achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

Heat and gardening not to pretty good down here in SW Louisiana. Kept the onions and put in the shade and put the cantaloupe plants in the trash. Sigh! Maybe better next year and early.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Seems like a Photo Gallery post

adedeluca Loc: holbrook ny

Same thing here

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

With the global temperature still going up, it is not going to get better in the tropics and semi-tropics over the really long haul. As the jet stream becomes wider and even more and more irregular, trying to distribute the increased heat over the whole world, even higher heat summers and colder winters will become more common. It is not going to play well with any of our flowers and gardens - not even out here in Colorado. I hope things will be more normal next year too, but I know the long run may require a temperature controlled "hot" house for our flowers and garden out here.

User ID

Not really Gallery stuff. Gardening discussion, nothing about photography, best moved to Chit chat section.

And then there will be partisan arguments about global warming that would ultimately send it to The Attic.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I interviewed at a Univ of Houston branch once; one of the interviewers mentioned that growing tomato’s was a problem - up here they are considered to be a ‘hot weather’ plant, but down there they essentially cook on the vine.

Canisdirus

I really don't bother in the high summer months....catchup in fall winter and spring.

JBuckley

My thoughts, as well! Try again next spring.
The 99* heat is a negative factor, but my entire tomato crop (99%) have been ravaged by possums, rats, and squirrels this year.
I bought a catch ‘em alive trap, and have lowered their populations, but too late.
My squash plants have been hit as well.
They seem to like the rat poison.
I’d rather see the dead carcass as proof of death!
They will probably start nibbling on my avocados and tangelo soon.

Seems like a page out of Biblical (plagues) and pestilences for the Egyptians, long ago.
Not much to eat, but a $299 July water bill.(can’t blame that on the rodents!), just 2 legged rats of greed in California.

kufengler Loc: Meridian, Idaho 83646

It's been a little toasty here in Meridian Idaho too. I did see 109° at one time.
Flower pots don't do well at all. The only good thing is that humidity is usually 10% - 15% when it's that warm.

105°


105°

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

My tomatoes have done great, and still producing large numbers and large sizes of five or six varieties of delicious fruit. I use an automatic drip waterer two hours every night beginning at three AM. Melons poor. All vegetables in raised beds, which has been effective in avoiding rodent damage. Orchard too is outstanding with weekly watering only when it doesn't rain enough.
The squashes not so good, with same watering, except acorn squash strong results. Lettuce and a few other veg's good (early too), and my wife's enormous flower beds are absolutely outstanding!

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Is that degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius Here, in the Chicago area, it has been much cooler than usual mornings/evenings, but IMHO, we have had nowhere near the 90s recently that we used to have when I was a kid (55 years ago) and all the adults were talking about it.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Some plants tolerate heat and some don't. Lettuce is one plant that doesn't care for heat but on the farm it's a necessary crop for the farm stand. For that particular crop, irrigation is key. In a normal season you can water the lettuce once or twice a week. In really hot weather we would water it every other day. We managed to have lettuce fairly consistently. The hottest we ever had to deal with was about 105F (only happened one year). In the '80s we would get 1-3 days a year above 90F. In the '10s we were getting 20-30 days above 90 every year.

We started with overhead sprinklers. That was a royal pain since they only covered around 2000 sq ft and when you were done watering you had to move the sprinklers (on 30' x 3" pipes in a field full of mud). We switched to drip irrigation, which put the water right at the plant and left the walkways dry and reduced evaporation losses. Drip tape would be buried about 2" below the surface so it was below cultivation and was held in place by the soil and didn't move in response to diurnal heating/cooling. Drip line on the surface could move 2-3 feet away from the crop from that. Initially we (being cheap New England farmers) tried to save the drip line for the next season. But (1) every row was a different length so sorting the old drip line was a pain; (2) you had to stretch out the old drip line manually after winter and take out the kinks. Since drip line cost less than $0.02/foot it was more economical of our time to throw it away and use new drip line. It came in 7500 foot rolls. We used about 3 rolls a year.

Also, lettuce will withstand fairly cold weather. We would grow lettuce outdoors well into the fall, although growth would slow significantly when the weather got below about 50F. Lettuce would frequently survive temperatures down to 20F before it started to brown the leaves. The latest (or maybe earliest) date we ever did a lettuce harvest was January 15. We used row covers to protect it somewhat, but you would have to wait until afternoon to get the ice to melt from the heads before harvest. Also, a significant snow event would flatten the row cover supports and thereby flatten the heads. Not saleable, but we ate it.

These days a lot of farms are growing crops under high tunnels (greenhouses but without heat). Placing a lot of barrels full of water in the high tunnel provides a heat sink/source that helps keep the temperature moderate.

PS: In summer, there is frequently a really dry period of time. Since natural water sources become scarce during times like that, there is increased predation of fruit that has significant water content. Tomatoes will get chewed by small rodents and even birds to get water. Even bees need water and will cluster on damaged tomatoes.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

I live in Alabama and if you buy a plant here and it says "Plant in FULL SUN"...DON'T!!! Everything here that says full sun needs to have only a few hours of sun. I was born and raised in Al, but spent my adult life in Tn before moving back. I could grow anything in Tennessee. I had forgotten what the heat here could do to plants.
Best wishes for next year.

NDMarks Loc: Dublin, Ca

I can relate to your problems with the garden. Here in Central Calif we probable get as hot if not hotter than your area but at least we don't get the humiditity that you deal with.

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

That is probably because the wind has been Easterly or Northeasterly, crossing the lake before it gets to you. That is unusual, but has frequently been true this year. I live about fifty miles inland from you, and we have not had the cooler relief evenings and mornings.