All day yesterday I was expecting rain. The weather station said it was going to rain in the evening but it never did. You know when it finally did rain? 4 in the morning!
What a storm! Thunder, Lightning and torrents of rain … we need it. Our garden was pretty dry and I hadn’t watered for a week or so because we’d been expecting rain that never materialized.
Personally I don’t really like thunder and lightening storms. I don’t like the crash of thunder, nor the flash of lightening, but for my gardens sake, every time I hear that we are supposed to get rain I always hope for a few flashes of lightening in the area.
Why?
Well, lightening puts free nitrogen into the air. Have you ever wondered why your garden always looks so much better have a thunder shower than just a simple rain or even watering with the garden hose? It’s all those free nitrogen molecules in the air. our gardens get a heavy dose of the food that they need to green up and grow – that’s why the plants always look so much better the day after a storm and often seem to grow a few inches right afterwards too.
Humor me … the next time you’re expecting a storm in your area take a good look at your garden or your neighbors garden if you don’t have one of your own. Take note of how the plants are looking and perhaps even how tall they are. The day after the storm, and perhaps even the day after that take a look at the garden again and see if the plants don’t look healthier, stronger and perhaps even bigger.
When we lived in Thunder Bay, ON, thunder and lightening were common, although I never knew about the relationship between lightening and plant growth. We have been here in Northern New Brunswick for eight months, no ligtheing yet, but if it does I’ll think garden.
What a fasinating fact. I always noticed this happening but never heard it accually explained. Thanks for the tip
But that is not the whole answer… Electric fields from lightning forms create a charge imbalance on plant cell walls that lead to a wide array of physiological changes within plants ranging from increased metabolism to increased pigmentation and photosynthesis abilities. Here's a concept map showing many of the low-level effects: http://bit.ly/Hu6qm6