Backyard gardeners and nursery workers are watering like crazy, an area nursery halted tree installations and crop experts are on alert — all because of this summer’s unusually hot, dry weather.

“We’re praying for rain,” said Justin Brackenrich, a Penn State Extension agronomist based in Butler County. He reports some stunted growth in soybeans; it’s too early to know the status of sweet corn.

Officially, Southwestern Pennsylvania is not in a drought, according to the National Weather Service.

However, if there is little to no rain for the next week, the region and more parts of Western Pennsylvania could reach “abnormally dry” status, which is a low-grade drought, said Michael Brown, a meteorologist with the weather service.

The Pittsburgh region has been a little dryer than normal, receiving just 3 inches of rain for June rather than the average of a little more than 4 inches, he said.

It is hotter, too: In July as of Thursday, the average temperature of 75.4 is 2.5 degrees above average, Brown said. Expect more high temperatures for the rest of the month, as the last two weeks of July are the region’s hottest time of year.

The multiple sunny days in June and July were not terribly typical of Pittsburgh either, Brown added.

Abnormally dry conditions expanded over much of northern Pennsylvania in the past week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Sunny, bright blue skies with only a dab of puffy clouds have made for an idyllic summer for some, but their charm has faded for gardeners, farmers and nurseries.

“It’s somebody’s job every day just to water,” said Linda Ban, manager of Kiski Garden Center in Allegheny Township.

There’s a lot to water, Ban said: trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals for graduation parties, late zinnias, baby mums, plug trays for fall crops, such as cabbage and broccoli, and more.

“There are plants we water twice a day, like the hibiscus. They are water suckers!”

Customers who religiously water their gardens daily are doing fine, Ban said. But soil conditions and hot, dry weather can cause damage, such as blossom end rot in tomatoes and zucchinis. Potted plants dry out much faster.

Ban advises concerned gardeners to pull their planters under a porch or a tree for a respite from the heat.

Wolfe Nursery in Hempfield stopped digging for trees and other large plantings last week because the ground is too dry, said Brandon Wolfe, manager of the family-owned business.

Although the nursery has irrigation systems to reach much of its more than 10,000 pieces of nursery stock on about 100 acres with 18 hoop houses and greenhouses, there is still a lot of hand watering, especially for tree saplings and young plants.

“Water, water, water,” Wolfe said, “in the morning, in the evening — it’s not best to water in the afternoon.”

If gardeners have to water in the middle of the day, Wolfe advises them to water only at the base of the plant. The sun can burn wet foliage.

It’s not too late to add mulch to retain moisture in the soil, he said.

Also, gardeners should continue to feed their plants with liquid fertilizer.

Wolfe expects to lose some nursery stock with the persistent hot and dry conditions.

“We still stay positive and see what the weather brings,” he said.

Many of the commercial growers of sweet corn and vegetables have irrigation systems, said Glen Bupp, commercial horticultural education for Penn State Extension.

The stretch of dry weather from June has caused some wells at commercial farms to run low, but the issue is not widespread.

The dry conditions have caused some cucumbers to not fill out properly and produced some curved summer squash, Bupp said.

“The vegetables are still marketable, but they are not what growers want,” he said.

Farmers have tools available to help them through the dry times including applications that can act like sunblock to shield against the elements drying out the plants, he said.

“We haven’t seen devastating effects, but some farmers had to dip into their bag of tricks,” Bupp said. “I don’t get the sense anyone is freaking out now.”

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