What too much rain does

[Chuck]

30 days ago my tomatoes looked perfect. It seemed it was going to be an excellent year. All 90 plants were loaded with fruit, many of them quite large. Then it started raining and hasn't stopped for more than a day or two at a time since. The most it rained in one day was 12 inches. The rest of the time between 2 and 3 inches for a total of 28 inches in a month. The first thing that started happening was that the larger tomatoes started cracking which is normal for too much water. What isn't normal is for the smaller tomatoes on the same plant to stop growing. Some are now turning ripe and are about 1/4 the size they should be. I have to pick tomatoes as soon as they start to turn color because of raccoons, possums and birds. So I pick them and bring them inside to finish ripening. Something is causing them to bruise and then rot. I suspect too much water as their taste is not what it should be. Some varieties actually taste bad, almost rotten, while another has almost no flavor at all. One of my favorites, Celebrity, tastes like it came from the grocery store. Out of the 13 varieties that I planted none are what they should be. The plants all have early blight, some severe and I will have to pull them up. My corn was about 2 feet tall when the rain started. It stopped growing when about 2 1/2 feet tall. It is tasseling and silking with the ears about 1/2 the length and 1/4 the diameter they normally are. My peppers are the strangest looking of all. All of the leaves are extremely wrinkled as if they have a virus. The only thing doing good are green beans and okra and the beans are starting to show a little early blight. They say the rain will be over tomorrow. If I can control the early blight I will still have some good fruit setting temperatures but I don't know exactly what all this rain has done to the roots. Ah well, just another garden learning experience. I have learned I would rather be in a drought than a perpetual flood though.

 

[Beth_B]

I'm sorry Chuck! My best friend and her husband moved to Texas (Copperas Cove) a couple of months ago and between the heat and now the rain she's already homesick.

The last two summers here have been unusually hot and rainy. I've dealt with blight, splitting tomatoes, and slug invasions of Biblical proportions. It's really not fun. My gardening heart goes out to you!

 

[zigs]

A foot of rain in a day Blimey Chuck

Sorry to hear about that, my sympathies, we had months of floods a few years back, slugs ate everything

 

[Chuck]

A foot of rain in a day Blimey Chuck

Sorry to hear about that, my sympathies, we had months of floods a few years back, slugs ate everything

Actually 12 inches is just an estimate. My rain gauge only measures up to 6 inches and it was over flowing both times I emptied it that day. It could be worse. Check out what is happening in Houston. They and the surrounding areas have been literally underwater for about 2 weeks.

 

[granjera]

Sorry about your plants, Chuck. Are you going to replant for the Fall?

I hear newscasters in these parts whining about how we've had too much rain. In May and June, I've only recorded 3 days where it rained as much as 2-2.5 inches. And this includes "events" where it rained over the course of 2 days.

I have one bell pepper plant that looks healthy as can be, but is not growing at all. Too much of a good thing, I guess.

 

[Chuck]

Sorry about your plants, Chuck. Are you going to replant for the Fall?

I hear newscasters in these parts whining about how we've had too much rain. In May and June, I've only recorded 3 days where it rained as much as 2-2.5 inches. And this includes "events" where it rained over the course of 2 days.

I have one bell pepper plant that looks healthy as can be, but is not growing at all. Too much of a good thing, I guess.

I think instead of a fall crop I am going to plant cole crops and root crops this year on half of my garden. The other half I will plant in cover crops to try to regain some of what was washed away. I think what has happened that stunted many of my plants is that all the nutrients were leached away so I am going to try to replenish them.

 

[MaryMary]

I don't grow on as big a scale as you do, Chuck, but last year we got too much rain before the fruit had a chance to set, and I got about a fifth of what I consider "normal." My sympathies.

Just a thought, but what if you dug as close to the root system as you're comfortable with, and put in a cup or so of peat? Or dig it in a trench between rows? Do you think it might act as a sponge and absorb the excess moisture?

Reason I ask - there's a gardening advice article in our newspaper every week. A few weeks ago, when it was planting time, we had a good bit of rain. The article for that week was saying that since it's too hard to plant in mud, till in some peat to "make your soil fluffy." (On the other hand, it's written by a man that owns a nursery, so could be he was just trying to ramp up sales...)

 

[Chuck]

I don't grow on as big a scale as you do, Chuck, but last year we got too much rain before the fruit had a chance to set, and I got about a fifth of what I consider "normal." My sympathies.

Just a thought, but what if you dug as close to the root system as you're comfortable with, and put in a cup or so of peat? Or dig it in a trench between rows? Do you think it might act as a sponge and absorb the excess moisture?

Reason I ask - there's a gardening advice article in our newspaper every week. A few weeks ago, when it was planting time, we had a good bit of rain. The article for that week was saying that since it's too hard to plant in mud, till in some peat to "make your soil fluffy." (On the other hand, it's written by a man that owns a nursery, so could be he was just trying to ramp up sales...)

My entire garden consists of double dug raised beds and drains extremely well. I have a lot of organic matter incorporated into the soil which is a sandy loam. What the problem is, is that the soil is saturated so deeply that adding anything dry would only act as a sponge and draw up water by osmosis. The sun is supposed to come out and when it does it is going to be HOT and the heat will suck up and evaporate it fairly quickly. At the moment water is about 2 inches deep and flowing downhill through the walkways.. My garden is at the bottom of a hill and water is still coming off of the hill, both on top of the ground and underneath through the subsoil. I think it is too late to really save much because of the early blight. Once it gets ahead of you there isn't much that can be done. As soon as I can get into the garden I am going to try something that might slow it down enough to get in a halfway decent crop of tomatoes. I have a 50lb bag of cornmeal that I will cover the ground with under the plants and also dust the leaves and limbs quite heavily. I don't think the corn is worth messing with and with the peppers I haven't a clue about what to do with them except wait and see what they do next. They might grow out of it. Imagine a plant that looks like a sheet of paper that has been wadded up into a ball and then unwadded. That is what the leaves look like.

 

[zigs]

Sorry to hear about the deaths in Huston

 

[DeborahJane]

Very disappointing and frustrating for you Chuck after all that work .

 

[Chuck]

Very disappointing and frustrating for you Chuck after all that work .

When one has been gardening as long as I have it is expected once in awhile. I look on the bright side........................it could be a LOT worse. At least I still have some plants that I can experiment with while 1000's of gardeners lost EVERYTHING, including the soil