We have been living in wildfire smoke since July 3. There are 4 fires, 2 south and 2 north, less than 100 miles from Reno. The Air Quality Index (AQI), a scale going from 0 - 500 measuring the quality of the air. Our AQI has been over 500 - completely off the scale - several times! Its hard to breathe, even with an N95 mask.

Needless to say, my plants are suffering. But from what? The reasonable answer is lack of sun. Here is a picture of the full moon last night - look hard, just right of center.


But I'm beginning to wonder if plants suffer from air quality too. Here are two tomato plants, one lives in my greenhouse and the other outside. The greenhouse air is surprisingly good, even though windows open and close on their own. Apparently, if they are enough plants, they do purify the air.lol



The cucumbers, squash and green beans are dead. The tomatoes are going fast. The only plants looking good are the peppers (go figure). Perennial slow growers seem to be less affected by I have lost a dwarf weeping cherry and a very old azalea. I think the azalea is still alive but the cherry is definitely dead.

Any thoughts on air vs light quality and affects on plants?

Daisy, Logically, I think both. We've know for decades that air pollution damages forests. That smoke is pollution on steroids and lack of sunlight is a pretty basic problem.

I am heartbroken that you're dealing with that. It's all unspeakably sad—the total destruction to the environment, population, air, plants, wildlife, economy. Stay as safe as you can. It sounds like your greenhouse might be the best place to be!

https://www.growingproduce.com...
https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_pu...

Its not just the lack of sunlight, after all most plants can survive a few weeks of cloudy weather. Its the presence of unseen toxins in the smoke. Things like nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone. These can kill your plants.

And particulates like ash (even if you can't see it) can clog the pores of the plant and kill it.

The third whammy is heavy metals and other toxins being deposited on the soil and then working their way to the roots where they can damage or kill the plant.

You'll want to regularly wash off your plants foliage but avoid soaking the pollutants on the top of the soil deeper into the soil. Seems tricky but try covering the soil with plastic before rinsing the leaves. And bottom water where possible.

Run an air filter in any enclosed spaces like your greenhouse.

Where possible, cover your plants with row cover or something similar

After the fires end (!?!?) you might want to scrape off the top layer of soil if possible.

And take care of yourself. Stay indoors on bad days, change clothes after coming in from outside, get the hell out of there if it gets really bad.

https://botanicalgarden.berkel...

There's still sunlight even if it is cloudy (you can still get a sunburn on a cloudy day).

Daisy, if it's causing that much harm to the plants, what's the smoke doing to you? Can you take a vacation away from that area for awhile? I hope you at least have a high-end air purifier in the house. A tight fitting N-95 mask might help some, but it's hard to wear them all day.
I'm sorry your plants are suffering, but take care of yourself!!

I think it is a combination of smoky haze obscuring the sun and no rain. My area is suffering too, we also get those smoky haze..but I do know it is much harder on your side due to the proximity to the wildfire.

Adding too the absence of rain, so it is up to us to give water to the plants, or help them shake off those ashes and pollutants on them ..I really feel bad for the plants. And we are in extreme drought so got to be prudent in watering wisely.

On the flipside the smoky hazy lessens the summer heat intensity that would otherwise dry roast the plants.

I know exactly how you feel about the air quality. It is indeed so hard to breathe when AQI is too bad.

Daisy, your first priority should be yourself! Days and days of inhaling all those chemicals is very dangerous. Please take precautions!

I worry about myself too. I am in the house unless the dog needs to go out and then its a fast trip. Lucily my house is only 9 years old so well sealed and I'm using 1900 MERV filters in the A/C. But I feel too tired - obviously a house can't be completely sealed. I worry about Sumire (some of you remember her), her house is old (and leaks air like a sieve) and she has long covid. I just ordered her a whole house purifier and I'm thinking about ordering one for us too. They are predicting the fires will burn until December.

There really is no place to go and still be on the west coast and it sounds like you in the east are drowning! That leaves the middle... tornados.

Tarev is right, the west coast is dry dry dry. Reno has had about 1.5 inches of rain since January 1. Last year's total was 2.5 for the entiire year. The amazing part is Reno is not on fire (for once) - knock on wood. Its a Catch 22 - it doesn't rain so the ground dries, the humidity drops and the clouds can't form so essentially it can't rain. But the only thing that will cause the end is rain but it can't rain. So we get lightning without rain and more fires. The fires act like storms complete with tornados. The forests literally explode and can burn miles of ground in a day. The towns that have burned were gone in 15 minutes flat.

Water is in short supply - we can water 3 times a week. They watch water usage closely - I actually got a call from the water company last spring. I had an underground leak and would have never noticed until I got my bill - that could have been painful!

I hadn't considered some of the points all of you have made. People in the wildfire burn areas deal with all sorts of hazardous waste afte a fire. It did smell like burning plastic the other night. As my yard is wall to wall plants, I won't be removing any soil from it but its certainly a thought.

