We had a couple of real downpours here in Oakland Co. as well. I'm always in awe of how quickly things can grow given some water, fertilizer, and warm muggy nights. I planted some celosia and balsam (Impatiens) seedlings about 4" tall last weekend into some planters, used some osmocote and Miracle Grow on them, and they literally are about 10" to 12" tall in a week.

It was nice not to have to water for 2 or more hours each night -- other than touching up a few plants that tipped over in the storm so were dry, I haven't had to water for three days now.

Thats great Andy

All that dry air blows up from here-in part.

We are 22"+ behind on rainfall since last July 1.

I know what you mean about the dry air-I can water my plants
and no matter how much water I give them,it
always looks like they have not been watered..

And your right-you can water until the fish come over
but nothing replaces rainfall!

I have 5- 32 gallon buckets to collect rain water...I fill them with the hose )-:

Click for weather forecast

Jim-
I hope you get some rain soon. I do love what what it does for the palms but it does feel awful outside. The air in my car doesn't work so that's a drag, last Tuesday when the rain hit I was about to pick my kids up and I had to shut the windows to keep the rain out. it felt like a hot tub. it truly has felt like Florida the past 4 days. 80 when you get up and muggy. A couple of days have only hit 87 but that was because of the cloud cover.

We have been really dry here also with this heat. Nothing beats rain water and warm days for plant growth. The growth from my plants has not been too impressive despite the heat. But the bananas are finally growing at a rate of almost 1 new leaf a week so at this rate they should be getting to a nice size soon! All the palms grow consistently from spring to fall, I dont notice any of them growing better in the 90s than when it's in the 80s.
-Alex

Alex-
I agree 88 98 doesn't really matter, I think the humidity and summer rain is more important. I think the warm nights are just as important, Ive seen days where it was dry and in the mid 90s, there's not been a cloud in the sky, and then it fell into the mid 60s at night and I've seen hazy days like yesterday where it hit 87, rained on and off, was super muggy, and only dropped to 75 at night and the latter scenario always produces the greater growth. As i say that we hit 100 today for the 3rd time in 8 days. before last Thursday I doo not recall it hitting 100 in 20 years.

One of the major benefits of rain water is that it has a lot of oxygen in it. It also manages to dissolve a bit of nitrous oxide on the way down. Plants love it.

The garden center I worked at in a "past life" had an old grower, he was in his late 60s when I started there and continued to work until has late 80s, he was a neat guy all around and smart as all get out about anything horticultural. One of his tricks to revive plants with root rot was watering with dilute hydrogen peroxide solution. Plants do really like that, even healthy plants can get a boost from it -- 1 part to 10 parts water is sufficient.

I have always found that my tropicals grew best in the month of August when precip, humidity and high minimum temps tend to peak (though recently August has become a potential drought month here).. The rain is really different than opening up a spigot and hosing them down. So too, the plants we bring out for the season, actually needs couple of months outside before they initiate growth. I moved the bananas to a more shaded position to prevent heat stroke--definitely look better with half day sun compared to a very hot, sunny exposure.

I definitely agree, night temperatures are really important for tropical plant growth. We got down to 76F last night and my bananas noticably grew from sunset to when I saw them at 10:30am this morning. In fact, just this past hour it seems like my bananas have grown a little bit. It seems like this heat gave them the push they needed so now when temperatures return to the mid to upper 80s, hopefully they will finally start growing fast!Night temperatures are pretty much all 70s this time of the year here which is a really big help.
-Alex

I see fastest growth during hot and very dry days where it rises above 100f. When it does so humidity is much lower but night time temps are above. On normal summer days growth gets faster as temps get hotter and when they do humidity usually drops. But my tropicals are acclimatized to somewhat arid conditions and are irrigated often. And I can't really compare a humid summer day here with a dry one because there usually isnt any. Only our winters are humid.

However this year I did see a few odd days where humidity was really high here. Was around 50-60% for about half the day. Thats actually really odd to stay that humid here. Morning times are usually pretty humid but with in a few hours humidity is gone and often around 20% or lower way before noon time.

- US_Marine

Yup, seeing freak fast growth here on all kinds of things. Our low last night was 80, dewpoint was 74 at 6:00 this morning.

Now, if only the desirable plants would grow as fast as the weeds!

I don't know how to break it to you, but years ago, I was reading about climate change and what a big boast it'll give to the growth of weeds and insect pests. Additionally, toxic plants like poison ivy are supposed to get more toxic in a warmer world. Don't know if it's related, but just getting over some nasty poison ivy here. Be warned!

heat broke Saturday night, low -mid 80s the next few days and dew points in the 50s. it was 64 when i got up this morning, it almost felt like fall. Saturday was brutal, it was our 4th 100 degree day in 9 days.