WATER ALERT!!!

[Pharmer Phil]

Most Of us Gardening Pholks have had a WHOLE bunch of rain, early on...
This causes are plants to produce shallow roots.
Now, with all the rain, when It finally gets Nice, it also gets Dry for our shallow rooted,previously rain-soaked roots.
So Now that it is 80, the sun ...Hot...the winds blowing...
Water them, if it's been more than 4 days since your last rain,providing you Have Had a Long rainy stretch.

then water them four days after that, This will Keep the roots that are on top, from drying out, and gradually decreasing your watering to Once a week, with a deep watering of an inch a week, will cause them to go deeper!!!

A check In the garden, and around the base of our plants, revealed roots that were less than an inch from the surface, in dry soil!

[Sheri]

Thanks for that info. I watered one of my gardens because it looked dry, but I guess I should check the other. We have had gallons of rain this summer but it's been dry for several days. I think it's supposed to rain again tomorrow but I better check tonight just in case it doesn't. Oh wait. It's thundering right now. Gotta look out the window.

[Pharmer Phil]

It don't take long for them to show signs of being dry, when They have had soooo much, for so Long!
I wish we could get 1 good rain, once a week, maybe on a Monday!

[lilsparrow]

Not to picky there, are ya Phil? It would be nice if we could get it on a schedule though!

[Compost Pharmer]

If you guys have any extra rain, please send it my way. The month of May we had about 3 drops. We are about 10 inches below normal for the year, and it is getting worse.

[douglas]

When yer right yer right phil, I checked and have water yet in my soil but the top is starting to dry some and my plants wilt a bit so I hope soon they grow deep for the hot days to come.

[Songbird]

We've already left 80 behind! Today, it's 91 and it's supposed to get progressively hotter into the week!!

If I left my garden for 4 days, there'd BE no garden!

I've been watering as deeply as I can, about every other day. When we got the one heavy rain, I was able to wait for three.

[douglas]

Good for you songbird, I have to refill my barrows again today or tomarrow to to save my squash and pumpkins from death

[jeanette]

ha ha phil that's what we want to, coarse we'd like our inch on friday about 4 so we won't have to work the weekend...

[squashnut]

Some thing else you might want to think about if you have been having alot of cloudy days, your plants may not be used to the sun any more and could be subject to sun burn. i had to put some shade over some cukes of mine as the leaves started turning a little white.

[douglas]

Yep, I know what ya mean SquashNut, I use burlap when it gets too hot

[Songbird]

HMmm ..never thought of that!

[Pharmer Phil]

squashnut, unfortunately, it don't wait to be cloudy to rain in Minnesota...heck it'll rain on a sunny day...as well as a cloudy day.
But the Points well taken, and some of us are in areas with really intense sun.
The above watering guidelines should have been tailored a bit more to include some of the variables in climate and soil...I apologize, HOWEVER, even tho the garden is looking dry, you, by the same token, don't want your plants roots to be water-logged,Which will also cause some wilting (due to lack of Oxygen to the roots). Take a spade and dig in a bit, some where near, but NOT next to your plants, See what the subsoil moisture really is like , in the root zone area.

[jeanette]

hey phil i got my inch of rain for this week... how bout you? did it storm up there last night? we lucked out and the bad stuff missed us. the wind blew pretty hard for a while. i haven't been to the garden yet to see if anything was damaged

[Compost Pharmer]

Down here in Texas this month I may have had a whopping 1/2 inch of rain. Looks like we are having another drought again this year. We had no rain at all the month of April and about 1 inch during May. We are at least 12 inches below normal for the year. I still water the garden every day and the trees everyother day. I was out mowing my front yard tonight and spotted a crack about 3 - 4 inches wide. I had to be careful not to fall in it. Sure would like to find a rain dance chief and get some of the that wet stuff.

[Strongtower]

Heeeeyoooo Hayo (stomp stomp) Haaaaaaayyoooooohey yooooo (stomp stomp) Hayyyaaaaaa heeeyoooo (shake rattle)

(and for good measure)
yodel lay hee hoo!

Last time I saw rain in Texas on the news yall were flooded.....

[Pharmer Phil]

Hey Strongtower, make that rain directional...We don't be needin' any here!! _{clouds drifting in as I type, obscuring the moon}

[douglas]

Boy we sure could use some of that here, we had a small storm last evening but it only went in about 1/2 an inch or so.

[Strongtower]

When I was a kid and my dad was pretty "deep in his cups" he always showed me the indian rain dance. It is plenty strong spirit. So do not sing or say this if you do not want rain !! ;D

[lilsparrow]

That's funny Douglas~in the time it took me to drive home from work this afternoon (50 minutes) hubby watched a full 2" fall in our back yard. Talk about gushers!

[douglas]

We always have storm watches but it all goes around us

[Songbird]

sounds like my town most of the time!
We must be in a valley or something.
It's been a great spring here though! Can't complain one bit!!

[Laura]

We have had more then our SHARE of RAIN.. The Garden is growing like crazy..but it is too wet to go out there and do anything. We had yet another storm roll through this morning..Rained like he77.. We have eneough water in the driveway for all the Birds to take a bath in!!