Daisy, I didn't know about Sumire but have noticed her absence. Please let her know I'm sending positive thoughts. To you, too.

There's a small pocket down here with neither fires, floods nor tornadoes. Generally I'm not the biggest fan of this state, but lately I'm feeling darn fortunate!

These days, apart from weather temps, it helps to monitor air quality especially here in the west coast. I really feel bad for your area Daisy, hope you stay indoors as safely as you can.

I use Air Visual app to see the Air quality around here and elsewhere around the globe. I do see your area right now is soaking in Hazardous levels for so many days now. Stay safe as much as you can. On our side we get Moderate to Unhealthy on some days. So our indoor purifiers are running in every room, aside from AC especially on unhealthy days. Going outdoors wearing masks is now double purpose for protection from virus and pollutants.

Rain is like a dream to imagine here these days...haizzz...

Yes, I'm using the Air Visual App also. Down to 363 - it was 470-something when I got up (yesterday it was 510). Someone at the end of my street has one of the monitors so my info is pretty accurate. For those who have never heard of this, the entire system is based on backyard monitors. Air Visual tells you which one to buy and hooks you into the system - kind of like backyard weather stations. Reno has hundreds of them so the information is very accurate for your location. Just find yourself on the map or let your phone JPS zero in on the nearest station.

My BFF is pretty close to the Caldor fire (she lives near Echo Summit, literally half way between the fire and Lake Tahoe) and her air is actually good at times but horrible at times. She and her dog have been able to go out and get some exercise in early morning but by about 2pm, its worse there than here. But the smoke imagery shows the smoke in wisps coming off the fire. I think she's close enough to be between wisps sometimes.

Daisy...


Many blessings for safety and good health especially for you and your family...pets, plants, and home included, and for all those suffering the terrible effects of what has been happening.

Daisy, how often are you changing the filter?

crawgarden said:Daisy, how often are you changing the filter?

Once a month...

👍

Don't tell Sumire but her air purifer just arrived and I can't get it out to her until Thursday. I'm going to use it - if I see a difference, I'll order one for myself.

Daisy, I very much hope that air purifier will help out - what a horrible situation

That full moon has been shining into our windows like a spotlight... in case anyone wants to move up here to the UP (and property is pretty cheap compared to almost everywhere else, too )

Near Houghton?

Well, that's a beautiful area, Rj - but my recommendation would be to move to the "banana belt" where I am - near Escanaba (center of the UP, near Lake Michigan). Much better gardening here

That smoke may/could give me a headache if it is day after day but here is an interesting report on nitrides; (Sulphur Dioxide not good for lungs)

Improving Air Quality by Nitric Oxide Consumption of Climate-Resilient Trees Suitable for Urban Greening

Nitrogen oxides (NOx), mainly a mixture of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), are formed by the reaction of nitrogen and oxygen compounds in the air as a result of combustion processes and traffic. Both deposit into leaves via stomata, which on the one hand benefits air quality and on the other hand provides an additional source of nitrogen for plants. In this study, we first determined the NO and NO2 specific deposition velocities based on projected leaf area (sVd) using a branch enclosure system. We studied four tree species that are regarded as suitable to be planted under predicted future urban climate conditions: Carpinus betulus, Fraxinus ornus, Fraxinus pennsylvanica and Ostrya carpinifolia. The NO and NO2 sVd were found similar in all tree species. Second, in order to confirm NO metabolization, we fumigated plants with 15NO and quantified the incorporation of 15N in leaf materials of these trees and four additional urban tree species (Celtis australis, Alnus spaethii, Alnus glutinosa, and Tilia henryana) under controlled environmental conditions. Based on these 15N-labeling experiments, A. glutinosa showed the most effective incorporation of 15NO. Third, we tried to elucidate the mechanism of metabolization. Therefore, we generated transgenic poplars overexpressing Arabidopsis thaliana phytoglobin 1 or 2. Phytoglobins are known to metabolize NO to nitrate in the presence of oxygen. The 15N uptake in phytoglobin-overexpressing poplars was significantly increased compared to wild-type trees, demonstrating that the NO uptake is enzymatically controlled besides stomatal dependence. In order to upscale the results and to investigate if a trade-off exists between air pollution removal and survival probability under future climate conditions, we have additionally carried out a modeling exercise of NO and NO2 deposition for the area of central Berlin. If the actually dominant deciduous tree species (Acer platanoides, Tilia cordata, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus robur) would be replaced by the species suggested for future conditions, the total annual NO and NO2 deposition in the modeled urban area would hardly change, indicating that the service of air pollution removal would not be degraded. These results may help selecting urban tree species in future greening programs.
https://www.frontiersin.org/ar...

Wildfire Smoke Boosts Photosynthetic Efficiency

https://eos.org/research-spotl...