[Summit] anyone know of a plant doctor nearby?

[Breslers]

I am not an "expert" but I strongly suspect your problem is your soil.

Test your soil pH-
kits at home depot
This summer was a drought so you probably watered them. maybe even a lot.
Our faucet water is very damaging to growing things.
The pH is ~10 (Ammonia is 11)
Neutral water is 7 ; usual rain is ~5 - 6. Herbs vegetables & landscaping,
like 5 - 7.5
Prov has an exemption from the federal law of "7.5 - 8.5" because of lead
pipes.

Not only is each watering alkaline itself, but the pure H2O is used by the
plants or evaporates.
Whereas the chemicals added to make the water alkaline stay and build up in
the soil, making it MORE alkaline.

Part of why alkaline water is harmful is that- just as it does not easily
dissolve & carry lead or copper- it also does not dissolve or carry any of
the other nutrients in the soil..up into the plant. With alkaline water
your plant could be sitting on the compost pile and suffer malnutrition.

You might try the following- use those huge 2 gallon watering cans with tap
water *and a shot glass (~2 oz) of lemon juice in each can*. First couple
days you water.
After that go down to 1/2 oz lemon juice per can.  (I don't recommend
vinegar- it doesn't work the same, even though it's pH is the same as lemon)

Of course there are soil treatments you can buy to adjust pH.

Best bet is to set yourself up to collect rain water. I have 5 containers-
200 gallons, for my vegetable garden.  Even this dry summer I only needed
to use faucet water 3 days.

Mrs B.

PS This is a common 2 gallon can. You can unscrew the sprinkler part so it
goes faster.
https://www.amazon.com/Novelty-MFG-30301-Watering-2-Gallon/dp/B000O2R5FM/ref=sr_1_3/165-5014929-7493407?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1476837628&sr=1-3&keywords=watering+cans+2+gallon

Some may be able to see our rain barrel stuff on FB
https://www.facebook.com/fishel.m.bresler/media_set?set=a.853182154729262.1073741971.100001124562530&type=3



On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 4:58 PM, Howard & Annie Voss-Altman <
ahava27 at telus.net> wrote:

> I’m looking for a plant doctor to come to our house to look at our
> rhododendrons.  They’re dying, and I’d like to find someone who might be
> able to help us save them.  They’re old and well established, so it isn’t
> one of the obvious causes, like drainage or light.
> _______________________________________________
> Summit mailing list
> Summit at sna.providence.ri.us
> http://sna.providence.ri.us/mailman/listinfo/summit_sna.providence.ri.us
> SNA Website: http://sna.providence.ri.us/




-- 
FISHEL BRESLER'S KLEZMER & HASSIDIC MUSIC -
*funded in part by a Folk Arts Fellowship grant from the RI State Council
on the Arts*.
www.LinkedIn.com/in/FishelBresler
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://sna.providence.ri.us/pipermail/summit_sna.providence.ri.us/attachments/20161018/8d73e104/attachment.htm>