Best Posts in Thread: Significant developement of tropical cyclone within 24 hours

The neighbour is correct...... stop loss of water from the leaves by covering the young plant and reduce loss from the soil by mulching. In less hot climates people would put glass covers over but in this climate it would burn the leaves..... I have in the past just used an upturned plastic flowerpot. I have some containerised plants and I reduce the loss of water from the soil surface by putting the pot in a larger plastic bag, water it well and then tie the plastic bag around the stem of the plant. It makes a big difference. When growing plants in the soil, a mulch helps reduce weeds and retain moisture and an excellent solution is a sheet of black plastic laid over the soil with small cuts placed in it through which the seed or young plant is placed. This can then be covered with other natural materials if looks matter. I used to grow potatoes that way and then only had to lift the plastic to harvest a few, leaving the plant in situ to continue developing new potatoes.

 

I have seen in some of the growing nurseries here that they put plastic bags over the newly transplanting in that are in pots. I suppose that keeps the water in and the humidity up. These are kept in pretty heavy shade, as you can imagine what they would look like in the sun... steamed. Of coarse shading the plants would help even if plants were not under some form of plastic cover.