Ruud Kleinpaste: The perils of too much water

So far, this winter of ours has been pretty wet. Yes, complaining might not help at all, but it pays to do something about the soaked soil.  

Inundation is a health hazard for plants: constant wetness causes a range of diseases, many of which will be fatal.

Drowning roots stuff the oxygen balance, causing severe stress, discoloration of leaves, blisters on stems and leaves, leaf-fall, and die-back of branches.  

Often the plant, shrub of small tree will become infected by one of the root-rot species.  

The name Phytophthora comes to mind as it is quite violent in the way it attacks whole rows of plants. 

Once a tree is infected there is very little you can do to “save its life”. If you are quick to diagnose this root rot fungus, you can try some Plant Health Buxus Blight Buster – follow label instructions and spray the affected trees/shrubs regularly.  

I reckon that a prevention of stagnant water is the best way to save you a heap of trouble: dig some narrow ditches that will take the water away to lower levels. It pays to have a garden with a decent amount of “fall”, allowing the water to move off the premises.  

Then there are plants we keep in large outdoor pots. And like our indoor plants, the most common cause of death is overwatering of those plants.  

Our winter deluges outside can be lethal.  

Ensure that your large outdoor pots have plenty of drainage holes in the bottom  

Check that those holes are not clogged – check them every now and then  

Remove the trays or saucers (which are handy to keep moisture around the roots in summer but not in wet old winter). 

Our climate disruption is becoming worse every year, and I don’t see it turning around any day soon. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Eight to eleven non News Talks. He'd be our man
in the Gardener's Rude Climb past, and he is the
master of the understatement. He sent me a note this
week that begins with these words. So far this winter
of ours has been pretty wet. Oh, I think is
past you, sir?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
But have we Did you spot the the typical thing?
That's what it's about, isn't it? But it's also causing
a lot of troubles. But by the way, goodness me
two cars? Yeah, which one did you see?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I saw the colorful one? I don't know what I'm
sorry to say, Yeah, I mean yeah, well so not
only the two cars. I actually think I'm my favorite birds. Sorry,
we'll come back to the to the rain in just
a moment. Are the hummingbirds? I could watch all day?
They are incredible. But they they move like the snitch

(01:04):
moves and the Harry Potter films, And that's not a
very good enalogy, but the fact that they can kind
of go forwards and backwards, it's just so amazing. I
could honestly, I find the mesmerizing, so Yeah, it's a
real treat to be able to.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Abst be wonderful. Yeah, and anyway, jealous, I've never been
in I've ever been in Costa Rica. I've been next door,
of course, in Panama, Venezuela, Equid or all these places,
but never in Costa Rica. I've always wanted to go there.
So I'll ever chat about that another day though, very good.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
We'll have to. I think it would be your kind
of place. I think twenty five percent of the country
has been given over to national park, so I think
it was just the optimistic that it would be a
client pass kind of the part of the world.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah, yeah, auro crusal proluction kind of world.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yes. Anyway, to the rain.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, if it rains too much and your plants are
constantly inundated with water, your roots do not know where
the heck to go. This is a hazard for the plants.
You get five top three, you get pityu and fusarium,
i'm malaria, all sorts of root ross. So this is
what we're from now on on talk back radio. I
bet you we'll get a hell of a lot of
questions about whole hedge rows dying as a result of that.

(02:15):
So I just want to say, you know, keep your
keep your stuff clean. If you like clean of water,
if you get if it's on an angle, why not
get nice little if you like, you know place that
you can actually get rid of the water. Just steer
it away, steer it to the neighbors, for instance, which

(02:38):
it is always very anyway. Yeah, you go, but what
are you Quite often you can see this with the
stress of the plants, this coloration of the leaves that
blisters and the leaf for you can pick it quite
quickly and and it is really hard check to do
anything about it. You've got to be quickly on the

(03:00):
ball to get these things going. And you know, one
of the good materials is that planned of boxes lightbuster.
I like that name. The plant helps boxes lightbuster, and
that can actually control some of these root rot species
like fight offtra et cetera. As long as you are

(03:20):
on the ball, that's basically what it is.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
A yeah, so a little bit of tal landscaping is
very a smart idea.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
You don't want to be digging a whole trench, but
if you can just try and divert some of the some.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Of that you've got that drainage away.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
From from your most vulnerable plant.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
That makes a lot, especially especially if you've got a
slight hangar if you like in your garden that you
can actually take it away so it's not all The
second thing is then that's a really good one. Some
of the plants are really good to put in big pots,
like large pots, but they need to have holes, drainage holes,

(04:00):
good drainage holes in the bottom, and check those drainage
holes are not clogged. All these things count in this case.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
And remove all and first, if you've got them on
trade sources, remove the plants from the trays and sources
and let them dry out. Honestly, it's the only way
to go.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I made the
mistake last season with my passion for it. I didn't
have big enough holes in my pot. So I learned
that the hard way. But that's really really good advice
because we're going to do everything we can at the
moment to drown to dry out plants. After a couple
of weeks we've had Thank you so much. Rude route
climb passed in the garden for us years Every Saturday
Morning

Speaker 1 (04:36):
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