COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Parts of Cobb, Douglas, Paulding and Fulton are under a severe drought -- even with the pop-up showers on Friday. More rain would be welcomed by many.
"We need good, long rain, and this is just not even going to scratch the surface," said Rob Trawick, the agriculture natural resource agent for Cobb County.
Trawick, who works at the UGA Cobb Extension, said June was very dry, causing the plants to suffer.
"[We've] been getting a lot of calls because people think a lot of things we’re seeing is disease issues," Trawick said. "The truth of the matter is they are drought-related issues here, especially over the past couple of weeks."
To help explain, Trawick said to think about parcel of land that's an acre.
"If we get an inch of rain, that’s 27,154 gallons of waters. The average 18x36 swimming pool that people have in their backyard are only about 18,000 to 20,000 gallons of water," he added, saying the area typically gets more than 50 inches of rain per year, on average.
He said, when they go weeks without rain, it's an extremely large volume of water the area misses out on.
"A lot of the plants that were particularly flourishing as we were coming into summer are starting to stress now," he said.
Trawick offered some advice to people dealing with the drought.
"Irrigate deeply, but infrequently, so every couple of days," Trawick said.
He said watering early also helps.
"[You] do not want to water in the afternoons, especially when we’ve got sun out," Trawick said. "It’s very hot. If you’re watering 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, you’re going to lose a great deal of that to evaporation before it really even is able to get into the ground."
He said getting the water to the roots is key.
"If we take care of the roots, 99 times out of 100, the top will take care of itself," Trawick said.
He said the more you take care of the roots, the better off the plant will be in the next drought.
Trawick said people can start watering as early as 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.