Purdue Extension drought and heat information and tips

Dear Friends,

The weather forecast for the next 10 days shows that it will be dangerously hot in the Tri-state. According to The Weather Channel website, the temperature is supposed to jump from a high of 104 degrees on today (Thursday) to highs of 105/106 on Friday and Saturday for the Jasper/Huntingburg/Ferdinand area. It will remain over 100 degrees until Monday, and then hover in the upper 90s for the rest of next week: http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Jasper+IN+47546:4:US.

I urge ALL of you to be super careful out there! This is dangerously hot weather!! Not only is the temperature high enough to cause serious health problems, but the humidity is supposed to be low throughout the event. Now, this may make it feel more comfortable, but this is deceptive: you run a higher risk of dehydrating, because your sweat will be evaporating faster than usual. In addition, the U/V (ultraviolet light) index is going to be super high because the sky is so clear and cloudless, so sunburn can occur very quickly. There have been numerous ozone alerts, which may make breathing difficult, too. Remember, too, that there is a burn ban throughout most of the tri-state.

I urge all home gardeners, grounds crews and landscapers to get their work done by 11 am, and keep yourself and your staff in an air-conditioned place until early evening. This may make it difficult to get your job done, and I understand that, but how much work can you get done if you get heat stroke or worse? Consider innovative ways to do get the job done, such as adjusting work hours for early morning or evening work.

Keep hydrated!! Be sure all you and employees have access to cool water at all times. Instruct your employees to take frequent breaks in the shade.

Speaking of water: according to the US Drought Monitor (http://www.drought.gov), southwestern Indiana is in Extreme Drought. Elsewhere on the site, they predict that the drought will persist or intensify between now and the end of September. This is severely bad news for those of us who make our livings with green plants.

If you can irrigate your properties, do so! The amount you spend on water is a drop in the bucket (sorry) compared to the cost of replanting lawns and landscapes. It is better to irrigate heavily once per week, rather than a little bit every day (annual flowers and containerized plants would be the exception). Your goal is to apply 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week. You may find that the soil is so hard and dry that water will simply run off the surface. In this situation, water in small amounts (1/4 inch), then give the site an hour or so for the water to soak in. Then, apply another 1/4 inch. Continue until you’ve added the full inch of water. This is time consuming and labor intensive, but will avoid wasting water.

Annual flowers have a very shallow root system, and cannot survive and look their best on a once-a-week watering. Containerized stock should be checked at least two or three times a day: stick your finger in the pot down to the first knuckle. If it’s dry that far down, water! Hanging baskets, for example, regularly need to be watered three times each day in heat like this.

Newly planted stock (anything planted in the last 2 years) should definitely receive water. Shrubs and trees in wells need the same amount of water as lawns, etc. If you are set up to water individual tree wells, remember that slightly more than 1/2 gallon of water per square foot = 1 inch of rain. A 3 foot by 3 foot well is 9 square feet, so you’d want about 5 gallons. That should be enough for 4 or 5 days (don’t overwater!). You will want to fill a bucket with your irrigation hose to time how long it takes to apply 5 gallons. Workers will need to be conscientious to water each plant sufficiently…trying to rush it will lead to cheating some plants of needed water.

Turfgrass areas that cannot be watered sufficiently to keep them green will still need to be watered to keep them alive. Applying 1/2 inch of water every 2 weeks or so will keep the crowns hydrated. The lawns won’t green up measurably; but they’ll remain in a dormant state. If and when the rains ever return, the lawn will be able to green back up on its own. If this cannot be done, the brown lawns will be brown from death, not dormancy. Reseeding this fall may be difficult, as the drought is forecasted to continue through the end of September.

Avoid fertilizing non-irrigated or under-irrigated areas. Either the product will just sit on the surface and not do any good, or it will stimulate a flush of growth which will be more susceptible to heat and drought injury.

For more information on weather, visit the Extension Disaster Education Network:

Drought: http://www3.ag.purdue.edu/extension/eden/Pages/drought.aspx

Heat: http://www3.ag.purdue.edu/extension/eden/Pages/heat.aspx

Health Tips for Hot Weather: http://www.in.gov/isdh/23143.htm

Also:

Efficient Irrigation of Trees and Shrubs (Utah): http://region8water.colostate.edu/PDFs/hg523.pdf

Efficient Irrigation (N. Carolina): http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/ag508_6.html

My Lawn is Brown and Crunchy… Is it Dead? What do I do now? (Purdue): http://purdueturftips.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-lawn-is-brown-and-crunchy-is-it-dead.html