The drought continues, but we have been provided a small amount of relief with a few scattered thundershowers across the county. The showers have been very widespread, so only a few areas have received any rain at all.

I was fortunate to receive a light shower at my house Tuesday night. It came all of a sudden, lasted for no more than 10 minutes, and was then gone. When I checked my new rain gauge the next morning, I found that we had received about 3/10 of an inch of rain. Unfortunately, the high temperature the next day was close to 100 degrees, so that little bit of moisture on my lawn was gone in no time at all.

The vast majority of you reading this column are not farmers and are not experiencing major crop losses or do not live in wooded areas of the county with the threat of wild fires destroying your home. However, most of you do have lawns and prized ornamental plants in your landscape. Some have tried to irrigate their lawns, but the heat has been so intense and drought has been so severe that water cannot be pumped fast enough to keep everything looking good.

Most likely, your landscape has been damaged by the drought and heat. You are probably beginning to wonder what you can do to help it recover as quickly and as fully as possible.

Some landscape plants, such as dogwood trees, are not able to withstand drought and heat as much as other plants. Because of this it is not uncommon to see some of them dying during conditions such as we have experienced this summer. If we begin early enough to provide extra water for these plants and continue on a regular basis, we can usually prevent them from dying. However, most times we do not realize the tree is under extreme stress until most of the leaves have turned brown and fallen off.

The first efforts to save the tree should be to prune off all the obviously dead and almost dead branches. Plants dye during droughts primarily because they cannot get enough moisture from the soil to sustain the entire plant. Because of this it is best to remove some of the plant, so the limited amount of moisture can be available for the remainder of the plant.

Sometimes, we have to face reality, even if it is not something we want to do. Sometimes, we do not realize a tree is having problems until it was too late. When this happens, there is no option other than removing the tree from the landscape. Many times, even miracles will not revive the plant.

Centipedegrass is very popular and is the most predominate lawn in the southeast because it is very drought tolerant. It may be tolerant to drought, but it not immune. It can tolerate only so much.

Unfortunately, many centipede lawns in the county, including mine, have been severely damaged by the drought and heat. Once we begin to receive some rain, these lawns will begin to recover, but it will probably take several years to get them back to the condition we want them. But we need to keep in mind that this drought did not begin this spring; it has been getting progressively worse for several years. During the past several years, our lawns have repeatedly been under stress during the summers because of the lack of rainfall. At the same time, they have had to cope with unusual winters with very mild temperatures to cause the centipede to think it was spring and try to green up, only to be kicked back with another cold spell. So even at best, our centipede lawns were not in top shape to begin with this past spring.

When rains begin, it will help to rake out and remove as much of the dead mulch as possible. This will prevent the establishment of diseases in the lawns that can put extra stress on the grass. Keep the grass mowed to 1 1/2 inches, but do not mow during times it is under extreme stress, because this will weaken the grass even more.

Potassium fertilizer is responsible for vigorous root growth. Apply one pound of actual potassium per 1,000 square feet at least by the end of September. Your centipede lawn will go dormant at the first frost, which normally happens the first week in November in this part of the state. When your lawn goes dormant, it does not die; it simply turns brown and quits growing. This fertilizer should be applied about a month before this happens, so it will have several weeks to build a good root system to carry it through the winter.

My agents and I have made a special effort this year to provide information for everyone, homeowners and farmers, about how to deal with drought conditions. Contact us at 671-3276 for specific questions or more details. You can find more information about the drought on our home page.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 08/27/07