As the temperatures climb and outdoor watering restrictions
tighten, what can you do to
save your plants? First, don’t panic. Most established trees and
shrubs and some
warm-season turf grasses can survive extended periods of limited
rainfall. And fescue
turf can always be reseeded this fall.
Here are some tips to help your plants make it through the
drought.
Make sure all
plants are well mulched. Using
3 to 5 inches of mulch will help reduce soil moisture water
loss.
Fine-textured mulches
such as pine straw, mininuggets or shredded hardwood mulch will
conserve moisture better
than coarse-textured mulches.
Some garden centers sell
hydrogels,
water-absorbing polymers that absorb several hundred times their
weight in water and then
release it slowly back to the plant. If you use hydrogels,
hydrate them indoors. Don’t put
dry crystals into the soil, because they can pull moisture from
the soil and away from the
plant. When you hydrate these materials, be careful. One
teaspoon
absorbs a quart of
water, and one-fourth cup will absorb a 5-gallon bucket of
water,
so avoid adding too much of the material to the water. Let
hydrogels absorb water overnight until the
material is the consistency
of Jell-O. Then spread a thin layer under mulch. On potted
plants, use a dowel to punch
two to three holes into the growing media about halfway down
through the container. Then
place the gel in the holes. This will greatly reduce the water
demand of container plants.
Another product on the
market is called
Driwater. Unlike hydrogels that swell and shrink and last
several
years in the soil,
Driwater (www.driwater.com)
is hydrated starch
granules sold in sausage-shaped tubes. You just insert two to
four of these sausages into
plastic tubes placed in the ground next to the plant. Bacteria
in
the soil gradually break
down the starch granules and release water to the plant for up
to
three months.
Your
air-conditioner collects humidity in
your home and pumps it outside as condensation. Find the drain
line and collect the water
for plants. Or extend the tubing to irrigate nearby plants. The
air conditioner won’t give
you lots of water. But it may provide just enough to keep a few
plants alive through an
extended drought.
Severe wilting and foliar
scorching are
signs of drought stress. When a shrub or perennial wilts to the
point that you
doubt its survival, cut
the top back by one-third to one-half to reduce the leaves’
demand for water. With less
top to support, the root system may be able to survive. If you
can get the root system
through the drought, the top will prosper later.
Save milk jugs and recycle
water from inside
the home. (Using gray water isn’t allowed in some counties. Check
with your health
department.) Put a few pinholes and pebbles in the bottom of the
jugs. The pebbles will
keep them from blowing around when they’re empty. Use two to four
jugs for medium-size
shrubs and eight to 10 for trees. Don’t bury the jugs around
trees and shrubs, because the
digging will damage the already-stressed root system.
When using washing-machine
water, combine
the rinse-cycle water with the wash-cycle water to dilute the
detergent and bleaching
agents. Then use the gray water right away. Bacteria in the water
may cause an odor if you
leave it sitting around too long.
This fall, start
thinking of ways to reduce
the irrigated areas in your landscape. Change irrigated areas to
beds of drought-tolerant
ground covers or mixed beds of tough-as-nails plants like
ornamental grasses, sedum,
junipers, crepe myrtle, yarrow or gaura. See (
cd/B1073.htm) for an
extensive plant listing.
