Heat, humidity, lack of rain – all things that can stress some of the plants in your garden.
And there may be some pests that will take advantage of stressed plants and thrive in these environmental conditions. Be proactive by keeping your plants healthy by watering.
- Watering
Deep, weekly watering is a must. Fall watering up until the ground freezes is also critical. This water must penetrate to the depth of the rootball to be adequate. A saucer formed around the planting hole reduces run-off. Most plants that fail in the first season do so because of inadequate watering practices. A newly-installed plant does not have an established root system, therefore, it is much more susceptible to extremely dry or wet conditions.
If your plants are not looking healthy, and have been recently planted in the past 2-years, you may bring in a sample. But first, do a little investigative work: make sure the plant isn’t planted too deeply, check to see if it’s being watered enough or too much, look under the leaves to see if there are any pests hiding there, and check for pin-holes in the trunk that could be related to borers. If you need help with a large established tree, an arborist can often identify the cause and offer treatment.
If you have questions about our guarantee, please check here.
A wonderful resource is the University of Maine Extension and you can send them samples. While we do our best to diagnose any plant issues you may have, we may recommend that you submit a sample to UMaine. Here’s a link to their website.
Pictured is spider mite damage.
