Hurricane Preparation

[Gin]

Hurricane Preparation

South Florida is the most hurricane prone place on earth. Situated as it is between the tropical trade winds and the temperate westerlies, either of Florida’s coasts can be affected by hurricanes traveling from the east or the west. With so much time, money, and emotion involved in our precious orchids a clear plan for protecting them is essential.

If they are few enough and space is available the obvious solution is to bring them all in. Water the plants throughly and allow enough time for them to drip dry before bringing them into the house or garage.

Larger collections that cannot be all moved inside present other problems. First, though it may seem contra-intuitive in face of the heavy rains that typically accompany a hurricane, the plants should be watered to the point of saturation. This will make them much heavier and less likely to be blown about or away. Electric power is frequently cut for days following a storm(after Andrew outlying areas were without power for two months) and one may not be able to water the plants for an extended period. Hurricanes are also sometimes "dry" with little rain but filled with wind bourne salt spray that can be particularly damaging to plants that are not fully hydrated. Following this saturating watering, if time allows the foliage to dry, the plants can be sprayed with a general fungicide like Thiophanate methyl ie Clarey’s 3336 (a spreader sticker is especially valuable here) to protect them from the diseases that will be blowing in and taking the plants at their most vulnerable; over wet as well as nicked and gouged by the battering of the wind.

All plants should be placed on the floor of the greenhouse and no plants should be left hanging. Wind speeds increase exponentially with elevation. The closer to the ground the better. If buildings or other large, secure structures provide windbreaks, plants should be placed in as close proximity to these as possible. Concrete floors of patios are to be much preferred to lawns or bare ground which when flooded will bring numerous soil bourne pathogens into contact with the plants. If the grower has sufficient heavy objects like cement blocks to use as anchors, the plants can be covered with shade or other cloth but such covering needs to be very well secured or if left flapping may cause more harm than good.

More than this cannot be done to protect the plants. The grower should turn his attention to protecting his growing facilities. In hurricane winds, shade cloth is a sail and poly ethylene film even worse. Both have sufficient wind resistance to tear even steel framed greenhouses to pieces and throw them to the ground. Both plastic and shade cloth should be removed or furled when the first rains and clouds of the storm make their shade no longer needed. In addition to protecting the shade house structure, this action is vital to preserve the materials themselves. After the storm, sunshine can return with startling rapidity, bringing with it the potential to burn exposed orchid plants. Indeed sunburn is often the most severe damage that results from storms. For this reason plastic and shade cloth should be carefully guarded. Furled tightly in place where it can be quickly re-spread to protect the plants is a good solution for category I or II storms. For more severe storms, the materials should be folded and carefully stored. Nothing will be of more value after the storm than shade. Hurricane Andrew left in its wake not a leaf on a tree or shrub that hung more than a foot off the ground. Bamboo, though stripped of all leaves, was the first plant to renew it’s foliage to delight the eye and provide welcome relief from the sun baked landscape.

Post storm activity is important also. First be prepared to quickly replace shade either on the structure itself or by jury-rigging shade cloth until the structure can be rebuilt. The plants themselves will have been severely stunned, bruised or nicked by buffeting winds. Often the plants will have been dark and wet for many, many hours. These conditions are the most highly conducive for fungal and bacterial development. While the plants are still wet they can be sprayed with a tertiary ammonia product Physan, Consan, or Greenshield (pool algicide contains the same chemical). This has the advantage of blending with the water on the plants to provide some immediate protection. Once the plants are dry again, they can be sprayed with a broad spectrum fungicide/bactericide. Cupric hydroxide (Kocide, Champion) mixed with Mancozeb (Manzate, Dithane M45) at 1 Tbs. per gallon of each should do a good job. Again a spreader sticker is highly desirable here.

The strategy for all the next few weeks post storm is to keep the plants as dry as possible (most will be moving toward more dormant states in September and October in any case). Close monitoring for disease development and excising damaged tissue as disease develops are essential. This should be done with a clean instrument that is disinfected between cuts, preferably with a supersaturated solution of tri-sodium phosphate or by flaming the cutting edge. Much wet weather can still be forth coming after a hurricane and disease control and prevention will be a long term task post storm. We all hope that none of us ever again need to know these things we old Florida hands have learned across the years but hurricanes are a price of living in paradise. The wise children are making preparations today for all the other storm needs; buying supplies, filling gas tanks, trimming trees, removing debris so that at the eleventh hour all efforts can be concentrated on what is truly important; protecting our orchids and other familial loved ones.

September’sNewsletter may be a few days late. We usually have very little time to answer individual questions and this month will have none whatsoever. The Dade County County Agent’s number is 305-248-3311.
This info. is from Motes I am not in Fl. but thought it might apply to other areas too, I did not know where to post it , sorry if it is in the wrong section . Gin