Wilting Plants

Pam Hazelwood 7/18/2011, 10:18 pm

It's been so hot in Tennessee, I just cannot keep my plants from wilting. I'm watering every day and sometimes twice a day. I'm wondering if I need to put more MM in, or if it's just too hot for the MM to hold the water. This week it's supposed to be in the upper 90's and we haven't had rain in two weeks. ARGH!

**camprn** 7/18/2011, 10:32 pm

I would add some mulching material and not more Mel's mix. Can you get a hold of some straw (not hay, which has seeds), or shredded bark or do you have some homemade compost that you can use?

**camprn** 7/18/2011, 11:06 pm

camprn wrote:I would add some mulching material and not more Mel's mix. Can you get a hold of some straw (not hay, which has seeds), or shredded bark or do you have some homemade compost that you can use?

I forgot to add a link http://www.savvygardener.com/Features/mulch.html

BackyardBirdGardner 7/18/2011, 11:31 pm

While mulching will definitely help, I still believe there are weather extremes that even mulch can't save. Wilting is a plant's way of conserving what water it can. Plants lose moisture through their leaves, too. So, you can have moist soils, but if the weather is hot enough, the plant may still be losing water faster than it can take it up....therefore show wilting signs. It doesn't necessarily mean "add more water please." It can mean the plant is solely under stress. But, again, mulching definitely helps.

I would do whatever you can, but also realize you can't alleviate all of the stress of 100° heat.

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Wilting Plants

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