DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio — The drought conditions continue to add pressure on the agricultural industry, putting even our trees at risk.

But for one family-run business, if their trees die off, so could their livelihood. 

What You Need To Know

• The drought conditions are impacting “Columbus Trees," a family-run tree business


• The business now has an irrigation system, keeping the trees full and healthy


• Columbus Trees has been managing to keep up with more than thousand trees since it opened last April

“Columbus Trees” is just trying to keep up with the recent streak of dry weather. The family-run business has been battling the drought since it opened in Delaware County last April. 

"A tree, especially a newly established or something above ground like we have it, it needs about an inch of water a week counting rain, so if it's not getting that, the leaves are going to curl up, the branches are going to retract," said sales manager Mike Siebert. 

Without an irrigation system, keeping the trees hydrated became a tall order. 

"It was five or six of our crew out there with our gardening horses every day watering these trees, lot of man hours doing so,” Siebert said.

That is until the new irrigation system started pumping, keeping the trees full and healthy. 

But Siebert said because the trees are sold unplanted, draping the root balls in shrink wrap is another trick he learned. 

"We obviously don't plant it with these shrink warps,” he said, “because you need the roots to establish in the dirt its going into. But what has allowed us to do isit reflects the sunlight, the white does, too, and it keeps the moisture inside this ball, as we're watering down. It can't seep out the sides and it also blocks the wind from whipping across that root ball and drying it out."

The business has been managing to keep up with more than thousand trees since it opened last April.