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Warm, dry winter stressing trees, shrubs
After months to years of surviving drought, central U.S. landscape plants may soon find that life is getting worse. If they're lucky, their owners watered deeply in late fall, to ensure the plants were well-hydrated before winter set in. "Since then, however, we've had so many warm spells that trees and shrubs have been losing moisture much faster than they normally would. In Kansas, some areas have received much needed moisture. But other areas have not, and this could fairly quickly lead to life-threatening plant damage," said Ward Upham, horticulturist with K-State Research and Extension. The ornamentals likely to be affected first and worst are the evergreens and young deciduous plants, Upham warned. They'll be particularly vulnerable if dry when the season started. "Fortunately, wintertime balmy spells can also be long or warm enough to create the conditions needed to irrigate," he said. "Frozen soil can't absorb water. Cold soil can." A number of factors--including cloud cover and nighttime temperatures--can affect how fast topsoil thaws, Upham said. So, he recommends that plant owners start testing after two to three mild days in a row. The easiest approach is to try to push a rod, piece of rebar or long screwdriver into the ground. "Gardeners are more familiar with doing this in summer, to test how deeply they've watered. Once a rod reaches dry soil, you can't push it in any further," he explained. "But a rod will also stop when it reaches frozen soil." Irrigating a few inches of thawed soil might be a waste of water, Upham said. Supplying a root zone-wide drink that reaches 8 to 12 inches deep could save a tree's life. "You have to irrigate slowly, even if that means putting out water buckets with holes in their bottom," he advised. "Also, water at least as far out as the leaf canopy's drip line."
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