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Tropical Storm Heading to Delaware - Help my Potted Plants!!

J

jodom

Hello all,
So I have tropical force winds heading my way tomorrow. All of my pepper plants are in pots...so my first thought was to pick them up and move them indoors. However, when attempting this yesterday with the first fabric pot, I quickly realized the pepper roots have made their way through the bottom and into the ground. I REALLY DON'T WANT TO DAMAGE THEM!!
 
After a quick research, I think the best route may be a burlap wind barrier tied to metal garden stakes. The fabric roll at Lowes is 3' x 24'. I wont cover the row of 20 - 7 gallon fabric pots entirely but at least make a decent outer layer covering about 70% of them to deflect a majority of the wind from both sides.
 
Any suggestions or concerns with this method?
 
jodom said:
Any suggestions or concerns with this method?
Click to expand...
 
Unless you are overly concerned of wind damage directly to the plants I would simply drive a cheap wooden stake alongside the plant as a precaution. My concern would be your burlap fence would act like a sail and potentially blown into plants damaging them.
 
wind gusts up to 70mph...i was also thinking about running chicken wire first so the burlap doesn't whip the plants. The plants already have 3 bamboo stakes per pot with garden twine wrapped around the stakes. I know how bad the winds can get and I fear the branches will snap and the plants will incur windburn.
 
That's not gonna work.  You won't keep 70mph winds at bay with burlap.  The burlap will be subject to "flagging" and will most likely tear.  If that happens, it can be whipped about, causing actual damage to your plants.  The only way to keep even a proper cloth from coming apart under sustained winds, is to keep it under tension, as they do with commercial shade houses. I would honestly just take them inside.  Pulling up a plant that is rooted in the ground through a pot is going to be the least damage scenario.
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With 70 mph winds from a tropical storm, you're looking at heavy defoliation.  If they're rooted, they may even get toppled, and roots pulled (when the ground is saturated from rains, it happens really easily).  
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Depending on how far you are from a coast, you may also get heavy salt spray.  I've lost more than a few plants to this.  Mind you, most of them were actual hurricanes.  Nevertheless, tropical storms can do the same thing.
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And finally, tropical storms have a tendency to bring about a week of rainy weather with them.  The next issue, is a complete flush of the media, followed by water logging.  That actually can be one of the toughest things to deal with.
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So in short - if at all possible, I'd think about taking them in.
 
I took your advice and pulling the fabrics pots up and took them into the shed. the roots are all small feeder roots so I would hope they could regrow easily after only being uprooted for a couple of days.
 
Taking the pots inside is the best thing to do in your case. I wouldn't be worried about plants catching up when going back outside specially if they are healthy, root system should recover by itself.
 
Honestly, I think you'll be just fine with the root issue.  In the long run, I've found this to be the best choice.  Even if it doesn't happen, it's good to go through those preparedness drills, and know what works, and what doesn't.  I wasn't able to adequately prepare for a storm one year, and I lost a 3+ year old plant that was absolutely beautiful.
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Hopefully, it'll miss you.  I just talked to my kid yesterday, and he says that it missed up completely, save for a bit of rain.
 
I'm with you...I have 28 potted plants inside my shed now. It's calling for 2-7" of rain and gusts up to 75 mph tomorrow. I'm not taking any chances. I appreciate your input/advice.
 
jodom said:
I'm with you...I have 28 potted plants inside my shed now. It's calling for 2-7" of rain and gusts up to 75 mph tomorrow. I'm not taking any chances. I appreciate your input/advice.
Click to expand...
 
You're welcome.  Best of luck to you.
 
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You guys are lucky most of my plants got destroyed by this damn storm not sure they will have time to recover [emoji20]

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Well, I just finished putting the plants back in their allocated spots. Glad i took them indoors! we had branches down everywhere! the only thing that didn't survive was my cucumber trellis as expected. Cukes will have to roam the ground from here on out. 
 
You get to be a pro at it, when you live in the sub-tropics.  I have several planters that are ~35 gallons - cut down from 55 gallon poly drums.  I have plywood sleds that I pull with braided baling twine to move them around the yard. :D
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Raised beds just get the "hurricane cut".  It helps to have an all year season, in that case.  But if I had to put up with those kinds of storms in a temperate climate, I'd never plant in-ground again.
 
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