Watch Your Woody Vegetation for Harm Brought on by Environmental Stress
By Kristina Hughes, Clear Creek County Grasp GardenerIn spring of 2020 I observed my hawthorn, lilacs and roses have been struggling. They leafed out a lot later than regular and have been rising very slowly. My neighbors have been having the same points with their woody crops. There was far more winter dieback than regular, even on native crops. I consulted the Plant Diagnostic Clinic and discovered that the injury was a results of the sudden, excessive freeze that had occurred in April 2020, just a few months prior. There had been a heat spell and the crops had began to leaf out, then the temperature plunged greater than 40F. The primary spherical of development and buds had frozen. The crops then tried to push out leaves once more later within the spring, however by then it was very dry. Vegetation want water to fill out their increasing leaves and there wasn’t sufficient water within the soil at the moment for the crops to completely broaden the second set of leaves. I noticed that if the crops have been caught with stunted leaves for a whole rising season they might solely generate a fraction of the power that they might usually make in a season. Your complete plant can be weakened the subsequent yr. So I adopted the recommendation of the Plant Diagnostic Clinic and watered my woody crops very properly. It took a concerted effort to water by hand till the complete root zone down 12”-18” was moist. However I did it shortly and I watched my crops broaden their leaves to full measurement. I knew they might have a preventing probability of recovering from the freeze injury. Late frost injury. Photograph by Dana Ellison.I deliver this up now as a result of stress to woody crops can take a very long time to indicate up. The injury achieved through the excessive freeze of Easter 2020 can proceed to look throughout this rising season. This yr we’ve had a dry and heat winter which has added extra stress to the crops, so I’m going to proceed to look at my woody crops intently this yr and ensure they’ve sufficient water in the event that they appear to be they’re struggling. For extra data on freeze injury: Jeffco Clinic’s High 10 Plant Issues of 2020 Environmental Problems of Woody Vegetation (sections on drought and freeze injury) Jefferson County Plant Diagnostic Clinic diagnoses samples for a small price
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By Kristina Hughes, Clear Creek County Grasp GardenerIn spring of 2020 I observed my hawthorn, lilacs and roses have been struggling. They leafed out a lot later than regular and have been rising very slowly. My neighbors have been having the same points with their woody crops. There was far…