Should I dig up my submerged plants?

They've been sat in waterlogged soil for 4 or 5 weeks now, usually so bad that there's an inch or so of standing water on the surface.

With yet more bloomin rain forecast, would they stand a better chance if I dug them up and heeled them in a big trug in the greenhouse or something?

I'm particularly concerned about the fruit canes / bushes down the allotment, newly planted in autumn, currently dormant of course.

What think the fine folk of GC?

 

Others may be of more help than me re fruit bushes as have no experience of these re being flooded but I was amazed that 1000s of Snowdrops, Daffodils and various herbaceous plants plus some Rhododendrons did not really suffer (Daffodils a bit) despite being submerged for almost 3 months when a culvert blocked a small burn which runs beside our property flooded our garden last winter, Even the grass which was a horrid yellow/blackish colour recovered given time. However if the fruit cane/bushes have only just been planted and you wouldn't really disturb their roots much by digging them up now perhaps better safe than sorry and all you have to loose is your time digging them up and replanting again. I think I would be inclined to move them if I was you rather than risk loosing them.

 

I had to remove my Hardenbergia because the leaves were going yellow due to waterlogging. If you see some obvious signs then I would suggest to remove them ASAP.
I dont know much about fruit trees.. lets see what others suggest..

 

With the newly planted raspberries if me knowing they have been submerged that long , I would dig out and pot up , as I doubt that much new root has grown since now and Autumn then replant when all looks a lot drier they can survive in the pots for ages, if the pots are big enough.

How many you talking about ??
Is your allotment totally flooded or just soaking wet ?? and has puddling ?

Spruce

 

Walking on the ground will squeeze any trapped air out, and may make things worse.

Can you dig a bit of a channel so that any surface water is routed away somewhere else? That would be enough IMO.

 

Ah good old GC, conflicting advice within 4 posts!

Kristin - my plot is near a river, it's a high water table rather than poor soil drainage, so digging channels wouldn't help.

Spruce - about a dozen or so plants (rasp canes and berry bushes etc). We've had an inch or two water on the surface since the new year (so have plots next to ours). If it's like that on the surface, gawd knows what it's like a few inches down :-(

 

I meant only to remove surface water. Waterlogged should be fine, it happens fairly often - I have heavy clay here, winters like this one it is waterlogged from November to April ...

Surface water is a bit different as very little oxygen will get to the soil.

If the whole area is flooded, and submerged, that's different. But I would still leave the plants be I think - although if it were my garden I might be moved to do something about it, even if the advice was contrary! Here we just pump the garden's soakaways out when it gets flooded - only happens about one-year-in-ten (so that will be Summer of 2012 and Winter of 2013/14 then !!!)

 

Thanks. It's not major flooding, no. It might be possible to get rid of some surface water I suppose *strokes chin, plans project*

Interesting you think surface water is the problem. What about badly waterlogged soil, does that not rot the roots, even if they are dormant?

 

Depends on the plant I think. Anything "tender" is likely to be at risk from either prolonged wet (they rot) or Cold and Wet (they rot!). Usually just Cold (up to some limit) is fine.

Robust things tend not to mind. They may be set back a bit. Take Silu's example earlier in the thread - her garden was flooded for the winter months last year just when the Snowdrops and Daffs would normally be growing and flowering. Even so, they came up right as rain. (None of us expected that when she told us about the flood last year)

If you dig them up you will disturb the soil structure - squelching it will damage its structure. Probably hard to get the plants out without doing that ... thus I think that is one problem (for when you come to replant them). Then there is damage to the roots, which is inevitable, particularly as the soil will be "heavy" because when you dig the plant out the "weight" of the "Mud" falling off the roots will damage some of the smaller, feeding, roots. Then the plants will have to be planted out, again, later on - with more disruption to roots.

But ... I've never been faced with your situation, so I have no first hand experience. My instinct would be to remove any surface water and then let the plant get on with it

 

Ooppps this post hasn't quite been posted in form I thought it would be. Knowing jack you know what about computers afraid clueless as to how to alter.

 

Goodness, I don't know.

Think my instinct is to leave be and hope for the best, on the basis that plants generally are best undisturbed in the ground doing what nature intended.

ta very much all!

 

Welcome to GC Andrew. We had a snowstorm here on the island last Easter and my garden was buried in some places by 4ft of snow. The plants were under the snow for over a month but they survived. Yes, they were delayed by the weather but they soon burst back into life.