New Journal columnist Dick Poffenbaugh says there are many conditions can cause stress in your plants and stress in plants (as in people) can cause anything from illness to death.
Common causes of stress include the weather, crowding, soil, light, nutrition, disease and pests. Weather can have a major impact that results in plant stress.Root vegetables, for instance, are highly sensitive to lack of moisture. If you've got a drought or dry spell to deal with, Mr. Poffenbaugh recommends keeping a 2-inch deep organic mulch over a wide area around each plant.
Conditions that may cause stress include drought, too much rainfall, drastic temperature changes, strong winds, storms, etc.
No too many gardeners avidly enjoy the task of weeding, but crowded plants are stressed plants and should be thinned for optimum growth and yield. In fact, he cites the findings of a comparative study on how much heavily stressed plants yield versus those grown in optimum gardens -- it's pretty eye-opening!
The article abstract is here. You must pay to access the full article.
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