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container Dealing with excessive rain for container plants

EliteMcScruffin

EliteMcScruffin

I've been searching through the threads and haven't quite found a question or answer as directly as I wanted, so I decided to start this thread up.
 
Since about mid day yesterday it has been raining outside here in Katy (Houston area).  A lot actually.  Like a lot a lot.  I was a bit frustrated as I had planned to transplant the beautiful plants I received from CCN (less the bhut jolokia that didn't survive the trip) and had to postpone because of the rain, tornado warnings, flooding and whatnot.
 
The plants I do have outside are today looking droopy like they have been over watered (HA!) and the rain hasn't quite let up.  We're actually looking at rain through Thursday and will have at least 5" of rain if the forecast holds (I'm pretty sure we had near that yesterday afternoon alone).
 
Should I just leave them out there?  Will they be okay in the end?
 
If I need to get them out of the rain, It's going to take some drastic measures because I don't exactly have sheltered space for everything.  Should I maybe grab a few of the "prized" plants to protect?
 
Or am I just worrying unnecessarily and on the brink of overreacting?
 
FANTASTIC!  Just looked at the weather and the forecast was updated for rain through Sunday.  So a week of solid rain.  Yippee says my lawn at least.
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
TX needs rain, drainage holes on sides near bottom will work fine. Then sit back and enjoy the rain followed by the 2 pound mosquito. 
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Oh how your comment made me simultaneously laugh and cry!  I forgot to support one of my paprika plants and saw it fall over while looking at the monsoon out my back window.  Ran out there with an umbrella (not effective for sideways rain) and was working on staking it up when, in the middle of all that crazy rain, I had at least 5 mosquitos the size of one of those Bic pen caps land on my arms.  Yipes.  With my fence backing up to a water retention area for our MUD district, I tend to get the cream of the crop when it comes to mosquitos.  Had pushed it out of my mind until yesterday since they hadn't been much of a problem with recent dry conditions.
 
Oh, and the containers I'm using are all the fabric Smart Pots.  5, 7, 15, and 20 gallon depending on the plant.
 
the containers should naturally drain, there shouldn't be standing water or flooding in the container... Besides that you are probably just fine and have to wait it out.
 
if you didn't use a good enough draining mix i guess you will learn your lesson for next time to add more perlite / pumice / bark etc
 
ps. your rain is spinning up here to oklahoma but it's much weaker and we  get breaks... thanks 
 
I think I'm all good on drainage... used Fox Farm Ocean Forest which has about 15% perlite and added in more so the mix currently sits around 25-30% perlite.  Seems to be doing a good job though it's going to probably result in extra work once the hot, dry summer kicks in full swing.
 
Last year I had major problems when it rained for hours a day for almost 2.5 weeks. Even moving them under an overhang didn't help that much because it was constantly in the shade, and the humidity was so high.
 
This year I've increased my drainage by adding more perlite and plan on moving stuff under cover anytime its supposed to rain more than a couple days in a row.
 
You can make a relatively cheap overhang with pvc pipe and a roll of plastic. I wish I had another ez up, those are great, but a bit pricy..
 
Can you rig up a tarp? If the wind isn't too bad, that might be feasible. New baby plants don't like to get beat up like that, once they are about a foot tall, just grab a beer and appreciate not having to move sprinklers 24/7 with the odd day for mowing. :D
 
This goes along with ProudMarineDads topic. "Of should containers be elevated?" This is one reason for yes. If you're getting excessive rains. An don't have room or resources to cover. Then they are better elevated. As long as you soil mix has good drainage. Which yours sounds like it does. So the containers aren't just setting on the water logged ground. Ran into that problem last year. Too much rain an containers were just sitting in it. So put them on pallets this year to prevent the rice field issue.
Scoville DeVille said:
Can you rig up a tarp? If the wind isn't too bad, that might be feasible. New baby plants don't like to get beat up like that, once they are about a foot tall, just grab a beer and appreciate not having to move sprinklers 24/7 with the odd day for mowing. :D
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No they don't. Thought I was safe this year. An planted out Mothers day. Then it rained 12 straight hours. An got to low 43 degrees for several nights. Needless to say plants look like crap now.
 
