The City of Ames Parks and Recreation Department is trialing a new system to help ensure newly-planted trees receive adequate water. Ames Parks and Recreation will attach modified 5-gallon buckets to each newly-planted tree this spring. The buckets create a slow drain watering system, allowing 5 gallons of water to slowly seep into the soil and reach deeper depths than traditional watering.

Each bucket has one 3/16” hole drilled into the bottom. Depending on soil condition and moisture levels, 5 gallons of water should take approximately 1-2 hours to drain from the bucket. The buckets are highly visible compared to water bags and other slow drain watering systems, serving as a reminder of the importance of watering.

The system is simple with only a few easy steps.

1. The goal is to fill the bucket with water twice per week, depending on whether or not it has recently rained.

2. Each time you fill the bucket, move the bucket. Moving the bucket to another area near the tree allows water to become available to all areas of roots and help to establish a balanced root system.

3. Fill the bucket with 5 gallons of water.

4. Walk away and let the water slowly drain into the soil.

Based on the current rates of yard water between July 1 and October 31, one cubic foot of water costs residents $0.0371. Let's do some quick math: $0.0371/ft   3 * 1ft3/7.48 gallons = $0.0049/gallon of yard water. If we water our newly planted trees 5 gallons twice per week for approximately 20 weeks (end of May – beginning of October) = $0.0049/gallon *10 gallons * 20 weeks = $0.99! Providing adequate water to newly planted trees through the growing season will cost less than one dollar. We appreciate your support of this new system and hope that we can all work together to ensure survival of our community trees.