One mile from our office is the Northcross Center where the #4653 HomeDepot is located as well as many restaurants we visit regularly. On Aug 8th, 2017, we noticed a dying young tree.
This dying tree was right in front of Home Depot. It was just after an INCH of rain, but the rootball was dry as rainwater was shielded off by the watering bag. Ironically, there was some water still in it. We spoke to an employee of HD about donating a TreeDiaper® treemat to save it, but a manager was not available to approve the idea.
Four days later, in the middle of another rain (1.5”), the tree only got worse. Again the rain drops were shielded off.
On Aug 15th, we got permission from Mr. Fields of Blackwood Development to do it. We replaced the watering bag with a presoaked TreeDiaper® TD36.
On Aug 22nd, new buds were ready to sprout! Soil was found moist under the TreeDiaper® TD36, which is concealed with a mulch ring & ready to catch more rain!
On Aug 31st many new leaves had sprouted. This tree has been saved!
From now on, no labor for removing and reinstalling every year and no additional watering (no water trucks, no hoses, no spills). Nothing except natural rainfall will be needed.
Even during a 5 week drought (from Sept 3 to Oct 9 2017, only 0.24" of rain recorded according to Weather Underground), there was no signs of stress.
- Greg Litus, Manager, Colorado State University, Western Colorado Research Center