How is this Heat Treating Your Plants?

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I noticed what seemed liked increased heat effects the last few years. I was watching Weather Chan describe the 110f plus (55-56C?) temps for Texas and thought of @Chuck and wondered after the rest of you. I have been watering both at night and in the morning. What about you? We are in the mid 90s but our moist air sure holds a lot of heat.
 
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I noticed what seemed liked increased heat effects the last few years. I was watching Weather Chan describe the 110f plus (55-56C?) temps for Texas and thought of @Chuck and wondered after the rest of you. I have been watering both at night and in the morning. What about you? We are in the mid 90s but our moist air sure holds a lot of heat.
This year I had to do container gardening for everything. Everything was doing great while the high temperatures were in the mid 90's but about 2-3 weeks ago the temps started going higher and higher and I had to start watering more and more. I think it literally boiled everything. My tomatoes had already done their thing except for the cherrys which kept trying to produce. Fruits kept getting smaller and smaller. The plants all had leaf curl and the new foliage was either very small or deformed. I tried everything from cardboard boxes to shade cloth in order to keep the temperatures of the soil in the containers down. But to no avail. Yesterday the temperature at 2:30 PM was 106. I don't know what it ended up as because it was too hot to go outside and look at the thermometer. Today is supposed to be the same but tomorrow a cold snap will arrive dropping the temp to 102. The only plants that were not affected foliage wise were peppers, but the fruit all got scalded and the blooms all dropped. The humidity was off the charts too. Never below 70 and one day it was 84% and not a cloud in the sky. I have lived in Texas all my life and in 72 years I have never seen it like this. As soon as it stays below a hundred I will go pull up everything and hopefully by mid August it will be cool enough to plant my fall and winter seeds.
 
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Heat? I've given up waiting for it. :( It's hardly stopped raining since the beginning of June and the heating indoors has been on at some point, every month since the start of the year.
 
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I’m 12-13 miles, about 20 kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico. As long as the sea breeze kicks in like today, temps are pretty tolerable. 89-91 for the high, 32-33C. Heat index below 105, 40C. Forecast was for heat index to be up to 43C, but that didn’t pan out today, too much Southeast Breeze. Gulf of Mexico recently was running a bit below average on water temperature along Texas coast. Plants have been strong. I still have some open pollinated and hybrid larger type tomatoes on the vine, just a very few the squirrels haven‘t found yet. Don’t see much sign of any setting lately, but the plants look surprisingly strong for mid July. Lemon drop cherry is covered in tomatoes. Bell peppers are looking strong with various sizes of fruit. Serrano still setting fruit. I did take out my cucumbers this morning, picked the last one today. Those looked beat up from a variety of issues, bugs and heat. Eggplant, Okra, Pink Eye Purple hull peas, Red Noodle beans, all looking good.

Inland away from the Gulf, I believe they are getting the brunt of the current heat wave. I‘m still going to likely pull up all the tomatoes plants soon. Most all the indeterminates are so tall and unmanageable at this point. The determinants are all gone already. Squirrels won’t leave the fruit be either. Some of the peppers I leave in through the fall, likely the same for the eggplant, okra, the Noodle beans. I put out some luffa gourd, butternut and a thai pumpkin seed and it all has sprouted and is growing. Space in garden has become available and more will open up soon and I’m not sure what all I will put in the places. I think I’ll try some fall cucumbers and some vining zucchini. Those I think need to wait a bit longer before I put them in. I’ve got few tomato and pepper sets going, but they mostly look kind of weak. I’m trying to do those outside, but I think I have them a little too exposed.

I wish we would get some rain or have some in the forecast. I‘ll plant something if it looks like it will rain for a few days.
 
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I'm probably less than a 2hr drive away from Chuck.

Thankfully, my tomatoes get a break from the worst of it, so they are still going great. Cucumber is starting to get a bit wilty, but that may be from recent grasshopper damage. They have been a plague here this year and I cannot grow anything outside of this "greenhouse".

The peppers are drooping now, and I need to add a shade cloth to the closest end in the picture to help prevent that. I'm so glad I just recently sealed 95% of this from the grasshoppers, as they have decimated my onions and eggplants. I would see around 20 of them jump away when I would walk in. Didn't summer just technically start?
20200702_181137.jpg
 
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6CDE3108-D366-4597-866B-609839616277.jpeg
love these sunflowers.
 

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alp

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And I was moaning when it was 33c! 43c is like boiling. This is utterly shocking.

You probably need some slatted roof or even some green shaded netting to give plants some respite. @Pepperhead has done a good job there. How can people farm in such hot weather?

Do you believe global warming is happening?
 
P

Peace perfect peace

Yep, its hot hot hot here in france, like all you folks have said the weather really has changed over the years,

As for the UK the sooner they give rubber boots with pkts of seeds the better,

The goodside to good weather is you can get those outside jobs sorted "Now" ready for the poorer weather,

My toms/sweetcorn/ and lettuce are all doing great, As i write this little lot its a very light drizzle but the sun's poking its head through the sky,
 

alp

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@karstopography: That sunflower and its guest are stunning - poster material. Wish you had your photos full size!

This year, my sweetcorns are a bit behind. Wonder if @Peace perfect peace can post a photo of your sweetcorns? Nice to have some assurance.
 
