Do trees "bleed" water?

[jmb]

We are in the process of cutting several trees down in the yard. One of the trees cut was a large tulip poplar. It was just north of the sidewalk that's about five feet in front of the house. There were huge roots growing underneath the sidewalk that had buckled the concrete. In order to grind the stump out, the tree guys had to take out one of the sidewalk pieces. I noticed about a week ago the side of the hole adjacent to the sidewalk was wet. It wasn't standing water but when I dug down with my finger, it came up muddy, not just damp. I assumed it was a water leak so I had the plumber out yesterday. He checked and said there was no leak whatsoever, the water line is about five feet west of that, and it would have to be water from the roots. The particular area that's so wet is right where a huge root goes sideways under the sidewalk and is cut flush next to the concrete. Could that big root really be doing this? Do they "leak out" water?

[TheKing]

when you get your water bill...you will find out

[TheKing]

oh...and my love for all things jmb made me decide to do a little googling for you

i came across this...it might or might not be relevent

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA081106.01A.mysterious_tree.1e37d78.html

[bpitt]

My parents had a tree in their yard onetime that you could stand under and feel little droplets of water falling on you. I can't remember what the name of it was, but it made weird little pink flowers on it. I don't know if it 'sweated' or what, but you could really feel a drop every now and then.

[Fish-Bait]

My parents had a tree in their yard onetime that you could stand under and feel little droplets of water falling on you. I can't remember what the name of it was, but it made weird little pink flowers on it. I don't know if it 'sweated' or what, but you could really feel a drop every now and then.
Crepmyrtle does it and those "sleeper trees" the leaves fold up at night...they got a weird name though...need a little help on that...maybe mimosa???

[bpitt]

Yeah!! That's it!! Mimosa, I couldn't remember it, they got like 2 I think, and you can feel little droplets hit you. At first I thought a flock of birds was flying over.

[wilebill]

No, trees don't bleed water. What you're seeing is where water will find the path of least resistance, and in this case it's the passages created by the roots. Not only does the tree have large roots, but a whole bunch of little smaller ones, where water will collect.

Any time you dig up a fresh stump, you'll find water unless it's been extremely dry weather for an extended period.

[jmb]

oh...and my love for all things jmb made me decide to do a little googling for you

i came across this...it might or might not be relevent

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA081106.01A.mysterious_tree.1e37d78.html


That is the coolest tree I've ever seen! Mine isn't putting out near that much. The tree is gone and it's just what's left from where the stump was ground out.

This tree did "rain" like that. I don't remember if it was spring or fall. I've heard that aphids can do that. I found this (http://http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/HomeHort/F1Column/2005%20Articles/JULY24.htm) about them...

When honeydew from a tree begins to fall, one should quickly realize that there are insects above doing naughty, unmentionable things. "Honeydew" is a classy word meaning "a sweet substance secreted by aphids and other juice-sucking insects." "Secrete" means to be "excreted as a waste" and the last thing that I will tolerate is to be excreted upon by aphids - - I don't care if the secretion does have a fancy sounding name like honeydew!

[jmb]

No, trees don't bleed water. What you're seeing is where water will find the path of least resistance, and in this case it's the passages created by the roots. Not only does the tree have large roots, but a whole bunch of little smaller ones, where water will collect.

Any time you dig up a fresh stump, you'll find water unless it's been extremely dry weather for an extended period.

WB, I tried repping you for the explanation but I've given out too much already. So this is basically groundwater?

[wilebill]

WB, I tried repping you for the explanation but I've given out too much already. So this is basically groundwater?Yeah, it's just trapped water. Nothing to worry about unless you plan on building something on top of the stump hole; in that case you'd need to muck it out and fill it with some good dirt.

[TheKing]

and hes right...water will start pooling when you dig crap up like that...especially if youre close to some sort of body of water

[jmb]

Yeah, it's just trapped water. Nothing to worry about unless you plan on building something on top of the stump hole; in that case you'd need to muck it out and fill it with some good dirt.

I'm going to plant some type of low edging along the sidewalk. Shouldn't have to water that section! lol

Well yes, living trees (deciduous) do sweat during the day as part of the continuous water cycle. It's one thing that makes rainforest so important. Trees play a big part in our weather. My big oaks will pee on you when you stand under them on hot days.

But, you say the Poplar was cut. Poplars are varacious water drinkers, sort'a in the weed tree catagory like our southern Gum trees.

I have a couple theories about your water tree:

A big main lateral root could, indeed, continue to syphon water for awhile. It may even have the capacity to regenerate a new tree. You know the only way we can get rid of Gum trees down here is to dig up the whole root system. Otherwise, other Gum trees will sprout like weeds around one you simply cut down.

The root could be in a natural spring head. While the big tree was there, it could have used most of the water from spring seepage. Now that it's gone, there's nothing to drink it and sweat it into the atmosphere.

To see if you have a leaky pipe, just turn off all water in house, take a meter reading, leave all water using fixtures turned off for 4 hours, then go see if the water meter has moved any. If the meter changed just a little, you have a leak.

THe plumber checked that yesterday. Didn't move one iota.

and hes right...water will start pooling when you dig crap up like that...especially if youre close to some sort of body of water Closest body of water is a farm pond about a mile away.

Thank you all for your input. I couldn't imagine what it was when the plumber said no water leak. Now I know. Kinda... :-D

[Guru]

I have never seen a tree water itself or run water from it's roots. All trees "weep", some of our native trees even weep their own particular insecticide (Oaks, from the leaves). Even large trees that I have seen uprooted don't pool water like that unless it is just that kind of a low lying area and the water was just there. As a side note, I'm sure you have watched Roy Rogers drink from a Cactus but in our area we do have vines you can drink water from. We used to cut a section of them a couple of feet long and avoid carrying a water jug to the backside of timber sites. Many times you will see what people call a "Spring" which is actually water that gravitates from one area to the next through an old root path that has died and rotted away to leave an Earthen "pipe".

[jmb]

I have never seen a tree water itself or run water from it's roots. All trees "weep", some of our native trees even weep their own particular insecticide (Oaks, from the leaves). Even large trees that I have seen uprooted don't pool water like that unless it is just that kind of a low lying area and the water was just there. As a side note, I'm sure you have watched Roy Rogers drink from a Cactus but in our area we do have vines you can drink water from. We used to cut a section of them a couple of feet long and avoid carrying a water jug to the backside of timber sites. Many times you will see what people call a "Spring" which is actually water that gravitates from one area to the next through an old root path that has died and rotted away to leave an Earthen "pipe".

These vines, do they have taproots?

[Guru]

They do. If you will remember walking in the woods growing up they were the thick vines, hairy in appearance and they normally hung from Oaks or Hickory trees. The color was dark and they had a very "sheddy" type bark, meaning they looked hairy but at the same time alluded to steady growth as with Pine trees. Rough bark pine trees are the ones that are still in a growth process, the slick bark trees are those that are still alive but have reached a point in their life that they are not growing anymore, just living. Typically you would cut about a 3' section out of one of these vines and get a good bit of water. When you are in the backside of nowhere any water is a good thing, and it would be clean tasting water.