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Earth friendly watering in the summer heat

I call this “China weather”.  July 18 is the 6th anniversary of the day we were handed our adopted daughter in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.  We were over there for two weeks and it was 90-100 every day with a dewpoint of 70-80. One day it was 78 with a 76 dewpoint and breezy as the remnants of a typhoon passed.  China is a beautiful country, but summer is brutal, as this summer is shaping up to be here.

The current heat wave is an expansion of a large bubble of heat over the center of the country, made even worse by extreme drought in Texas.  One look at the Weather Service home page shows the expansiveness of the heat wave.  Heat indices reached as high as 126F in Iowa on Sunday.  To top it off, much of the Cincinnati area has now only had one good rain in July, and that 10 days ago.  Soils are drying in the top layers and heat and water stress are becoming issues. 

The convoluted thing is that a few areas have had rain, 2.50 inches this weekend in Maysville, KY.  Also, with a very wet spring, many soils remain moist a few inches down so established trees are still mostly OK.  The biggest water problems I have seen so far are more related to over reaction than drought.  A few properties are being killed with kindness as irrigation systems are run daily and soils are flooded.  Please see this link for tips on good watering practices.  Remember, being Earth friendly includes watering correctly, making the most of our water resources while maintaining healthy and vibrant landscapes.

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Drought + record rains = greater plant stress

No matter where you are in the Cincinnati area, April was a month for the record books and a month which had a profound effect on local horticulture. 

April rainfall amounted to 13.52 inches at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky airport and 14.26 inches at my Cheviot 0.9SSE location.  Either way, this smashed the old April rainfall record of 9.77 inches set in 1998 and challenged the all-time record for any month of any year of 13.68 inches set in January of 1937.  This followed the severe drought which plagued our area in the summer and fall of 2010, not to mention the 7 month drought in 2007 and the multi-month drought in 2008. 

Over the winter, we saw many dead and stressed evergreens as a result of the drought.  While the immediate effects of drought are obvious, the long term effects of drought can be profound and long lasting, actually compounded by excessively wet weather.  Roots require access to both moisture and oxygen.  Drought robs roots of adequate moisture, but excessive moisture fills soil pore spaces and displaces soil oxygen, creating root killing anaerobic soil conditions. 

Prolonged rainfall greatly increases disease pressures on trees and shrubs.  Continual rainfall makes it more difficult for us to treat while simultaneously providing ideal conditions for disease to take hold.  The disease triangle demonstrates how the disease itself, a susceptible host plant, and adequate moisture must all be present for plant diseases to take hold.  In many cases, the plant is always susceptible and the disease spores are always present, so moist years will be big years for plant diseases. 

You may see us treat even when rain is forecast.  This is because fungicides prevent disease and disease spread as opposed to curing it.  Therefore, you need the fungicide to be present on the susceptible plant when the next rain comes.  Additives in the treatment help to prevent it from being washed away.

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Plant health care visits to commence as weather warms

Maybe that groundhog was right after all!

Arbor Doctor clients may start seeing early season services performed as soon as next week as it appears winter weather may rather abruptly come to an end and be replaced by a much milder pattern.

The winter of 2010-2011 started early and has been fairly harsh.  In two months we have had more than the normal snowfall for an entire year, although liquid (including melted) precipitation remains below normal. 

This week looks cold, then things change.  Much warmer weather will begin to affect the area this weekend, and it currently appears that this pattern will continue for at least a couple weeks and possibly into March.  Additionally, a very large winter storm which appeared to be on the horizon for later this week will move through the western and south central U.S. then be suppressed to the south of the Cincinnati area, thus sparing the tristate significant snow or ice.

Significant snow has been known to fall as late as April in Cincinnati, but as the ground warms any late season snows are not able to stick around very long.  One fly in the ointment could be that a strong and prolonged warm spell in fary could encourage early bud break and increase the chances for frost and freeze damage to plants later in the spring.  Like it or not, consistent cool weather is actually better for plants in the winter months.

In any case, expect to see things warming up and Arbor Doctor coming out of hibernation.