Boost313 said:
This goes along with ProudMarineDads topic. "Of should containers be elevated?" This is one reason for yes. If you're getting excessive rains. An don't have room or resources to cover. Then they are better elevated. As long as you soil mix has good drainage. Which yours sounds like it does. So the containers aren't just setting on the water logged ground. Ran into that problem last year. Too much rain an containers were just sitting in it. So put them on pallets this year to prevent the rice field issue.

No they don't. Thought I was safe this year. An planted out Mothers day. Then it rained 12 straight hours. An got to low 43 degrees for several nights. Needless to say plants look like crap now.
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Agreed. If there are enough drainage holes - in combination with a well draining soil then the rains will never be a problem. The problem will lie in the fact that the ground floods, thus forcing the pots to sit in water (I have this problem from time to time myself). Other than that (as mentioned above as well), make sure that they are well supported! I've had some FL monsoons try to wreck my plants. I use bamboo stakes with 'stretchy' plastic ties (their advertised to expand as the plants stem grows as to never restrict it ... Think it's a MG product?)
 
     How about rigging up some kind of a "lid" for each pot? Just spitballing here, bear with me… Maybe, if all your plants are in a row, just lay a board along the tops of the pots (one on either side of the plants). This would shed most of the rain that would otherwise fall into the containers. If it gets windy puts some bricks on top to hold them down. 
     Of course there would be some limitations. For example, all of your pots would need to be the same height. Probably other problems, too. But whaddya want for free? Whaddya expect for 30 seconds of (slightly inebriated, very half-assed) effort?!
 
We sometimes get too much rain here, but still - I grew up in Houston and know what your definition of "excessive rain" is. Yours is typically quantity all at once over a handful of days, while here it can be week after week without a sunny day.
 
When it rains too much here, I move my plants (also in pots) into the garage and just leave the door open. That way they get as much light as possible without getting too wet. It's worked out well for me. When wind is your primary concern, you can either move them into shelter or lay them on their sides so that the wind hits the bottoms of the pots. (If the wind is blowing east to west, pot should be east, plant should be west.) That's less hassle than carting them and minimizes damage. 
 
dash 2 said:
     How about rigging up some kind of a "lid" for each pot? Just spitballing here, bear with me… Maybe, if all your plants are in a row, just lay a board along the tops of the pots (one on either side of the plants). This would shed most of the rain that would otherwise fall into the containers. If it gets windy puts some bricks on top to hold them down. 
     Of course there would be some limitations. For example, all of your pots would need to be the same height. Probably other problems, too. But whaddya want for free? Whaddya expect for 30 seconds of (slightly inebriated, very half-assed) effort?!
Click to expand...
 
I've been considering doing something like this for my plants growing in growbags. Since the top of the growbags can be manipulated I figured I could fold it down towards the plant then get a big styrofoam plate, cut a slot in it, and put it overtop. Not sure if you can find styro plates big enough for the average pot though.
 
Another option would be buying a can of fiberglass resin and some of those large construction paper sheets kids use for school projects. It is incredibly easy to mix and paint the fiberglass resin onto paper, you don't even need to use the fiberglass fibers if you put a couple thick coats on both sides.You can also make the paper slightly conical by cutting a slit into it then overlapping it on itself.
Although a roll of plasting sheeting would be quicker..
(one of my more occasional hobbies is making masks from comics/movies/games by using a program that converts 3d files into 2d pieces you cut out of paper, glue together, then fiberglass. The program is called pepakura for anyone interested)
 
Thats why i love growing on a sheltered balcony :)
Rain is ok, a massive flood not so...
Move them under some shelter or close your house walls at least.

