The depressing consequences of the drought

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Santa Cruz gets all of its water from surface runoff. There's no draining of any aquifer, and we have to limit the amount of water taken from the surface runoff in order to protect the riparian corridors. Since Winter rains failed for the most part last year, we're stuck with severe water restrictions.

To stay within the limits, this means picking my battles and distributing the little water we get to a subset of plants. The results are pretty drastic.

The degree of dryness we are experiencing is simply mind boggling. The soil is so incredibly dry, my entire garden is just a survival zone. I'll be happy to not loose too much this Summer. But some losses are inevitable. I even had a brahea armata planted from last Summer shut down and start to die due to lack of water. it took quite some soakings to save it. Contrary to popular belief, brahea are only drought tolerant if they have found ground water.

Specific losses or setbacks:

1) Dypsis utilis: complete failure, stunted growth. This is a swamp palm, and even though it tolerates cool weather (it's from 3,000 feet elevation) if the ground is dry it shuts down.

2) Bismarckia: I've got several bismarckia, but I've only got enough water to spoil two of them. The other four are on subsistence, and are growing very, very slowly. The two that are getting spoiled by 2-3 soakings a week are quite fast for Norcal standards.

3) Livistona maria, this has suffered a lot, this is really a crappy palm for California, mine ONLY grows the night after a good soaking. I can't afford the water this nasty water hog requires. These things may come from a dry part of Australia, but they clearly grow on wet river ground only. Part of me wants to yank it and toss it on the compost, what a horribly poorly adapted palm for any Mediterranean climate: doesn't like wet and cold and needs massive amounts of wet when it's warm.

4) copernicia prunifera: nothing, I mean nothing could keep this thing alive. It was growing in some horrible soil mix made up of sand and peat moss, the worst combination ever. It kept drying out even if the surrounding soil was somewhat wet. I moved it once, but the problem just repeated itself. So In finally yanked it, bare rooted it and planted it in a pot in a new medium. It might come back to life in the greenhouse, i give it 10% chance to make it.

5) Copernicia alba: I can't get it to grow. It just needs a soaked ground. My sandy soil just won't cut it for this palm. I think even if I could get it to grow as a juvenile, it would be so seriously stunted from lack of water, it would cost $50 of water just for this one palm to saturate the ground enough to get it to grow. It's in suspended animation, alive but not really pushing much growth.

The rest of my palms all seem to grow for 2-3 days after the weekly drip and then stop until the next cycle. There's no question to me that the limiting factor is rarely temperature. Usually, it's lack of water.

This is really frustrating. This Winter I am investing in 20,000 gallons of water storage, that's the only way my garden would even stand a chance to make it long term.

[Miccles]

Sorry to hear all of that. I really hope you get:- a) some replenishing rainfall over your winter a sensible group of non-gaia administrators for your district.

[SailorBold]

I cant similarly relate but understand your battle with soil dryness... and the increasing cost of water in my area.. I live on a aquifer- however, when we have water 'restrictions' it typically just means no spray irrigation between 10a and 4p. How do your water restrictions work out there? Is it rationing of sorts?

Are you intending on harvesting rainwater from your home?

[Jim in Los Altos]

The rainy season can't come too soon! The long range forecast is showing some possible rains the first and second weeks of October. My fingers are crossed.

[_Keith]

You are putting up and admirable fight and not doing so bad. Cheers to rain this winter, lots of rain.

[MattyB]

I have problems this time of year too, especially on my rocky south facing slope area. How much mulch do you have down? I've found a dramatic difference when I lay down a couple inches of compost and then top with 6" of mulch (chipped tree trimmings). Even if you can only do it in a 5' circle around the palm it makes a world of difference. Like Brahea armata dying back even on water once a week, to it actually growing.

[KennyRE317]

except for my pair of Dypsis leptochielos and a triple A.cunninghamiana everything else just gets their water from drip, once a week rougly 1-3gal per watering. this current heatwave is the 2nd time this year that we've been at or over 90° which is our end of summer blast but i'll hose water everything in the middle of the week. so far I've been pretty fortunate and everything looks pretty good out in full all day sun but like Matty I have a nice thick buildup of mulch around all the palms

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I have problems this time of year too, especially on my rocky south facing slope area. How much mulch do you have down? I've found a dramatic difference when I lay down a couple inches of compost and then top with 6" of mulch (chipped tree trimmings). Even if you can only do it in a 5' circle around the palm it makes a world of difference. Like Brahea armata dying back even on water once a week, to it actually growing.

I took your advice from last year and put mulch down everywhere. It helps a little. But it's not enough.

[trioderob]

what is your water limit ????????????????

