hose burst, greenhouse flooded

[brian]

I got a "too cold" sensor alert last night and went out to see there was over a foot of standing water!  I forgot to turn off the water to the hose in the greenhouse the other day, and it seems it had burst. 

I set up my extra garden hoses as siphons, taking 90% of the water out by the time I woke up this morning.  There doesn't seem to be any real damage so far.  I was shocked to see all the container plants had pretty much stayed put while floating because they are so tightly packed together.  A few seedling cups that were on the floor fell over.

My clay soil is very slow draining, so I am trying to dig small sumps and siphon out the remaining wet areas.  My understanding is that citrus should be able to tolerate flooding for a couple days without damage.  Hopefully no long term impact, I just have to clean up the white groundcover/tarp that is now buried in mulch that floated above it.

 last night


 this morning


 burst hose

[Millet]

brian, your not the only one, my greenhouse has flooded twice in the last 20 years.  As it is said..."This too shall pass".  Actually I bet some of your trees loved it.

[brian]

When you told me your solution to dry spots in container soil is to soak them, my thought was "that is far too much work"... but my mistake took care of it for me.

I have a jackfruit tree in ground that I believe may be sensitive to even brief flooding, but I expect everything else will be perfectly happy.

[Daintree]

Don't worry, it will recover! Looks like it did make a mess, though, with everything floating around.  Hope your water bill isn't too high this month!
My greenhouse floods up to about 6 inches every week in the summer, because we flood irrigate our property.  When I built the greenhouse, I mistakenly thought that the cinderblocks would keep out the water, but I stupidly forgot that the cinderblocks are sitting on a trench filled with gravel!  The only harm it has done is that I have hard time keeping my citrus dry.  Because it gets pretty hot here in the summer, the whole place gets VERY humid!  We too have clay soil, and it can take several days to drain.  The advantage to the flooding is that it drowns or drives away the mice! 
Because it is a huge hassle, and some plants don't like it, I have dug the ditch in the back yard a lot deeper (ok, my son-in-law and grandson did it...), and piled all the extra soil up against the greenhouse foundation.  The clay is hard as a rock and I am eagerly waiting for the water to come on next week to see how well it works!

Good luck with your accidental flooding!  Hopefully it got rid of any furry pests you may have had!

Carolyn

 

[brian]

It seems to have totally dried off now.  I siphoned the standing water, and the rest drained naturally.  All the plants look happy enough, I don't think there was any damage.  Scared me, though!