2022 Drought

 Drought in 2022. Part 1

I am starting to write this on 27th July 2022. A bit after England recorded 40 degrees C for the first time at Coningsby a mere 14 miles East of here on the 19th. There has been below average rainfall each month this year and almost none since March. I have been giving the newly planted trees at Pit wood a splash of water Occasionally. It is unrealistic to water any properly. Since the start of July some of the 10 year old trees in the rectangular field have been wilting particularly those near the track by the ditch. 

A view of the southside of the rectangular field. Dead looking Rowan and a severely wilted sweet Chestnut.

All the Rowan around the field have red berries and only brown leaves. Rowan as its name Mountain Ash implies is a tree of mountains and high rainfall. Some of the sweet chestnut only have brown leaves, and all of them are badly wilted as some are on the Sycamore. This came as more of a surprise, as Mediterranean Trees I expected them to last better. The Robinia are just starting to wilt at the North end of the Field as are the Red Oak.  There is a E.gunnii that has started to wilt. It is the one nearest the corner by the track and the ditch where other trees are struggling. It is the lowest part of the field but appears to dry out first.

The Alders and Aspen do not seem to be badly affected, these are damp loving trees so again a bit of surprise.

Picture of edge of pollarded area in Rectangular Wood into unpollardedd species.

1 Robinia: Only slightly affected by drought. 2 Pollarded Aspen: unaffected. 3 Common Alder: Unaffected. 4. Pawlonia. The only surviving Pawlonia left in the wood. Unaffected. 5. Sweet Chestnut: struggling most leaves brown. 6: An unaffected Eucatyptus in the back ground. 

The trees at Cairn Wood are less stressed on the heavy clay. I think the London Plane, I planted last season, down there have died. At the moment the other trees there look O.K.

The Tulip trees and Coast Redwoods in the Tulip wood at the north end are stressed and have had some water. I lost a number of Douglas Fir in the dry weather in the summer of 2019 on the same side of the wood. More worrying many are a bit limp as are some of the Coast Redwoods that are also 2+years old. A few have died but there is no pattern to their distribution.

The hedgerow trees Hawthorn and Field Maple at Pit Wood particularly the former have plenty of Brown leaves. Ash, Oak, Common Alder, Aspen, Cherry and Holly have appeared to be least affected. I can hear plenty of people saying you should have planted only native trees. There is some justification for this. Trees driven south by the Ice sheets further than the Alps and the Mediterranean will have had to endure drought conditions, as they returned north, because sea levels were very low making sea areas less and colder. The world was very dry when the Ice Sheets were at their peaks.  

Since the extreme heat there has been some drizzle and on the 28th and 1st Aug a couple of millimetres of rain. Some leaves that had started to wilt have recovered but many have died. It will not be till the spring that the affect of the heat and drought can be assessed.