Trees & Shrubs Turning Brown? How Plant Health Care Restores Drought-Stressed Plants

Sometimes, Mother Nature delivers a pretty rough summer. She brings the dry weather and the drought and can be relentless.

This isn’t always good for trees and shrubs, which prefer optimal weather and moisture to ensure maximum health.

Even though Mother Nature is never predictable, there are things you can do to protect your beloved plants in Memphis and North Mississippi from drought and restore them to better health once this weather passes.

These actions include some of our best tips to keep your trees and shrubs healthy when Mother Nature isn’t your best friend:

• Water Wisely
• Mulch to Protect Root Zones
• Regular Fertilization
• Inspections and Pest/Disease Monitoring

Let’s explore these tactics to better understand how you can help your trees and shrubs bounce back after drought.

Key Ways to Limit Drought Damage on Plants

Drought stress on trees and drought-stressed lawns can look bad after a tough summer.

You might notice some of the potential signs, including:

• Leaves curling
• Leaves wilting
• Leaves (or needles on evergreens) drying out
• Yellowing of leaves
• Stunted growth
• Premature leaf drop
• Plants turning brown

While these signs can signal multiple issues, like diseases or insect infestations, if you’ve experienced a period of dry weather, no rain, and high temperatures, these symptoms are likely reflections of drought stress.

What can help your plants recover from a tough, dry season? Plant health care.

Your local landscape professional can offer plant health care services at multiple levels, targeting your unique property needs and budget. And a plant health care program can help your trees and shrubs recover from drought stress.

Here are some of the tactics plant health care services incorporate to ensure a better bounce-back after Mother Nature delivers her worst, as well as some other important care when dealing with drought.

Water Wisely

Proper watering is essential during periods of drought.

To avoid drought damage to plants, water at the tree or shrub base to reach plant roots. Avoid watering from overhead, which can promote disease.

Professional Irrigation installations can be programmed to water in a timely manner, and technicians can calibrate your system to put water where it's needed most. 

Even if you don't have a professional lawn sprinkler system, you can still plan to give your plants water the old-fashioned way. Water in the morning and aim to get water to your plants' roots (and not their leaves). 

Mulch to Protect Trees and Shrubs

A proper layer of mulch can ensure drought damage on plants stays away.

Why? Mulch protects plant root systems by insulating the soil and roots from the hot sun and acting as a wind barrier against evaporation.

While mulching also looks great in your landscape, it really helps your soil retain water, which is great for dry times of year.

Regular Fertilization

The fertilization part of plant health care services, which happens multiple times throughout the year as part of your program, ensures your trees and shrubs have the proper nutrients they need to thrive.

Fertilization strengthens their overall health, allowing them to better withstand environmental stresses like drought.

Our plant health care teams can apply professional products on a monitored schedule. Keeping your plants healthy and resilient with regular fertilization can help them navigate drought stress when the dry season arrives.

Inspections and Pest and Disease Monitoring

One of the great things plant health care can do for trees and shrubs turning brown is ensure the problem is not disease-or insect-related.

This happens through quarterly or bi-monthly inspections. This is when a professional monitors the overall health of your plants so they can identify any potential problems early and address them.

And in Memphis and North Mississippi, piercing/sucking insects like lace bugs, aphids, and scales are notorious for attacking weakened plants. Regarding diseases, root rot and bacterial leaf spot can infect plants when watering is out of balance.

This means if your trees or shrubs are weakened by drought and susceptible to pests or diseases, they can be caught immediately, and your plant health care professional can initiate a treatment program.

Protecting plants from diseases and invasive pests helps prevent damage and avoid deteriorating health. In this way, plant health care helps protect your landscape investments, reducing your risk of losing valuable plants.

Avoid Drought Damage on Plants With Plant Health Care in Memphis and North Mississippi

By incorporating plant health care, proper watering, and mulching into your regular care and services for your Memphis and North Mississippi landscape, you can help your plants fight drought damage.

If you do experience extreme drought conditions, this kind of correct maintenance can help your plants bounce back better, keeping them healthier.

Your next step is choosing the right level of plant health care program for you and your landscape. Many companies offer multiple service levels. For example, Lawn & Pest Solutions offers three levels, including basic, ultimate, and our 360 program.

Selecting the right one for you means looking at the types of trees and shrubs you have, their health condition, certain challenges you are experiencing, and your budget.

If you have plants like azaleas, camelias, pyracantha, and crape myrtles, for instance, you may need some targeted insect prevention tactics. Fine-needled evergreens like cypress can also require these to prevent bagworms.

Finding the right partner to help you keep your plants from drought stress and injury can be challenging. We hope these tips help you focus your efforts and better understand what you’re looking for as you seek a professional company to care for your beloved trees and shrubs.

Ready to learn why Lawn & Pest Solutions should be your choice for plant health care services in Memphis, TN and Northern MS? We’re excited to learn more about you and help you have the best trees and shrubs on the block. Get started today with a free quote. Together, we can prepare a customized plan perfect for you and your yard.