Freezing winds and frozen soil can lead to serious problems in your garden. Although in winter we often think that nature is resting and plants do not require our care, in fact, the lack of appropriate actions can seriously harm them. We tell you what to take care of in the colder months so that the plants survive the winter safely and look stunning again in the spring.
In winter, a common problem is physiological drought, i.e. the moment when… Even though the plant has water around it, it is unable to absorb it. This happens when the ground is frozen and the roots are unable to use moisture, even though water evaporates from the above-ground part of the plant. This is a phenomenon that most often affects evergreen species, e.g. thuja, spruce or rhododendron, which carry out gas exchange even in winter.
The first symptoms of physiological drought are visible at the end of winter, when the sun is stronger and the soil is still frozen. Then the leaves or needles of the specimens begin to turn yellow and the tops of the shoots dry out. It is also worth adding that physiological drought may occur even at positive temperatures, if the substrate was previously dry or deeply frozen.
If we want to prevent the problem of physiological drought, it is worth acting earlier, because when we notice the first symptoms, it may already be too late. For this purpose, we should carry out a dry winter in November or December preventive.
This is a strong irrigation of the soil around the plant so that the substrate is well soaked with water. Then, then when will freeze, it will keep the liquid in the deeper layers of the substrate, which will enable the root system to absorb water during the thaw.
In turn, in winter, if the temperature is above 0 degrees Celsius and the ground is not frozen, we can water our plants on dry and snowless days. This will increase their chance of survival.
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In addition, in order to avoid the problem of physiological drought, it is also worth increasing the immunity of plants in advance and strengthening the ability of the soil to retain water. Mulching will be helpful in this case. Therefore, it is worth doing them to limit evaporation and protect the ground from freezing.
Additionally, we can also regularly add compost to the soil and limit excessive digging. Thanks to this we will prevent physiological drought, a it will be abundant in organic matter.
We can also use anti-stress preparations to strengthen our plants before the colder months. This will reduce water loss through the leaves. It will also be a good idea to apply potassium fertilizers in autumn, because they increase the resistance of specimens and at the same time limit evaporation.