[daxin]

Ewing irrigation sells a water-absorbing polymer product called Aquasmart Pro. It is supposed to be much improved over the old clear white stuff in that it would not pop out of the soil by itself. I've been using it for my container plants and it seems to work well. Now for your in ground plants, I think it will definitely help during summer, but I am concerned that it may keep the root zone too wet with our winter rain. Maybe you can treat a quadrant of your drip zone with this stuff and put a rain cover over that same quadrant during winter.

[gyuseppe]

Sorry to hear this, I think about how am lucky, here we have a lot water, a lot of rain and also very wasteful of water, the authorities do not do anything to conserve water, fountains publiche always open, water thrown away unnecessarily !,while in many parts of the world people die from thirst

[Tyrone]

I hope things work out better for you in the future. Any attempt to collect and save what falls from the sky will be a step in the right direction for you. For us growing palms and plants away from the wet tropics or places without much summer rainfall, having a good water supply is almost more important than warm average temperatures.

[Cikas]

Sorry to hear this, I think about how am lucky, here we have a lot water, a lot of rain and also very wasteful of water, the authorities do not do anything to conserve water, fountains publiche always open, water thrown away unnecessarily !,while in many parts of the world people die from thirst

Same here in Dubrovnik. We have alot of ground water and many natural springs ( Dubrovnik area is lying on large quantities of groundwater ). So water is never an issue here. Even in dry summers. We can use as much water as we want ( Especially in Trsteno where I live, water here is very cheap, because we have a huge amount of ground water we can use.).

And this year summer, in the real merditeran was very very rainy. Climate was more like humid-subtropical than merditeran. Dubrovnik got 358 mm ( 14 inches ) of rainfall so far in september on a square meter. And that is only september. July and August were also record rainy.

September 1. we got ( in only that one day ) incredible record 191 mm ( 7.5 inches ) of rainfall on a square meter.

In true Mediterranean, we have completely the opposite problem. Climate is becoming more and more humid every year. In this rate Mediterranean will become humid-subtropical in the future.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Cikas

[Mandrew968]

Axel! I hate that for you-was reading this post and started getting the urge to play some smashing pumpkins, then I came to my senses and felt better with your water collection system; don't let it bring you down! Wish I could ship up my extra rain-has been everyday for a week now.

[Sabal Steve]

what is your water limit ????????????????

I don't know if Axel falls within the City of Santa Cruz water guidelines. Sounds like 10 units, or 7480 gallons per month.

http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/departments/water/conservation/regulations/water-restrictions

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Yes, that's the quota for a household of 4. We have a household of 8, so our allotment is more, 2 extra unit per person. We are barely scraping by.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

The latest casualty: a trunking chambeyronia has spear pull. Ben was over here this Morning and we discovered it together. I've soaked this palm several times this Summer, but it didn't make it. It was a $300 palm I planted last year. That's a real painful loss. Hard to tell if it was lack of water. I lost two large chambeyronia so far, my guess it's a combination of not enough water, sandy soil that doesn't retain enough moisture and acclimatization. I won't buy another big chambeyronia. All the ones I have planted as small seedlings have thrived for years even under water stress. There's something to be said for planting small.

Every year I have far more Summer casualties than Winter casualties. Keeping the hillside irrigated is almost impossible, not to mention an endless battle with moles that turn the hillside into swiss cheese.

Stay tuned for the autopsy report, I am digging this one up later today. I needed a spot for a clinostigma, well, this is the spot.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Axel, Don't put the Clinostigma in the ground unless you can guarantee it won't dry out between waterings. The several I planted this summer are getting almost daily waterings even though they are shade planted. BTW, they're lovin' the water and responding well.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Axel, Don't put the Clinostigma in the ground unless you can guarantee it won't dry out between waterings. The several I planted this summer are getting almost daily waterings even though they are shade planted. BTW, they're lovin' the water and responding well.

Thanks for the advice. The issue with the water is due to the soil the palm was originally in. I am not worried about planting something else there, I just need to make sure it's the right soil mix.

This brings the 5g and up peat moss grown palm death rate to 100%. This palm got 6 gallons of water per week via drip and an additional 10 gallons of manual soaking. Despite this water regiment, the peat moss repelled all the water and the palm simply died. The potting mix looks like 70% peat moss and 30% pumice. This is a great mix for Florida but it's a death sentence in a dry California garden unless you have it sitting in clay where the water pools in the clay hole.

I have literally tried everything under the sun to get peat moss grown plants to grow in my garden. It's simply a no-go for me. My sandy soil just makes it so these rootballs dry out and the palms die. I just simply cannot grow anything grown in peat moss unless it's a 1 gallon or smaller and I grow it to a 5 gallon size in a better soil mix. Even adding 30% bark makes a huge difference.

