Survival Watering for the droughty Mid Atlantic 2012

Survival Watering is watering how tos for our plants, trees and shrubs when our normal patterns of rainfall are below average for extended periods of time or drought with or without imposed water restrictions.

This thread is meant to be a compilation of resources, guidelines and information for our forum. Feel free to post any additional links and resources and I'll add them to categories below as needed. Discussion is welcome as well as suggestions for keeping this useful for all. This is an experiment and will need adjustments and fine tuning and input from all and hopefully keep us ahead of the curve as drought conditions exist or expand in our region.

Intro

Water loss from the soil is caused by three things: evaporation, gravity, and transpiration (plants sucking it out). In winter, spring and early summer, evaporation is low. Gravity pulls surplus water from the soil but it stays moist. Transpiration is low because the plants aren’t growing very fast, at least in winter and spring. But as things heat up in June and July, water moves out of the soil faster than rainfall can replenish it. Around the first of July, soil begins losing approximately 7/8 inch of water per week. Most established shrubs and trees don’t need watering before that point, but as the soil drys, in the absence of rain, added water is needed to make up for what’s lost, or a prior year deficit.
(from http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/drought-supplemental-watering/)

RESOURCES

Trees

http://www.walterreeves.com/landscaping/drought-watering-trees

http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/oak-tree-drought/

http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/dogwood-drought-effects/


Shrubs

http://www.walterreeves.com/landscaping/drought-watering-shrubs

http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/drought-supplemental-watering/


Flowers

http://www.walterreeves.com/landscaping/drought-watering-flowers/

lawns

reserved to collect resources pertaining to water and water monitoring in our region

Maryland Water Monitoring Council
http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/MWMC/MWMC2010/announcements.asp

Georgia Automated Environmental Network
Crop simulator
http://168.29.150.40/aemn/cgi-bin/AEMN.pl?site=AAAA&report=ds
Drought Monitoring Maps 2012
http://168.29.150.40/aemn/cgi-bin/DROUGHT.pl?map=c&b=r&e=m

This message was edited Jul 12, 2012 8:10 AM

Oh wow, what EXCELLENT resources and information, thank you Judy!!!! This page is a "Keeper"!!! I had never known there was such a thing as "survival watering". My plants thank you! < =D

Thanks speedy

I like to think of this as what to do besides "fret and sweat" as we wait out and adapt to the dry times.

It also gives me something to do while I enjoy the ac as temps climb over 90 each day!

Good idea coleup!

Thanks Sallyg. Did you see the link for info on dogwood and oak tree survival watering above?

I know you have mentioned the stress signs you have been seein in yours several places on Daves. I really like the thread in the Trees and Shrubs Forum where BeeBee and VibernumVally et al hold forth on tree roots and water uptake. What wisdom we have here...well worth the read.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1265740/

I thought you might also be interested in some of the free webinars and conferences scheduled by the Maryland Water Council and using 'crowd sourcing' to gather hydrological data across the state.
Citizen scientists unite!
Maryland Water Monitoring Council
http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/MWMC/MWMC2010/announcements.asp

And, with your background, you might enjoy 'playing' with the Crop Simulator model on the U of Georgia site. Check out all of the soil types and see how much difference clay or sand etc can make in say corn or cotton or peanut growing. Wow, who knew?
Crop simulator
http://168.29.150.40/aemn/cgi-bin/AEMN.pl?site=AAAA&report=ds

Thank you very much, Judy, for all the work you put in to this resource. A lot of great info! I'm not looking forward to seeing how the plants fared after being away for a month.

Aw Jan, thanks, Like I said somewhere, I'm doing this for myself and just passing it on as fast as my keyboard and computer skills will let me. Most of your plants will be fine if a little the worse for wear. They will have their own stories to tell when youve returned. Like Roses said on another thread many of her blooms seem to be waiting for cooler temps and more moisture...one of the many coping skills of perennials.
It's the 'babies' that need us the most.

So far, it seems to me that 'survival watering' can readily apply to what any of us do about watering our plants in our absence. Most of us do at least a little more than leave it up to nature (unless it is an emergency that necessitates being gone). Also helps give direction and parameters to our substitute waterer.

And, need I say it here Good watering is an artoften learned and practiced best in the company of other artists.

Judy

great info!

Most containers I have I had used the water saving gels, they def work! don't need to water them everyday
any of the plants that were still in pots I put in bigger containers where I just have to put water in the bottom of the containers and they can pull up the water from the bottom, I also left most in an area that gets morning sun only so they don't get fried

Thanks Judy. I didn't have play time earlier, but now did read about the dogwood. Today I see that my front yard one has many leaves that have half- browned. wow. IN this particular case, I am not going to make any effort on that tree. I have several new generations of plain old native dogwood going in the backyard. With their more shaded spots, and flanked by plants I am watering, they are doing better.

