Here in NH, we’re still behind on total rainfall. Very low snowpack the last two years, too, so groundwater is in rough shape. March was dry, and April has been only a little better so far. I know @alan looks forward to droughts for fruit quality, but it sure makes hard work of getting trees established. Let’s hope for some rain!
Yup, drought is bad for my nursery but summer drought is great for brix. My brother lives in NH so probably feeling it too, but hasn’t mentioned it. Things would have to get historically bad for him to lose access to water as he lives in Manchester. How’s your well? It’s not hard establishing trees if you have enough water to irrigate. They only really need a deep watering every couple of weeks if they are mulched and the soil holds a decent amount of available water.
Three acres of nursery is well beyond the capacity of my well during drought. I’m closer to the coast than you and rains lately have tended to hug the coast.
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Fortunately, I’m tapped off a main, so supply (usually) isn’t an issue. We had watering restrictions last summer, which hasn’t happened in our system in over 20 years. For me, it’s more the time than the supply, and feeling guilty about using water when there’s not enough going around. I definitely noticed it more for keeping the new perennials and mushroom beds/logs watered than for the trees, but my currants probably needed more water than they got. I work for the water company as well, so a drought is good for business from that perspective. At a certain point you have to worry about supply, though.
Week’s drought monitor report is out now - D0 has spread here.
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If you feel guilty, just take notes of neighbors with green lawns or clean cars. Establishing fruit trees quickly as about making food sooner.
Works for me.
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You should see how bad the southwest is shaping up so far this year. The western rockies are probably going to come in at around 50% of our annual snowpack.
Can we start putting solar panels over our irrigation canals rivers and reservoirs to save 50% of the water we need. Have you seen how much of the food that we actually eat that comes from california.
Never feel bad about watering your trees flowers and veggies while improving your climate when you have Prima Nocta lawn people around.
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We were dry in March (Maryland) until 2/3 the way in. Then got enough rain to push us to just above normal for the month.
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our drought was broke in the fall last year but now low snowpack and little rainfall is starting to set us up for similar conditions as last summer. i hope im wrong.
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I hear you, but if my only standard was “at least I’m not as bad as that guy,” then I’d be in a pretty unsustainable position. I do take some solace that most of my selections will be pretty drought resilient once established. It’s getting to that “established” part that’s the trick.
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piling on the woodchips or any mulch is a good way to fight a drought.
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Yeah, I do that, too. I have very sandy soil here. Dig down 2-12 inches (depending on the spot) and it’s like you’re at the beach! So the mulch helps, but things still dry out pretty quickly. There’s a pussy willow in the back corner of the yard that had been well established the year before, but it died back to the roots last year because I didn’t notice its water stress in time. I’m also at the earliest stages of beefing up the organic matter in the topsoil, so that should help in the long term. I’ve also started incorporating a rim around planting holes where there’s even the slightest slope to reduce runoff.
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i read somewhere that in sandy soil is beneficial to bury partially rotten wood 4-5in. down along the drip line of your smaller trees to help hold water there. kind of like a mini hugelkulture thing. might help buffer for a drought also.
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That’s an intriguing idea! A lot of my fruit trees got wedged in between the roots of the big trees we cut down last year, so I may have that going on already.
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Well, our slice of NH is technically out of the drought now. However, the next two weeks are looking warm and dry. Hopefully things moderate out over the summer. Not sure if I can handle another year of intensively watering new plantings.
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i hear ya! not much rain here either. not as bad as last year at this time but unless we get some significant rain it looks like we’re headed there again. a very wet oct/ nov. last year wiped out our exceptional drought. without that we would be in real dire straits right now.
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They’re saying NE IL is headed for the 2nd driest May on record
Forecast looks like rain for the next week. No records this time.
It also never fails that as soon as I put down grass seed, it stops raining.
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