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Water rules
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Here
Today…
Soil moisture is a key component to happy, healthy,
and productive landscapes. When adequate amounts
of water are not available, roots dry out, die, and
plants quickly fail. Conversely, over-watering prevents
proper gas exchange, causing roots to suffocate from
a lack of oxygen. Suffocation occurs because excess
water displaces oxygen within soil pore spaces. Just
as we need air to breathe, roots require oxygen for
respiration.
Not
surprisingly, we commonly find many landscapes
in mid-summer suffering from a lack of water. When
discussing our findings, homeowners are often perplexed
because “we had so much rain this spring”.
It is an all too common belief that large quantities
of water received in previous months are still available
for plants later in the season.This, unfortunately,
is not the case. A useful analogy is to think of your
landscape soil as a kitchen sponge. A sponge holds
only a finite amount of water. No matter how much water
is poured on a sponge, once its water holding capacity
is reached, it holds no more, and excess moisture drains
away.
Similarly, large storms delivering 2 or 3 inches of
rain at one time provide no more benefit to the plants
than the first inch. Once soils in the root zone reach
the water-holding capacity, any excess water drains
away to the water table, and is unavailable to the
plant roots.
Continuing with our sponge analogy, consider what happens
when a brand new dry sponge is placed in water. It
floats for a long time before slowly absorbing water.
Water does not enter a dry sponge easily. In fact,
it is hydrophobic and actually repels water. Only after
the surface tension is broken does the new sponge absorb
water. This is the reason water cannot easily enter
dry, hardened soils. This is why light showers after
prolonged dry periods are often of little value to
water starved plants. Prolonged soaking is required
to break the soil surface tension, which then allows
water to penetrate into the soils and ultimately into
the roots of the plants.
It is important to understand that plants need consistent
watering, which penetrates soil 12-inches deep; this
generally translates into one inch of water per week.
Because soils hold only a finite amount of water, landscape
plants cannot sustain themselves for the entire growing
season from spring rains alone. Again, when soils dry
out and become hard, they will likely become impervious
to water. Accordingly, even more water is required
to break the surface tension and allow water to penetrate
into the soil.
For plants to thrive, consistent seasonal moisture
in the appropriate amount is required. We experienced
much overcast and rainy weather this spring and many
plants have reacted with lush productive growth. But
the wet weather this spring will not relieve us from
our responsibility to water during the hot and dry
weather this summer.
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