Proper watering IS an art and takes experience. I am thinking of plants that have gone dormant or partly died, then receive a gush of water, couple days of soaked soil, causing root rot, similar to what many potted plants probably succumb to.

Crop simulator sound very fun too thanks!

***Proper watering IS an art and takes experience. I am thinking of plants that have gone dormant or partly died, then receive a gush of water, couple days of soaked soil, causing root rot, similar to what many potted plants probably succumb to.****
(wish I knew how to "box" comments.....

Sally--Your last comment about plants that have dried out to the extent that heir root systems have shut down
is evident in several Houseplants--especially Ivy. They go bone dry--and then get a load of water--roots are dead--and still wilt.
Common reaction--OH! I must give them more water---leads to more root rot, etc... The plant will never recover from this.

I lost my Red Maple years ago. We had another VERY serious drought in the mid--2000's. Was it 2004?
I loved that tree--on my front lawn. The year of the drought, it seemed OK--but I noticed several, whole branches drying up towards fall.
There was no other symptoms.
The next spring--the whole tree was dead. Not one green leaf! Gone! Should have watered the tree more....:o(

When it gets this hot and dry I soak even the mature trees about once a week. Gita, In the drought you mentioned we lost a Frasier fur that had been planted 3 years earlier.
I have a rain water collector on the pool but these breezy hot days really pushes the evaporation rate, I may even have to water it. :-{ Ric
Thanks for the thread and all your research Judy!

Ric, when you say you soak even your mature trees once a week, how much water do you figure you give them? And what is your preferred method of "soaking"? And when do you do this? Time of day?)

Do you have enough well capacity and water pressure to run two hoses or watering devises at the same time?

I like learning that trees prefer to drink at night but haven't figured out how to move the hose three or more times a nite so as not to overwater and under sleep!!

Guess my next step is to investigate "timers". Have been reading through some of the threads on the Irrigation Forem here on Dave's.

Your pool full of water and aspenhills pond must give you all a sense of "back up water" security that those of us tied to "city water" don't have. Plus what a way to cool off!

Side story here:
It was a hot sticky night, before the days of air conditioners, in an old second floor apartment in the heart of Brooklyn. No air was moving and sleep was impossible (sweaty sheets, you get the picture)

This apartment had one feature that seemed odd to me, a bath tub located next to the kitchen sink. Desperate to cool off, i opened all the windows while I ran cool water in the tub., shut off all the lights and climbed in about midnight. Ahhhhhh...

I awoke the next morning, cool, rested, and wrinkled like a prune everywhere!

Yep, watering is an art, even for people.

WooHoo, We got almost 1/2" of rain last night, since it was overcast yesterday the ground was cooler and it soaked right in, instead of turning to steam.
For trees I use a soaker hose and may leave it for up to 1/2 hour and not use it too late in the season, so as not to stimulate new growth. For small trees I sometimes us a 5 gal. bucket with a small hole in the bottom and fill it twice.
Our well has been good to us, and since I did all the plumbing, it has 1" mains to the hydrants and house supply and 3/4" supplies to all the bibs but one, so yes we can run multiple hoses.

Judy,When I lived in Trenton, I started out with a third floor walk-up. No ac, and wiring so old you wouldn't plug one in if you had one. I remember sleeping a few nights on the fire escape. Since we were only 4 blocks from the train station the trains would clack you to sleep. LOL Ric

This message was edited Jul 14, 2012 9:33 AM

Judy, HAAHAHAHAAHAHAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, what a wonderful memory, of that tub of days gone by!! How long did it take you to un-prune from that??

Threatened storms all day and not a drop of rain

Same here----

Got home around 7-ish--and the skys were ominous and it was looking like rain any minute...
Driving home from work--I had to use the wipers...just a bit....
Heard the thunder----saw the pavement get a bit wet----OH JOY! Finally rain!!!!

HUH! Less than 1/2 hour later--there was no trace of rain. Bummer!!!!!
I was hoping my yard would get watered--au naturelle.... Gita

It only rained for about 20 minutes at my house on Saturday (while I was out watering), but it poured for over an hour at work... funny thing is, the rain gauge showed only 0.8 inches. Hmmmmm

We got another 15 minutes or so of a downpour here at home last evening. Where did all the all-day-long-light-rain go?

finally received some rain around 10pm but what a difference a few miles make, here only .36" but a few miles south of me .92" but that also came with a lot more violent storm with high winds

We ended up getting 0.45"s all total yesterday, giving us about 0.9"s for the week. May have prevented the loss of a lot of our local corn crop that most farmers got in a bit early this year. I know it sure helped here. Our deficit is not as bad as eastern lower tier Pa. I think they're still down as much as 3"s between here and Philly. In all I probably got close to 2"s in the pool. Ric