Hurricane Preparation

Last month we started reprinting the above article offered by

Motes Orchids. Although it refers to orchids, its recommendations

apply to bromeliads too. This hurricane season, soon ending,

may have been an easy one for us but I am sure you will want to

keep the information for future years. Here is the second of three parts:

“All plants should be placed on the floor of the green house and no plants should be left hanging. Wind speeds increase exponentially with elevation. The closer to the ground the better. If buildings or other large, secure structures provide windbreaks, plants should be placed in as close proximity to those as possible. Concrete floors of patios are to be much preferred to lawns or bare ground which when flooded will bring numerous soil borne pathogens into contact with the plants. If the grower has sufficient heavy objects like cement blocks to use as anchors, the plants can be covered with shade or other cloth but such covering needs to be very well secured or if left flopping may cause more harm than good.

More than this cannot be done to protect the plants. The grower should turn his attention to protecting his growing facilities. In hurricane winds shade cloth is a sail and polyethylene film even worse. Both have sufficient wind resistance to tear even steel framed greenhouses to pieces and throw them to the ground. Both plastic and shade cloth should be removed or furled when the first rains and clouds of the storm make their shade no longer needed. In

addition to protecting the shade house structure , this action is vital to preserve the materials themselves. After the storm, sunshine can return with startling rapidity bringing with it the potential to burn exposed orchid pants. Indeed sunburn is often the most severe damage that results from storms. For this reason plastic and shade cloth should be carefully guarded. Furled tightly in place where it could be quickly re-spread to protect the plants is a good solution for category I or II storms. For more severe storms, the materials should be folded and carefully stored. Nothing will be of more value after the storm than shade. Hurricane Andrew left in its wake not a leaf on a tree or shrub that hung more than a foot off the ground. Bamboo, though stripped of it leaves, was the first plant to renew its foliage to delight the eye and provide welcome relief from the sun baked landscape”.                                                    

                                                                       JD.