Ran across a stat that blew my mind about old backyard trees

Was reading an arborist blog and found out a single mature maple can absorb like 60 gallons of water from the ground per day. Has anyone else seen numbers like that for their yard trees?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_clark376d ago

Yeah I actually looked into this exact thing when I was trying to figure out why my backyard was so wet after rain. My silver maple is probably 50 years old and the arborist told me it drinks up to 80 gallons a day in the summer. The numbers vary by species and how big the tree is but yeah they are like natural pumps. Something to keep in mind though is that if you have clay soil like I do the water can't drain fast enough for the roots to take it all in. You end up with standing water near the tree instead. I ended up having to put in a small french drain system just to keep the tree from drowning itself.

lindag335d ago

Wait, are you sure that tree is actually drinking that much or is it just sitting in water and rotting? I've heard those "gallons per day" numbers are mostly made up by arborists to sell drain systems.