gardens and the heat

[RTL]

How are you all protecting your gardens? It has been above 100 degrees for 4 days. The plants are not fairing well.

 

[3forfree]

Mine have wilted. I use a drip system and rain water and have to keep an eye on everything. Our temps have been in the 90's, which is uncomfortable here in Michigan and my plants (and me) don't like it. I deep watered one day and everything looked good for acouple of days, now the plants are starting to wilt. After watering them again they returned to their regular look of being healthy,and hopefully the heat will go away and things can go back to normal. I'm running out of rain water and there's no rain in the forecast for the next week. Guess I'll have to use the water from the house.

 

[franklinstreetwest]

In Michigan also...just south of the I-94 corridor. No rain. Abnormal blistering heat. I can see the "established" plants everywhere struggling. In my home garden, I water only the newly planted and this year that includes a couple things that went in last autumn. Stunningly, the seedling peaches I got from a guy on freecycle, are fairing fine without help! Tough little buggers.

At the greenhouses, we are watering EARLY EARLY morning, and late evening. Spot water individual plants as we see them.... we recorded the temp in the shade at knee level, it was 116° f

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Do you have access to Remay/shade cloth? That totally saved my tomatoes last year, when it got up past 95 degrees. The blossoms continued to set if I tented them with shade cloth. It was a lifesaver! In fact, I think I'm going to drape my eggplant this week, before temps start climbing too high.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Mine have wilted. I use a drip system and rain water and have to keep an eye on everything. Our temps have been in the 90's, which is uncomfortable here in Michigan and my plants (and me) don't like it. I deep watered one day and everything looked good for acouple of days, now the plants are starting to wilt. After watering them again they returned to their regular look of being healthy,and hopefully the heat will go away and things can go back to normal. I'm running out of rain water and there's no rain in the forecast for the next week. Guess I'll have to use the water from the house.

I try to imagine how gardening would be different in an area that gets a lot of rain. Our biggest gardening expense is water. We last had rain in May, and it was barely enough to wet the ground.

 

[3forfree]

I have been collecting rain water from my pole barn this year but it's getting towards the bottom of the barrel, and no rain in sight. I have taken water from the dehumidifier that I run in the basement, and used that, and did read a post here on BYC about someone using rinse water from their clothes washer. I have another barrel I can use to collect water I guess it's time to put it to use so I have some extra. Good luck on saving your plants.

 

[RTL]

We have had temps above 100 for the last 4 days. I have lost a few plants, icluding most of my cucumber vines. Don't know if we will have tomatoes or not. Will the blossoms recover to set fruit if it cools down?

 

[3forfree]

this morning everything looked good in the garden, then when I came home about noon it was all wilting. No rain water left so I had to get the hose out. Tomorrow has some rain scheduled but the weather service here is a crap shoot. They say it will rain and it won't, they say to expect snow and we don't get anything. oh well. Don't know if your plants will blossom or not, mine seem to recover after a watering like nothing happened to them. I hope you get something.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

We have had temps above 100 for the last 4 days. I have lost a few plants, icluding most of my cucumber vines. Don't know if we will have tomatoes or not. Will the blossoms recover to set fruit if it cools down?

The blossoms that are currently on the plants might not set, but the plant can recover and make new blossoms. You can provide shade during the hottest part of the day by draping a white sheet over a tomato cage, and be sure to water well.

 

[3forfree]

A big loud clap of thunder woke me up this morning, and I could hear rain hitting the house, I'm a happy man. It's not raining hard, but it is raining. It rained about 10 days ago but only enough to see that it was raining then it quit. This looks like it'll be a good soaker.