Reviving Stressed Plants
2019 was the hottest year on record for Australia, with the temperature reaching 1.52C above the long-term average. There’s no doubt it’s been a very tough year on plants, so now is a good time to talk about how to get them looking their best again. Although, there has been some rain, you still need to keep up the moisture. It’s also important to give them a gentle feed. Unfortunately, many people think they should feed a struggling plant heavily at this time of the year, simply because it looks a little sick, has burnt leaves or has dried out due to a lack of moisture. Unfortunately, heavy fertilising encourages a lot of rapid new growth (particularly if the nitrogen level is high), and this leads to a large increase in leaf area. This new growth may not be hardy enough to survive another hot weather event, and as the…