Viewing post #443857 by webesemps

ericabag said:

Can the water here be killing them. Yuma is all farming and the water that comes back to is has so many chemicals. you can not drink it without a reverse osmosis system. Regular filtering does not help. Is it possible with the water we have, that the plants are starving? If possible any thoughts on what to give them
Some water that has leached into the water table can have high concentrations of minerals that can be harmful to plants. A neighbor of mine never used her acreage's well water because of the high salinity. You may consider having your water tested. Your plants may not necessarily be starving as it may be getting too much of something.

Could overheating affect only a single stem at a time?
I can imagine that a stem laying across hot gravel in 110 degree weather can get fried or stems one at a time rotting in soil that has poor drainage.

Can gravel cause an issue?
It may help to maintain too much moisture in the soil which may cause rot to the plants. You did not mention nature of damage to stem: rot or dried out?

I don't know if you can answer this, but would it do damage at this point if i went in and moved the earth around underneath the plants without uprooting them, or would this be to much of a shock?
If you are moving the earth around to amend for better drainage or aereate or weed around the plants, it would probably be OK but uprooting the plants may be too much of a shock in the hot weather.