Heatwave!

[Zeni]

I am getting the vibe that Western Europe is slowly getting a Mediterranean-like climate with wet winters and dry summers and won't be moist year-round anymore. 2018 was a similar summer to this summer, also quite dry.  During my childhood in the 90s I don't really remember summers being this dry here. Seeing grass this dry everywhere gives me a weird feeling like I am abroad or something in Spain or Italy. 

Could this potentially be a problem with planting Trachycarpus species here, especially neglected ones who don't get irrigation? One of my neighbors has been traveling since about late June and his trachy hasn't been watered since and it looks horrible now compared to the irrigated/cared for Trachys. 

On the other hand, neglected/unirrigated Chamaerops Humilis' in my area are very green still and don't seem to be suffering like some of the Trachys.

[Swolte]

On 8/10/2022 at 6:03 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

Wild. Mine are exploding with growth. 

I am guessing you are able to water them? I have a rather large collection of plants in unirrigated areas and I have to be judicious about what I want to keep alive. Its all about surviving. I've given up on the thriving for now. 

On a brighter note, I did get the first rain a few days ago. It was less than 0.1 inches but it felt like a curse lifted. Hopefully we'll get some heavy rain next week! 

[JohnAndSancho]

11 minutes ago, Swolte said:

I am guessing you are able to water them? I have a rather large collection of plants in unirrigated areas and I have to be judicious about what I want to keep alive. Its all about surviving. I've given up on the thriving for now. 

On a brighter note, I did get the first rain a few days ago. It was less than 0.1 inches but it felt like a curse lifted. Hopefully we'll get some heavy rain next week! 

I'm just down TX30 from you but yeah. I'm filling empty gallon jugs. (I live in an apartment) My jungle is obv much smaller, I'm only going through 15-20 gallons a week. Still have some palms on my patio that aren't happy with the heat. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Texas people - y'all ready to get some rain? 

[amh]

48 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Texas people - y'all ready to get some rain? 

I'll have to see it to believe it. I've become quite pessimistic to the possibilities of rain this year, but any measurable rain will be appreciated.

Record water bill last month, so hopefully august will not break the previous record.

[Zeni]

Looks like the dry mediterranean weather is over in Holland (and probably rest of the North Sea region). Still decent temperatures, but it has been raining more often. First day it rained again after a long pause it felt like a blessing. 

[Swolte]

This is the best it has looked so far. Let this hell of a summer end!!

[JohnAndSancho]

23 hours ago, amh said:

I'll have to see it to believe it. I've become quite pessimistic to the possibilities of rain this year, but any measurable rain will be appreciated.

Record water bill last month, so hopefully august will not break the previous record.

Welp. 

 

Expected hours of storms. Got some sky spit. I watched the radar and it literally went around me like Moses parting the Red Sea. 

 

Guess I'll be experimenting with Stink Water 2.0 sooner than planned. But the moment I mix up a fresh batch and experiment, we'll get another Harvey. 

 

 

 

[Xenon]

10 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Welp. 

 

Expected hours of storms. Got some sky spit. I watched the radar and it literally went around me like Moses parting the Red Sea. 

 

Guess I'll be experimenting with Stink Water 2.0 sooner than planned. But the moment I mix up a fresh batch and experiment, we'll get another Harvey. 

 

 

 

Oh wow that's rough! I hit the rain lottery and got a total near 0.5" from two seperate rain events: a convective storm just after noon and the evening "cold front" 

[amh]

40 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

 

Expected hours of storms. Got some sky spit. I watched the radar and it literally went around me like Moses parting the Red Sea. 

This is my 2020 and 2022. The worst part is that the storms always reform just past me.

Still walking on powder, but at least it was below 103F today.

[JohnAndSancho]

20 hours ago, amh said:

This is my 2020 and 2022. The worst part is that the storms always reform just past me.

Still walking on powder, but at least it was below 103F today.

We got rain today. I just emptied a bunch of saucers and bottom watering pots, and it's in the 80s

[amh]

4 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

We got rain today. I just emptied a bunch of saucers and bottom watering pots, and it's in the 80s

Still nothin' here.

[JohnAndSancho]

45 minutes ago, amh said:

Still nothin' here.

I'm conflicted. We needed rain but I just spent some money on chelated iron, humic acid, liquid kelp, and more fish emulsion to try a new blend of Stink Water and now I have to wait a while. 

[amh]

10 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I'm conflicted. We needed rain but I just spent some money on chelated iron, humic acid, liquid kelp, and more fish emulsion to try a new blend of Stink Water and now I have to wait a while. 

That's always the issue with droughts, you want them to end, but it happens to be at a somehow inopportune time.

[JohnAndSancho]

27 minutes ago, amh said:

That's always the issue with droughts, you want them to end, but it happens to be at a somehow inopportune time.

Lol I also get to yell at the landscaper for my work. After only 2 days of pretty moderate rain, it's really obvious where he put down weed n' feed and where he stopped caring. Like, there's hard lines of dark green grass and brown patches. 

 

Anyway, I guess if I wanted I can always experiment on my Stink Water 2.0 with one of the horribly ugly Knock-Out roses at work. Ehhh. anyway I hope you get some rain.  

[amh]

7 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Anyway, I guess if I wanted I can always experiment on my Stink Water 2.0 with one of the horribly ugly Knock-Out roses at work. Ehhh. anyway I hope you get some rain.  

The roses survived the '21 freeze? My area was thankfully wiped out. 

