Water-in-fall

With hardly in any rainfall in weeks, we are experiencing an autumn drought. Plants are stressed, and thus become susceptible to future insect and disease problems. With winter only a few weeks away, continued lack of water will be harmful to your landscaping.

To ensure that your plants make it through the winter, it is important that they receive adequate moisture now. In autumn, plants repair their roots, grow their tree trunks and develop flowers for a beautiful display next spring.

Please insure the health of your plants by watering well now. Trees, shrubs, evergreens and groundcover planted within the last two years should be considered newly planted, and are particularly susceptible to this stress. However, given the extent of this drought, we recommend watering well-established plants too. Please note that even if leaves have fallen, plants continue to need adequate watering until they go into winter dormancy.

Plants need to receive adequate moisture during dry periods. Watering should penetrate 8” – 10” into the root zone to be adequate. This means at least one hour of watering with a typical sprinkler. A measured inch of water will do the job. Put a pie plate in the area being sprinkled so that you know when a full inch has been applied. This may involve soaking your plants with a hose or sprinkler for several hours. Water throughout the growing season (the time between the last and first frost) until around Thanksgiving for leaf and root system development.

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