Each year, thousands of Arizona residents email or call Rosie Romero’s radio show with questions about everything from preventing fires in their chimneys to getting rid of tree roots invading their sewer system. His goal is to provide answers that suit the specific lifestyle wherever someone lives in Arizona.
This citrus tree has been painted with a natural bark-colored paint.
Q: I have a peach tree and a couple of citrus trees in the middle of my lawn. They’re doing OK, and they are well watered by my sprinkler system, but every summer I think maybe I should paint the trunks with tree paint to protect them. Are the trees getting enough water with this irrigation system?
A: If the trees are healthy and doing well, and they dry out between waterings, I don’t think you have to worry about the sprinklers. The paint is generally used when the trees are younger and the bark is tender. But you can paint them if you want to.
A good product to use is natural-style bark-colored paint instead of white. You also do not have to paint citrus trees if you let them grow into a bush shape – their natural formation – because the foliage will protect the trunk.
Q: A few weeks ago, I noticed water coming into my kitchen from a leaky pipe behind the microwave. It damaged the wall and my cabinets. It turned out that the problem was a nail that had been driven into a pipe 19 years ago, and there had been a slow leak for a long time. I had a recovery firm come in and everything was thoroughly cleaned up. But when I filed a claim with my insurance company for the clean-up costs, they said that the water had to have been visible some time ago, and we did not react quickly enough to mitigate the damage. So they’re going to deny my claim.
A: After you get a written statement from the insurance company denying your claim, you can take it to the state Department of Insurance and make an appeal. Unless you had seen a big stain on the wall or a pool of water on the floor, I’m not sure that you could have known about the situation before the real flood took place in your home.
Q: A couple of weeks ago, I had a six- to eight-inch diameter tree that blew over. I straightened the tree out and set it upright again, but I’m wondering if there’s anything I can do to make the tree do better and recover from this event.
A: You’ll know in a couple of weeks if there’s any permanent damage to the tree. The situation may work out OK, but it might not. You can give a tree vitamins and hormones to help it recover from a shock like this, but that’s about it. If the tree does well and recovers, you should be sure to stake it properly so this kind of damage doesn’t happen again.
Buy two or three stakes at a nursery. Then you fasten the trunk to the stakes by using soft webbing ties.
To prevent a tree from blowing down, it’s also important to water the tree in an area out farther than just near the root ball around the trunk. That type of irrigation will encourage the roots to grow outward more and more as they seek water; those expanding roots provide better base support for the tree when it’s windy.
