Read that mature oak trees can drink 100 gallons of water a day during summer growth and it surprised me

I was looking up some info on an old white oak I've been watching in a park near my home in Columbus, Ohio. Found a study from the Michigan State extension that said a fully grown oak can pull up to 100 gallons from the ground on a hot July day. That made me think about how much stress a big tree must be under during a drought. Has anyone else run into a stat like that that changed how you looked at a tree on a job?

3 comments

3 Comments

miamitchell1mo agoMost Upvoted

Is 100 gallons a day really that extreme for a big tree?

lunakim9d ago

@the_thomas makes a good point but there's another angle. Mature trees actually pull water from deep soil layers that don't show up in surface readings, so 100 gallons might not even register as a drought stress for a well established one. People forget trees are basically giant straws with roots that can go 30 feet deep!

the_thomas1mo ago

Depends on the tree and where you live. 100 gallons for a big old oak in the middle of a dry California summer is barely a sip. You can't just throw a number like that out there without knowing what's actually growing.