Signs Your Garden Plants Are Suffering from Heat Stress

(KNSI) — Just like humans, plants can experience stress in extreme heat. Extension expert Minda Daughtry explains some signs of heat stress in a fruit or vegetable plant.

“You’re going to see that the growth is going to be inhibited, and your yields are going to be stunted. For example, if you’re growing tomatoes or a lot of your broad-leaf plants, you’re going to see the leaves wilting or rolling or cupping because those plants are losing water faster than they can absorb it.”

When that happens, the plant’s self-defense mechanisms kick in to conserve energy, so it minimizes how much sun it’s getting and reduces moisture loss. “You’re going to get some leaf scorch, sunburn. Intense sunlight can cause these leaves to dry out, and then when that happens, you’re going to see brown leaves, yellow leaves, even bleached white patches sometimes on the leaves or on the fruit because you’ve got cell damage, you have tissue damage. If you have fruit on there, your flowers are going to abort because it’s just too hot to carry on major functions. You’re going to have blossom drop and fruit drop,” Daughtry says.

Watering deeply in the morning, applying mulch, and offering shade with cloths or structures can significantly reduce stress during hot weather.

For cool weather crops like lettuce and spinach, stress shows up as premature flowering, so they can get through their life cycle. Providing shade during hot spells and picking varieties that are more bolt resistant can help.

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