Heat and water, Expert urges extra watering for plants, trees

Saskatchewan is heating up heading into August long.

Rick Van Duyvendyk discussed on the Greg Morgan Morning Show with Kevin Martel on Monday about how to keep your plants happy and healthy in the heat.

Van Duyvendyk is with the local garden shop Dutch Growers, and he gave some advice.

“Right now, if you have containers, you’re watering probably two to three times a day just to keep the wet in this moisture. So, you need to (keep them moist), especially with your vegetables … make sure that your moisture (is) consistent; otherwise, with your squash and your tomatoes, you’ll get what we call blossom end rot,” said Van Duyvendyk.

The City of Regina announced last week that this has been the worst year for Dutch elm disease. The disease is spread by elm beetles, and it ends up killing the infected trees. In most cases, the city will remove the tree before the disease can kill it.

So far this year, the City of Regina said they’ve removed over 30 trees due to Dutch elm disease, a record high.

“Insects are attracted to plants that are under stress. Mostly, that’s who they’ll go after first. Especially like the elm beetle from the Dutch elm disease,” said Van Duyvendyk. “Keeping those trees watered and hydrated is huge. Sprinklers … just doesn’t do the job, it only just does a little bit for the grass … If you think about these big spruce trees or big elm trees that are thirty, forty feet tall, that’s not enough water to water them.”

“You need to go out and do a deep watering. One way to do that is just put your hose out there on a little dribble and just let it dribble slowly so the water’s not running down the gutter,” said Van Duyvendyk.

“Even the trees out in the boulevard … just once a month, give them a good soaking, is enough to put them through this drought time that we’re having,” said Van Duyvendyk.

Van Duyvendyk also shared some tips on keeping your grass green in the dog days of summer.

“Grass needs about (the) equivalent of one inch of rain a week. You can figure that with your sprinklers, put a little tin pan out there. When your sprinklers come on, you’ll know if you need to put them on for fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or forty-five minutes … each day. Then that’ll give you enough that your lawn will look great and not look brown at all,” shared Van Duyvendyk.