Good luck

Datil
 
Whoa got lots of posts between leaving work yesterday and driving my car boat to work today.  So in the last 24 hours or so we got 8" of rain.  My dog loves it, me not so much, but I won't complain after the drought we had a few years ago!  I think we're in for another couple of inches over the course of the evening but let's hope not.
 
 
Boost313 said:
This goes along with ProudMarineDads topic. "Of should containers be elevated?" This is one reason for yes. If you're getting excessive rains. An don't have room or resources to cover. Then they are better elevated. As long as you soil mix has good drainage. Which yours sounds like it does. So the containers aren't just setting on the water logged ground. Ran into that problem last year. Too much rain an containers were just sitting in it. So put them on pallets this year to prevent the rice field issue.

No they don't. Thought I was safe this year. An planted out Mothers day. Then it rained 12 straight hours. An got to low 43 degrees for several nights. Needless to say plants look like crap now.
Click to expand...
 
 
Yeah I'm actually sitting the containers on a bed of mulch so they aren't exactly sitting in a pool of water.  The rains have washed away quite a bit of the mulch (advertised to not wash away with rain - marketing FTW) so I'll probably need to put more out, but the containers definitely aren't swimming... yet.  Smart Pots instructions actually recommend having the fabric pots sit directly on the ground/soil for some capillary connection hoodoo which I haven't read much into but sounds all sciencey.
 
While my tomatoes are LOVING this--one of them I swear has grown another foot in the last 48 hours--my peppers do look a bit unhappy but still in overall good condition.
 
 
JutsFL said:
Agreed. If there are enough drainage holes - in combination with a well draining soil then the rains will never be a problem. The problem will lie in the fact that the ground floods, thus forcing the pots to sit in water (I have this problem from time to time myself). Other than that (as mentioned above as well), make sure that they are well supported! I've had some FL monsoons try to wreck my plants. I use bamboo stakes with 'stretchy' plastic ties (their advertised to expand as the plants stem grows as to never restrict it ... Think it's a MG product?)
Click to expand...
 
As all great minds think alike, I myself am using the stretchy ties.  Well, at least now... I started off with "Plant Ties" which were just green twisty ties that rubbed my plants raw like a... hmm... better not finish that sentence.
 
 
dash 2 said:
     How about rigging up some kind of a "lid" for each pot? Just spitballing here, bear with me… Maybe, if all your plants are in a row, just lay a board along the tops of the pots (one on either side of the plants). This would shed most of the rain that would otherwise fall into the containers. If it gets windy puts some bricks on top to hold them down. 
     Of course there would be some limitations. For example, all of your pots would need to be the same height. Probably other problems, too. But whaddya want for free? Whaddya expect for 30 seconds of (slightly inebriated, very half-assed) effort?!
Click to expand...
 
I like the idea but ultimately, for many reasons including some you listed as possible, it wouldn't work out well with my setup.
 
 
geeme said:
When it rains too much here, I move my plants (also in pots) into the garage and just leave the door open. That way they get as much light as possible without getting too wet. It's worked out well for me. When wind is your primary concern, you can either move them into shelter or lay them on their sides so that the wind hits the bottoms of the pots. (If the wind is blowing east to west, pot should be east, plant should be west.) That's less hassle than carting them and minimizes damage. 
Click to expand...
 
Heh... I read that in one of your other posts not too long ago and had to dismiss it.  While a great solution, the day that my fiancée's car goes out to the driveway to sit in the rain while the plants get the garage as special treatment is the day I become a single man again.  I saw chileplants.com has more live 7 Pot Bubblegum which was really high on my wanted list, so ordering that today along with 5 other plants to hit the shipping requirements is going to get me in enough trouble!
 
Oh no... I just realized my Liquid Fence washed away with the rains and when I went running behind our house I saw no less then 6 rabbits near the fence line.  Better fire up that garden warfare thread again....
 
I agree with making sure the containers are raised, especially since they are the fabric pots. Can't have plants, especially peppers sitting in standing water. The fabric will allow the water to easily seep into the container.
 
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