Changed my mind about watering after a big oak removal

I always thought you should water a tree right after planting, but not after taking one out. Had a job in Springfield last month where we removed a huge, sick red oak. The ground was bone dry and packed down from our gear. My boss said to run a soaker hose on the area for about an hour, which felt like a waste of water to me. We did it anyway, and when I came back a week later to check the site, the grass seed we threw down had already started to sprout. The wet ground helped it take hold way faster than I expected. Anyone else found that a little water helps the recovery after a removal, or is that just for certain soil types?

4 comments

4 Comments

roberts.leo1mo ago

Our crew in Dayton does this too, works every time!

hannah3201mo ago

That's a solid method for sure. My old team tried something similar but ran into issues with the local weather messing up the timing. You know how it gets when a sudden rainstorm throws off the whole schedule? Had to switch to a totally different setup because of it. Makes you wonder if some tricks only work in certain places.

finleyl391mo ago

Yeah the Dayton crew knows what's up. We used that same trick on a job in Toledo last summer. Had to adjust for lake effect cloud cover but once we got the timing right it was smooth.

annajenkins1mo ago

That method from your boss lines up with what I've seen in clay-heavy soil around here. Wetting the ground after a removal settles the dust and keeps the top layer from cracking into big chunks that seed can't stick to. @hannah320 mentioned weather throwing things off, which is real. We had a job last fall where a dry spell followed by two days of drizzle made the soaker hose pointless because the ground was already too soggy to hold new seed.