I actually love roses, but the knockouts are boring, overused, and spread disease(mainly due to advertising).

[JohnAndSancho]

39 minutes ago, amh said:

The roses survived the '21 freeze? My area was thankfully wiped out. 

I actually love roses, but the knockouts are boring, overused, and spread disease(mainly due to advertising).

Yeah. They don't look happy about it but they're alive. They're right against the building so maybe that helped? We never lost power since we're so close to the hospital. 

[amh]

7 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Yeah. They don't look happy about it but they're alive. They're right against the building so maybe that helped? We never lost power since we're so close to the hospital. 

They look unhappy as soon as they leave the store. The old fashion china and tea roses are so much more hardy, but they are no longer fashionable.

Edited August 20, 2022 by amh

[Collectorpalms]

7 hours ago, amh said:

That's always the issue with droughts, you want them to end, but it happens to be at a somehow inopportune time.

A drought like this takes month and months of rain to get to the root zone in my clay. I got two rains finally one about .2 the other about 1.5. The rains in winter are slower and soak better. Either way, I am thankful I got water in my tanks, but the plants that needed them are long gone.

Traveling yesterday over SE and Central Texas. A lot of dead mature trees, and a surprising amount of regular things like crape myrtles murdered, never saw those so dead.

I wish I never planted them, but they are almost only plant in CS that can survive on our water. You just have to actually water them!  I let them wilt, but finally gave in and watered them and they went back into bloom a couple weeks before the showers.

[amh]

11 hours ago, Collectorpalms said:

A drought like this takes month and months of rain to get to the root zone in my clay. I got two rains finally one about .2 the other about 1.5. The rains in winter are slower and soak better. Either way, I am thankful I got water in my tanks, but the plants that needed them are long gone.

Traveling yesterday over SE and Central Texas. A lot of dead mature trees, and a surprising amount of regular things like crape myrtles murdered, never saw those so dead.

I wish I never planted them, but they are almost only plant in CS that can survive on our water. You just have to actually water them!  I let them wilt, but finally gave in and watered them and they went back into bloom a couple weeks before the showers.

Still no rain for me and the temperatures are back above 100F.

The local crape myrtles are surviving, barely, but my area has deep soil and plants have adapted to prolonged droughts. The cedar elms are beginning to drop their leaves and go dormant, but this is not too unusual.

[JohnAndSancho]

Pros - we've been getting rain. This past week almost feels like normal. 

 

Cons - effing mosquitoes are back. 

[Collectorpalms]

Heat wave over for me! I have had about three rains, and the heat dome moved to the west for sure, its been more like a June, with humidity and scattered showers. VERY UNUSUAL.

 

Awaiting the first fall front that averages about the third week of September, but its been delayed more often now.

 

So Texans, my JxS and BxPJT survived the hottest summer. I wonder how BxPJS did?

 

I believe the J in the JxS is not very salt tolerant. , All the older leaves have fried tips. While I was correcting for potassium or magnesium deficiency I believe it received too many salts, plus just our salty tap water. So that baby is going have to get more organic fertilizer like compost etc... plus Langbeinite  to look good.  I used Palmgain 

 

[Las Palmas Norte]

On 8/13/2022 at 5:49 AM, Zeni said:

Could this potentially be a problem with planting Trachycarpus species here, especially neglected ones who don't get irrigation? One of my neighbors has been traveling since about late June and his trachy hasn't been watered since and it looks horrible now compared to the irrigated/cared for Trachys. 

We are seasonally H2O deficient. Summers are warm with periodic hot spells and very low rainfall totals. It's been more pronounced in recent years. If those trachys can't get some groundwater, they'll need supplemental summer water. They always respond & look better with some summer irrigation.

[Zeni]

3 hours ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

We are seasonally H2O deficient. Summers are warm with periodic hot spells and very low rainfall totals. It's been more pronounced in recent years. If those trachys can't get some groundwater, they'll need supplemental summer water. They always respond & look better with some summer irrigation.

Another issue here is that most urban areas have sandy soil as the Netherlands is very artificial and they have to use lots of sand in urban areas to prevent homes and streets from sinking in the natural swampy soil which retains moisture better. That thick sandy soil layer drains fast, so young neglected Trachys may look beat up in the summers. I have noticed the older taller neglected ones didn't look as messed up as their root system likely reached some moister deeper soil.

Based on this observation I don't think city planners will ever use Trachys as street trees, kinda sad but understandable.

[amh]

Still hot and dry for me. The temperatures are down to only up to 100F and over the last month and a half, I have received up to 1/2 inch of rain combined.

Still walking on powder.

[amh]

I had a storm form over me tonight that produced at least 1/4'' of rain; now I wont have to water for a few days.

[Foxpalms]

On 9/6/2022 at 8:14 PM, Zeni said:

Another issue here is that most urban areas have sandy soil as the Netherlands is very artificial and they have to use lots of sand in urban areas to prevent homes and streets from sinking in the natural swampy soil which retains moisture better. That thick sandy soil layer drains fast, so young neglected Trachys may look beat up in the summers. I have noticed the older taller neglected ones didn't look as messed up as their root system likely reached some moister deeper soil.

Based on this observation I don't think city planners will ever use Trachys as street trees, kinda sad but understandable.

Sandy soil is better for palms in the winter maybe not Trachys but here you want fast draining soil because it helps with queen's and the less hardy phoenix species as wet cold soil will cause root rot.  Same with the desert species nikaus and kings don't seem to mind wetter soil though.