Under a hot sun that afforded little or no rain, lawns, flowers, shrubs and trees are wilting -- or worse. One expert advised you leave the lawn alone, and focus your attention on the others.
"Grasses go dormant when it's hot and dry like this," explained Vince Crary, Otter Tail County Extension Educator based in New York Mills. He said your lawn will rebound when the rains eventually come around. "There isn't such a big danger with grasses."
On the other hand, Crary warned that trees, shrubs and flowers need watering.
"A large tree can respire 100 gallons of water a day," he said.
Respiration is the process by which trees give off water vapor as part of the photosynthesis process.
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Crary offered these tips to get the most of your watering:
- Water during the early morning or the evening hours.
"During the heat of the day, you're going to lose an awful lot of the water just to evaporation," he said.
- Don't put the hose against the trunk of the tree. Crary said you should consider the roots of the tree aren't just concentrated under the trunk -- they're as wide as the tree's canopy.
"It's the roots that take up the water," he said, "not the trunk."
"Water out into the drip line of the tree, not at the trunk," Crary added.
- Apply one-half of water to each tree or shrub twice a week. How do you know if you have a half-inch? Crary said you could use a soaker hose or spray nozzle and put a can or jar with a half-inch marked in that area.
"When you get to a half-inch of water, you'll know it takes 'x' hours to do it," he said.
- Don't use herbicides. Don't fertilize. That may sound counterintuitive -- fertilizer helps plants, doesn't it?
"When you fertilize something, you tell it to grow," he explained. "That will put some additional stress on it. Water is the number one thing we can be doing for them right now."
- For a young tree or shrub, drill a few small holes in a five-gallon bucket, and fill the bucket with water and place it next to the plant. The water will be released gradually.
- If you have any other questions, Crary said he welcomed calls to his office. He can be reached at (218) 385-3000.
