Heat brings challenges to Plantpeddler Trials

Added on 01 December 2023

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Heat brings challenges to Plantpeddler Trials

Photo: Rachel Gooder at Plantpeddler

This was a very challenging year for the trials in the Midwest. We did not get enough rain in July, August, and September to support the beds at all. I do not think it rained after early July, which meant a lot of irrigating on our end. We watered almost every day, with additional fertilizing at least four times per week. We were also hit with high heat early June, which is not usual at that time and which also stressed the pots.

With the extra stress on the pots, we had a few issues with certain crops. Dahlias do not like a long period of heat so they started to show stress earlier in August than the rest of the pots. Not a lot we could do to change that but talk to Mother Nature, who was not listening very well.

We do add a slow-release fertilizer to most pots in case we get a lot of rain during the season, but that did not seem to affect the plants at all.

In this year’s trials, we had 960 14-inch pots and 500 14-inch baskets. We are landlocked right now so cannot add any more, but have had requests every year to add more. Every year, different crops cause different grief, but I think this year was pretty normal. We had to fight the heat and dry weather, but thank goodness for automatic irrigation.