Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 45(4): July 2019 planting sites must be prepared properly to allow suf- ficient drainage. Also, watering volume and fre- quency will need to be adjusted to suit the site-specific soil characteristics, tree-specific water usage, and weather conditions. CONCLUSIONS There is a dearth of information in the literature on the benefits of watering devices for newly planted urban trees. This study was designed to determine if there are any differences in performance and benefits of several different types of indirect watering devices to newly transplanted river birch trees by conducting a watering experiment on container-grown trees in a controlled greenhouse environment. We strived to use methods of watering in our experiment that are practical for city workers to apply in a different envi- ronmental setting, including urban landscapes, where spigots may not be easily accessible. Some of our indirect watering devices had some performance and logistical advantages (e.g., ease of installing, han- dling, and filling of water), and had slower release of water than a hose, but the devices did not benefit transplanted trees more than watering with a hose (e.g., growth). Future studies should assess whether indirect watering devices reduce loss of water due to runoff in a natural field setting, which would imply greater infiltration. If the devices reduce runoff, their use could conserve water compared to direct water- ing. Future studies should also test for benefits to trees on soils with different drainage properties. How- ever, variations in soil types and microsites, and in natural precipitation, would be more difficult to con- trol in a natural setting. Our results also indicated that the increasing watering frequency (once per week) may have been beneficial to the trees in our study, but the volume and frequency will need to be adjusted to suit the site-specific conditions. LITERATURE CITED Beginners Guide for Watering New Trees. 2014. Accessed 11/05/2017. Clark, J.R., and R. Kjelgren. 1990. Water as a limiting factor in the development of urban trees. Journal of Arboriculture 16 (8): 203-208. Cohen, J. 1982. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sci- ences (Ed.), Academic Press, NY. Dirr, M.A. 1983. Manual of woody landscape plants: Their iden- tification, ornamental characteristics, culture, propagation and uses. Stipes Publ., Champaign, IL. 25 pp. 117 Ferrini, F., and A. Fini. 2011. Sustainable management tech- niques for trees in the urban areas. Journal of Biodiversity and Ecological Sciences 1(1): 1-20. Gilman, E.F. 2002. Irrigating landscape plants during establish- ment. Univ. of Florida/IFAS Extension, ENH857. 4 pp. Accessed 10/12/2017. Gu, M.M., C.R. Rom, J.A. Robbins, and D.M. Oosterhuis. 2007. Effect of water deficit on gas exchange, osmotic solutes, leaf abscission, and growth of four birch genotypes (Betula L.) under a controlled environment. Hortscience 42: 1383-1391. Kramer, P.J. 1987. The role of water stress in tree growth. Journal of Arboriculture 13 (2): 33-38. Kramer, P.J. 1983. The relation of environment and physiology to tree growth. Arborists News 15: 107-111. Kopinga, J. 1991. The effects of restricted volumes of soil on the growth and development of street trees. Journal of Arboricul- ture 17: 57-63 Kozlowski, T.T. 1983 (Ed.). Water Deficits and Plant Growth, Vol. I-VII. Academic Press, NY. Lipkis, A. 1990. The simple act of planting a tree: a Citizen For- ester’s guide to healing your neighborhood, your city, and your world. TreePeople, Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. 237 pp. Lockhart, J.A. 1965. An analysis of irreversible plant cell elonga- tion. Journal of Theoretical Biology 8: 264 -275. R Core Team. 2017. R: a language and environment for statistical computing [online]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Available from http://www.R-project.org. [accessed 18 August 2017]. Ranney, T.G., R.E. Bir, and W.A. Skroch. 1991. Comparative drought resistance among six species of birch (Betula): influ- ence of mild water stress on water relations and leaf gas exchange. Tree Physiology 8 (4): 351-360. Ryan, M.G., N. Phillips, and B.J. Bond. 2006. The hydraulic lim- itation hypothesis revisited. Plant Cell and Environment 29: 367-381. Starbuck, C.J. 2006. Irrigating trees and shrubs during summer droughts. Horticultural MU Guide, MU Extension, University of Missouri-Columbia. 1-4 pp. Sperry, J.S., U.G. Hacke, R. Oren, and J.P. Comstock. 2002. Water deficits and hydraulic limits to leaf water supply. Plant, Cell and Environment 25: 251-263. Spomer, L.A. 1981. The effect of soil container volume on plant growth. Horticulture Science 17: 680-681. Tyree, M.T., and J.S. Sperry. 1989. Vulnerability of xylem to cav- itation and embolism. Ann. Review of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology 40: 19-38. Watson, G. 1996. Tree transplanting and establishment. Arnoldia 56 (4): 11-16. Wendler, R., and P. Millard. 1996. Impacts of water and nitrogen supplies on the physiology, leaf demography and nitrogen dynamics of Betula pendula. Tree Physiology 16: 153-159. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was funded by a UA-Monticello Faculty Research Committee Grant and supported by the UA Division of Agricul- ture—Arkansas Forest Resources Center and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire Stennis project 1009319 (MGO, CS, and BAB). We gratefully acknowledge Bemis Tree Farm (Little Rock, AR) for providing the river birch trees, plastic containers, and compost for this study. ©2019 International Society of Arboriculture
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