P

Peace perfect peace

@karstopography: That sunflower and its guest are stunning - poster material. Wish you had your photos full size!

This year, my sweetcorns are a bit behind. Wonder if @Peace perfect peace can post a photo of your sweetcorns? Nice to have some assurance.
Alp hi good morning,
I dont do photo's so no i cant help ref sending any,
Yours is behind because your weather is a lot wetter and less sunshine than here in france,
 

alp

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PPP: No photos?? A picture paints a thousand words .. so goes Bread...

I am not wetter by any means.. I live in East London and rain has just shunned us. We had rain in Harlow, Kent, Wembly ... ; but zilch for me.
 
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It's not so much the heat, rather the powerful sun's rays that hurt some of my plants (the cultivated annuals); everything else is doing fine. My plan for next year is to germinate at least 20 seeds from my two Moringa trees and plant them all over the yard to act as a shade cloth, with the added benefit of fixing nitrogen into the soil and providing plenty of leaves to eat.
 
P

Peace perfect peace

PPP: No photos?? A picture paints a thousand words .. so goes Bread...

I am not wetter by any means.. I live in East London and rain has just shunned us. We had rain in Harlow, Kent, Wembly ... ; but zilch for me.

alp," Hi once again"
You seem to have a thing ref photos, As ive said I dont do photo's infact i dont do a lot of the tech stuff on the PC and a lot of the older generation dont even have a pc "never mind doing photo's through one,

I enjoy the gardening and countrylife, And this keeps me active and happy,
Now ref you missing the rain the uk has had !!

Im pleased for you, I get the weather in the UK from the sky weather for UK site and they seem to have said the uk as a whole has had wet weather and so i took it that also, included your area, (the sky weather do pictures every evening of the weather,)
Now ref pictures painting a thousand words !!! So i believe so, Im looking through the window at a garden full of a thousand words and its a nice sight i see every day, ;)
Have a nice one alp,
 

Meadowlark

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... What about you ?.

Here’s my report:



In addition to ongoing production of fresh eating veggies e.g. corn, peppers, tomatoes, beans, okra, and squash, this is the time of year for soil building for fall/winter crops. Failure to use these hot months is a huge missed gardening opportunity to build soils for future as well as produce for now.

For example, pictured below is a triple row of field peas in purple hull and crowders. These are second generation and on their way to producing a third generation of natural soil building, weed inhibiting cover crop where next year’s potatoes and onions will be planted This is how I consistently grow 2 plus pound onions….and how my potatoes consistently produce in excess of 10 pounds of new potatoes per pound of seed potatoes. Its all about soil building and summer is the best time to add N2 and tons of other elements to prep that soil for next year.

summer peas second.JPG






This next picture shows first generation field peas growing and replenishing the soil where my potatoes and onions grew last year. Notice the deep dark greens colors indicating presence of N2. This row will be shredded in a couple of weeks and second generation of cover crop will grow and continue to rebuild soil up until fall frosts when winter cover crop will be planted.

summer peas first.JPG





I have an ongoing experiment of the use of alfalfa as a summer cover crop. Thus far I’m not favorably impressed with the early results as I’m not seeing required weed suppression and am seeing some repression of good veggies. More time is needed for this experiment, but thus far the alfalfa is not as good as the field peas for summer cover. More on this later.

Corn: Ongoing production is highlighted by my third planting of corn. We will be eating this corn fresh well into August having previously frozen about 40 freezer bags of corn for winter.
summer corn 2.JPG



Beans: My “King” limas are growing with lush vegetation but only so, so production. Earlier crops of Christmas limas and bingo beans are in the freezer.
summer limas.JPG



Okra is producing profusely. In fact, I can’t keep up with the production as it needs to be harvested daily to insure small tasty fruits.

summer okra.JPG




Peppers: My peppers are regrouping for the fall production phase having already produced many jars of canned peppers. Often, the fall production is the best of the year.

summer pepperes.JPG



Tomatillos: My tomatillos got a late start but are now carrying numerous small friuits and I’m anxious to see how they mature. Somehow, basil seeds were sent to me first by mistake as tomatillos and I have had to start all over again with the real tomatillos but they seem to be doing great in the summer heat. Loaded with fruit!
summer tomatillos.JPG



Tomatoes: Production from the “Whopper” is winding down while I have a few Arkansas travelers coming on for continued production. I couldn't find "heat master" seeds so using the AT as a substitute. Should get continuous production until frost. The “Whopper” will also produce fall green tomatoes from the limbs that have been covered in dirt and new plants taking off.
summer tomatoes.JPG


We’ve had a great harvest of spaghetti squash (thanks to Karstopo for seeds) and that production is winding down now…but several still to be harvested. Many, many meals produced and still coming.

summer squash.JPG


Summer heat? No problem. This is the time to build soils in preparation for future crops....and also take advantage of those veggies which love the heat.
 
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alp

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It's not so much the heat, rather the powerful sun's rays that hurt some of my plants (the cultivated annuals); everything else is doing fine. My plan for next year is to germinate at least 20 seeds from my two Moringa trees and plant them all over the yard to act as a shade cloth, with the added benefit of fixing nitrogen into the soil and providing plenty of leaves to eat.

What do they taste like please?
 

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