I am taking pictures and I will post in another thread.

[Pip]

Water restrictions are never much fun I'm sorry your watching beloved plants shriveling up.

People can get very passionate about dobbing others in for water misuse. I can remember some very ugly behavior towards elderly people during the last round of severe water restrictions Adelaide endured. It was to difficult and dangerous for older residents to manually water their gardens after sunset or in the early mornings so that portion of the population were exempt and could use water in their gardens regardless of time of day. My grandmother stopped watering all together after receiving threatening letters and began planting plants from more arid locations.

Despite the potential environmental damage I'm glad Adelaide now has a desalination plant although I think we will always have to live with water restrictions in some form. I have a few large rainwater tanks that supply the house and garden. For about half the year I don't need to use town water supply. I do have a third option for water to as there is an old bore at the bottom of my yard but it needs a bit of work before it can be operational I have my fingers crossed that it will be good and the quality of the water be suitable to use, salinity could be an issue.

[gyuseppe]

Sorry to hear this, I think about how am lucky, here we have a lot water, a lot of rain and also very wasteful of water, the authorities do not do anything to conserve water, fountains publiche always open, water thrown away unnecessarily !,while in many parts of the world people die from thirst

Same here in Dubrovnik. We have alot of ground water and many natural springs ( Dubrovnik area is lying on large quantities of groundwater ). So water is never an issue here. Even in dry summers. We can use as much water as we want ( Especially in Trsteno where I live, water here is very cheap, because we have a huge amount of ground water we can use.).

And this year summer, in the real merditeran was very very rainy. Climate was more like humid-subtropical than merditeran. Dubrovnik got 358 mm ( 14 inches ) of rainfall so far in september on a square meter. And that is only september. July and August were also record rainy.

September 1. we got ( in only that one day ) incredible record 191 mm ( 7.5 inches ) of rainfall on a square meter.

In true Mediterranean, we have completely the opposite problem. Climate is becoming more and more humid every year. In this rate Mediterranean will become humid-subtropical in the future.

yes is so,only problem is that suddenly fall from the sky real bombs of water, with the victims

last episode occurred in a region called Puglia,

https://www.google.it/search?q=bomba+d%27acqua+gargano&espv=2&biw=1024&bih=475&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3HMWVPzDCYaVauXqgpgM&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg

[KennyRE317]

we have a household of 6 and have been anywhere between 8-16units a month (we get billed every other month) so I'm really wondering what's going to happen when I start planting a lot more. I know that the last few days I've already thought about reducing my front law by about 25% since I don't think my front yard planter is big enough and the grass areas use so much more water. i might add another island planter in the side yard and remove another chuck of grass in the back so i can store my pots and use it as a in yard sitting area

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

If I can get rid of the moles then I am at least half way there. One mole is haunting my upper garden, and the day after I apply drip I find most of my seedlings dug up entirely. Basically any part of the plant that is wet gets burrowed out, leaving massive holes, and stuff is croaking left and right. The roots just get trashed. I've already spend $80 on those stupid useless Talpirid mole bait. After placing a dozen of these worms in the tunnels, the worms actually disappearing, and the moles not disappearing, it's clear that stuff is 100% ineffective.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Axel, When you dig a hole for a palm seedling, do you cage it so moles can't get close enough to dig them up?

40% chance of rain Thursday!

[richnorm]

Drip + sand sounds like a challenge. Maybe try 1/2 the volume with twice the frequency? Do you water on a timer? Might be best to set it for the early hours. Good luck, does not sound like fun.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Hope things improve for you soon Axel .

We are very lucky down here in Tasmania with a small population 507 ,000 and a virtually endless water supply as the western half of Tas can get up over 2.5 M 120 inches of rainfall /yr with massive catchment areas used for Hydro electricity and water supply .

My controller runs the bubblers every 3rd day for 40 minutes . So i would find it hard to be in your position for sure .

Troy

[Mandrew968]

Axel, I agree that smaller palms planted, make better palms as adults, but most people don't know the difference and have little patience. As for peat moss--that stuff is great for holding moisture, if it is already wet. Since your soil is dry, it will pull the moisture from the peat, once that happens, peat can be pretty hydrophobic and it can be a B@$!% to re-saturate(even if your soil is damp!). I don't grow in Peat moss, but I do sprinkle it around my rainforest section to mix in with the mulch and soil--Mulch can be just as bad as peat; I have had mulch get really dry and once that happens, it turns almost into particle board and acts as a barrier between the water being applied, and the roots, underneath the particle-boarded mulch... I thought you said you had good rainfall, Axel? I seem to remember you mentioning you were not far from the redwoods and the temperate rainforest... I guess drought can strike anywhere; due to our low rainfall for this year, Turkey Point cooling canals are over 102F and very salty! The crocs must be cookin'!

