
Taun Beddes 5:08
Next on here: Is a filter going to help people save water?
Savannah 5:12
Not necessarily, but it will help a ton on maintenance and installation. If you are using secondary water, it's likely that there will be some stuff in there that could clog your drip or your sprinkler system. So installing a filter is a pretty cheap way to make sure that you don't have to do a lot of repairs later.
Taun Beddes 5:29
After considering the filter, the next thing that you mentioned is drip irrigation. And there's actually a few different types.
Savannah 5:37
So we recommend point source or inline drip irrigation. Point source would be where you have individual emitters coming off of a drip hose that will go to specific plants. In line drip is a little drip hose that has holes in it that will disperse water along the hose, but close down to the ground. That's better for dense plantings. So if you're using something like a ground cover, maybe Creeping Thyme, using inline drip is maybe going to be easier than putting an emitter to each individual, teeny, tiny plant.
Taun Beddes 6:10
Do you have a preference? Or is it more just situational?
Savannah 6:14
I like Point Source drip a little better, where there's individual emitters, because the water is only going to exactly where it needs to be. Even for denser plantings using inline drip, there might be some patches of bare soil that are getting watered that don't need that water. But it is situational.
Taun Beddes 6:32
This isn't necessarily irrigation. The last thing I wanted to talk about was mulches and their importance in water conservation.
Savannah 6:39
We find that mulch is a great way to make sure that the water that makes it to the soil stays there for longer. It is great for water retention, and water is a little less likely to evaporate once it's under a mulch layer. So it's great for making sure that you get the most use out of the water that you're applying.
Taun Beddes 6:56
One thing I like about mulches also is that they're great for preventing weeds. And a lot of people like lawns because they choke weeds out, but with a couple of inches of mulch, that prevents most weeds from coming back.
Savannah 7:11
If you use three inches of mulch, whether that be bark, mulch, gravel, anything like that, you are pretty much being as effective as a weed barrier fabric. If you want to go a little overboard and put in four inches, that's great. Well, we'll take it and that just adds extra weight suppression.
Taun Beddes 7:27
Savannah, anything else?
Savannah 7:29
That's about it, try our programs.
Taun Beddes 7:32
Well, I appreciate that so much. And how do people locate your programs online?
Savannah 7:37
Go to utahwatersavers.com, and it will give you maps of the programs that are available in your area.
Taun Beddes 7:44
Savannah, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Savannah 7:47
Thank you.
I help friends for rebate programs. Two of them are landscaping related and those are the two that I work the most with, but they're called Flip your Strip and Local Scapes rewards.
Taun Beddes 8:07
And so on the Flip your Strip program, what does one need to do to qualify for the program?
Savannah 8:13
The first step is to go to utahwatersavers.com that has a list of all of the programs that we offer. If you go there, you can read up on Flip your Strip and the requirements. There's frequently asked questions (FAQs) and you can build your account there that you'll use to apply for the programs. The first step when you apply is to upload a photo of your park strip as is. We want to make sure that there's grass existing there and a measurement of the project area just so we can anticipate how much money you'll be getting for your rebate. The rebate amount is $1 per square foot of turf removed. If you attend our Waterwise Plant Strips class, you can get that bumped up to $1.25 which doesn't sound like a lot but it is significant. It bumps up the rebate quite a bit. But after you have submitted your application, we will schedule an initial visit to answer any questions when we come out and to take another measurement of the park strip. Once you are approved to get started, you do all the work and we will conduct another final visit. Some of the requirements that we will check during the final visit are that you have an appropriate drip irrigation system installed for your park strip because we don't want zones that are watering both turf and a drip system at the same time. The other thing we will check is that you are using three to four inches of mulch which is good for water retention and weed suppression. Another thing we check for is that there will be 50% plant coverage of the area at maturity. That requirement goes towards helping to mitigate the heat island effect. It is also required by a lot of cities and their municipal code. So we've designed our program to make sure that anybody doing this will not get in trouble with their city.
Taun Beddes 10:02
So your other program you have is the Local Scapes program.
Savannah 10:07
So this program is called Local Scapes Rewards. You can also find it on utahwatersavers.com, all of their requirements and instructions to apply. If you go to localscapes.com, you can also find a lot of information about the program. But this program is based on a set of design principles that are for designing your landscape to do well in Utah. We don't want to fully discourage grass like a xeriscape would. We want to make sure that any turf in the landscape is usable and functional and going to be watered efficiently. This program is just to help homeowners design something that is water efficient and usable and aesthetically pleasing.
Taun Beddes 10:50
So is this only for new homes? Or can anybody apply?
Savannah 10:55
This one is great because it is for anybody. It's not just specifically for people removing turf. If you're a new homeowner, this is a good spot to start.
Taun Beddes 11:03
So it sounds like it's fairly similar to Flip your Strip but it's more encompassing for an entire yard?
Savannah 11:07
Yes. And we recognize that it is expensive to landscape whole areas. So you can even apply for the program twice and do your front yard one year and your backyard another year. We just want this to be very accessible.
Taun Beddes 11:12
And there are rebates for this one too?
Savannah 11:16
Yes, this one is not per square foot. It's based on water savings which we calculate. One step in this program is to submit a designed plan that follows our local scapes principles, which will be reviewed by a technician. We have some one-on-one communication with homeowners to make sure that it fits our requirements and will qualify for a rebate and meets the homeowners' needs. Using that plan, we can quantify how much water will be saved by using this kind of landscape design.
Taun Beddes 11:52
Is there coverage across the entire Wasatch Front?
Savannah 11:55
For most of the Wasatch Front, yes. Using our coverage and Jordan Valley's coverage. Anybody in Salt Lake County I believe is eligible. Weber Basin I'm not sure offers the Localscapes program, but you can apply for Flip your Strip if your city is following their water-efficiency standards. That's another thing you can look up on their website.
Taun Beddes 12:14
For more information, what website should people access?
Savannah 12:18
utahwatersavers.com and localscapes.com
Taun Beddes 12:22
Thank you Savannah so much. I greatly appreciate it. I would like to thank Savannah Peterson for spending time with us. She authored and performed the intro and outro music and so thank you again to her for that. Today's show is a production of Utah State University Extension and is sponsored by the letters L the letter Q and pi, not apple pie but 3.14.
And by the way, if you're still listening, the show's over.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
