01/29/2022
Screwed from the start/ and you're to blame/ baby you give drip a bad name....I often see line source drip lines in my urban travels around Seattle installed and maintained(?) in a wack-a**, rookie, ignorant way. On the left we see when the trees were planted as little babies the drip line was looped around the crown of the root ball, and all involved were happy with that, eager to get paid and bounce. I get that, but there was no long term plan in place. You can see the tree has done well and established, but the original install has been ignored. The crown and roots are surrounding, growing over and pulling at the tubing- soon it will be torn apart. It's a slow process, but it will happen. There is no need for water now at this part of the tree. The root zone has expanded far past this area around the trunk, and water here now is actually detrimental. It could contribute to rot and disease. Whose fault is this? The property manager? The maintenance crew? Well, yes, if in fact those are people who are paid to look over things. My guess is that there are no such people, or any stake holders involved. The tubing at this point needs to be removed, capped, and relocated to a further circumference of the canopy area root zone. The tubing to the right is unstapled, loose and unacceptable. Not only unsightly and prone to being damaged, or tripping someone, if the emitters are not touching the soil, the water will cling to the tubing and pool wherever the tubing does touch soil, not spreading at the intervals intended for a measured application rate that determines run time. This is the kind of neglect that gives drip a bad name, it looks like blight, garbage, urban detritus, yuck. Let's stand up against this , and stand UP for routine maintenance and educated technicians to use valuable water wisely!
