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Ummmm. The Sun? Am I crazy or is the Sun just a bit…different this… | Pests, diseases and problems | Planta community

Salem Owen

Ummmm. The Sun? Am I crazy or is the Sun just a bit…different this year. So hear me out, I plant Mammoth Sunflowers and this year I took to planting American Giant Hybrid? Sunflowers. My Mammoth seeds are generational, so I never repurchase those. The sun is literally baking them alive but the AGH seems to not be as affected. My cactus got burned. Fernando and I go way back we do and he has never been burned in a single afternoon. I’m located in Lubbock Texas on the High Plains. I can soak the soil and by midday it’s cracked. Im not crazy I swear. Is anyone else of the same mind???? Christ on a bike it’s hot out here.

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15 comments

  1. Avai M

    Yk, this other person on Planta named Shellie is concerned of a phenomenon at her place (she lives in the UK) and saying that she waters her plants (I think indoor) and by the time she wakes up, the soil is bone dry. This may be a coincidence but I just thought that your situation and hers oddly correlate very well

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  2. Salem Owen

    I really don’t get it.

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  3. Nikiller

    The sun do be really cooking it this year. My backyard here is Florida hits a heat index of 117°F almost every day, I had to get a cardboard box propped up on a chair to give my outdoor carnivorous plants some shade. I’ve been refilling their water daily for the past 2 weeks now because of the heat. I can’t exactly build a shade mesh like they have at the nurseries because of my apartment so we’re currently just battling the heat by watering at the peak of the heat so it lasts the evening and into the morning. This keeps everything moist longer I’ve found than if I water early in the morning. My gourd plant has grown to over 7’ tall during the hottest days of its life though and it’s creating a nice shade umbrella for our hibiscus and bush daisy at least. I can’t wait for the full trellis to become covered in vines so we have adequate shade for our outdoor plants.

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    • Salem Owen

      Water at peak heat? With your carnivorous plants? I just barely got a Venus fly trap. I got rolley poleys from out side and tossed them in there. Charles is busily breaking them down. So much fun! Any tips for keep VFT healthy?

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  4. Nikiller

    Put down some straw mulch to keep the soil moist and cool in your in ground plants

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  5. LadyTenorJD

    Central Florida here. Zone 10a. The sun is straight Satanic. I feel like it is worse than last year, and I am plenty more knowledgeable about plants now than I was this time last year. And yet, my sunflowers look like they're about to give up the ghost.

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  6. Plant Guy

    My cacti that I put outside for the summer burned all to hell this year here in WV also ..

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    • Salem Owen

      In West Virginia?! Holy hell brother

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  7. Salem Owen

    What in the Bill Gates is going on yall?!

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  8. Bonzoid

    It seems hotter/frypan like in TX this year I agree. I water in the morning and again lightly in the evening and it helps; just watch that the soils aren’t still wet in the morning from the evening before.

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    • Salem Owen

      I’m up here on the High Plains in Lubbock. I’m originally from the Permian Basin (Odessa). What in the Hot, Krispy, Kentucky Fried F@<k is going on. It’s too damn hot.

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  9. Salem Owen

    I would like everyone to know I learned that the culprit was my roommate spreading “weed & feed” instead of just a fertilizer. It contained an herbicide that lays waste to broad leaf plants. I don’t know what I’m going to do to fix this.

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    • LadyTenorJD

      Oh no!!!!!

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    • Salem Owen

      Any idea on soil remediation??? I’ve replaced the top three inches of soil. Someone told me to find Horticultural grade charcoal and..

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    • Salem Owen

      2- mix it into the soil.

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