Axel, things will only get better for you, I feel. Hang in there!

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Andrew, yes the drought can strike anywhere, our forests are looking very stressed as well. The moles are from the forest.

The peat moss does exactly as you say. The dry soil around sucks the moisture out and once the peat dries the drip just beads off and it's impossible to re-wet. Every single palm that had this mix died. It's a bummer because the two nurseries that use this mix have great paln choices, just not viable in my garden.

[_Keith]

Andrew, yes the drought can strike anywhere, our forests are looking very stressed as well. The moles are from the forest.

The peat moss does exactly as you say. The dry soil around sucks the moisture out and once the peat dries the drip just beads off and it's impossible to re-wet. Every single palm that had this mix died. It's a bummer because the two nurseries that use this mix have great paln choices, just not viable in my garden.

Axel, we have a slightly different problem with peat mixes in that with our heat and moisture, within a couple of years it has all rotted away leaving the root ball with no soil, just a bunch of roots sitting in the air. Here before we plant anything, we shake out as much of that mix as we can and then rinse out even more before planting in native soil. Of course the plants do tend to really sulk for a while afterwards, but the end result in a couple of years is a healthy plant adapted to local soils rather than a dead one.

[Kostas]

I have very good luck keeping palms in peat happy by keeping them wet all the time in summer,never letting the soil dry at all(of course,peat on its own is never my soil of choice and i rarely get palms planted in it. Blackpeat rich mixes though as great for me and don't have the problems of peat). Thankfully,i learnt my lesson with peat with Washingtonia and i lost one before i figured out what was wrong with them,the soil appeared moist but they were browning and drying. Pulling them out of the pot,revealed only a couple cm of wet soil and the whole rootball bone dry. So,after seeing that,i watered them every time i passed by them,multiple times per day and they began recovering. I fixed the problem permanently by increasing irrigation frequency to the point they could not dry out in between and they have been happy every since, and i do the same for any plant planted in peat. It works,though care should be taken in winter that the pots don't sit in paddles of water and keep the peat waterlogged for extended periods.

But for ground planting, i always remove as much as i can to reduce possible rot problems and prefer to plant partially bareroot unless the palm is quite root bound. In that case, the earthworms and other soil organisms make quick work of the peat, decomposing it and mixing it thoroughly with the native soil. But i am in an area wet for close to 9months a year,and there is always ground water below and wet areas from spraying the epiphytes and ferns.

I too have found L. mariae to be slow but it can be surprisingly fast when provided with ample water. I noticed that one i kept in deep shade grew faster than one in part sun and it threw me off. Then i thought that the one in shade obviously would remain wet for longer,so i increased their irrigation and the difference in speed is amazing but the shade grown one still grows faster and bigger! That means they need yet more water.....

My pot grown ones doubled in size this summer once i installed microsprinklers that keep the pot growing area wet....Thats truly a water loving palm that just isn't fan of cool and cold(in zone 8b/9a. Doesn't care the least bit in 9b/10a with 9months of wet,humid rainy season...),but does fine and is hardy in general.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Kostas, l. mariae is a rocket on ample water, that's my point. Those things are disgusting water hogs for being "desert palms". They want to grow next to a river where there is a ton of moisture.

[Kostas]

Hehe,yeah,roots in water and head in fire! But they are beauties!

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Hehe,yeah,roots in water and head in fire! But they are beauties!

I like that analogy! Sort of like a bismarckia.

Have you ever tried to bury a bucket below the root zone where water can just pool and not drain in just part of the root zone? I wonder if this would work with palms or the water would be too stagnant and cause root rot.

[MattyB]

Yes, this works, which is why I suggested it in your dead Chambeyronia thread.

[Kostas]

I think it would work for retaining some extra water for the palm, I have heard something similar being used for retaining more soil moisture for ferns(basically using pool liner to form

a shallow pool some cm below the soil,so that the soil in the middle would hold more moisture and provide somewhat the bog conditions some ferns need to survive)and I don't think there would be root rot issues unless the palm rootball was planted directly on it. But obviously,as the palm grows,it will fill the bucket with roots and that make it less useful,plus the bucket would inhibit the roots getting in it from growing down and anchoring the palm. So you would want a narrowish bucket that won't annoy the root structure of the palm much and compromise stability.