Summer heat vs plants (Page 2): We’re about 100 miles East. We’re having a string of 80’s followed by a string of 90’s.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

joecichjr wrote:

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.

We’re about 100 miles East. We’re having a string of 80’s followed by a string of 90’s.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Our garden did fairly well until recently. Tomatoes are now starting to wilt and get brown leaves. I think its some bug that gets into the roots.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

coolhanduke wrote:

Our garden did fairly well until recently. Tomatoes are now starting to wilt and get brown leaves. I think it’s some bug that gets into the roots.

My parents grew tomato’s in pots; I believe it was a fungus that caused them to wilt. The problem seems to have gone away when we switched from plastic to clay pots.

twowindsbear

achesley wrote:

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.

Try more heat tolerant varieties of veggies. Make critter fences of 1/2"mesh screen. Use some sort of shade cloth, even sheer curtains from GoodWill, and drip irrigation. Grow early or late crops when the weather is more moderate. Good luck!!

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

coolhanduke wrote:

Our garden did fairly well until recently. Tomatoes are now starting to wilt and get brown leaves. I think its some bug that gets into the roots.

Brown leaves on tomatoes is common, could be early blight, a fungus Alternaria solani. Not to be confused with late blight phyphthora infestans, which caused the Irish potato famine. Late blight is virulent and deadly to solanaceous plants (e.g. tomatoes and potatoes), while early blight is slower acting and more of a nuisance. Early blight will eventually kill the tomato plant but you can usually get a good crop from them. Late blight can kill the plants in 3 days and spread to other plants.

Late blight is not actually a fungus, but an oomycete. But it acts like a fungus and is easier to pronounce so it's generally called a fungus.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Yea, I get it every year. Read about it. No treatment for it either. Still get tomatoes, the plant just looks dismal for the most part.

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

coolhanduke wrote:

Yea, I get it every year. Read about it. No treatment for it either. Still get tomatoes, the plant just looks dismal for the most part.

No cure but there are preventive pesticides. I have always considered it mostly cosmetic.

ed3 Loc: Belton, MO

After years of gardening, I finally learned a number of things that I have been doing wrong. In reading a great book "Dirt to Soil" by Gabe Brown I learned what a lot of those wrongs. while air temperature is indicative of some of the challenges we might face, soil temperature is far more important. Uncovered bare soil can rapidly reach very high temperatures. Plants thrive at 75F, at 95F they are shutting down, and at 140F they are dying. First step, read the book.

Canisdirus

ed3 wrote:

After years of gardening, I finally learned a number of things that I have been doing wrong. In reading a great book "Dirt to Soil" by Gabe Brown I learned what a lot of those wrongs. while air temperature is indicative of some of the challenges we might face, soil temperature is far more important. Uncovered bare soil can rapidly reach very high temperatures. Plants thrive at 75F, at 95F they are shutting down, and at 140F they are dying. First step, read the book.

It's the same with lawn grass...expecting high heat for weeks with little rain...better let that grass grow.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

achesley wrote:

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.

I was thinking that in the heat being experienced that the soil in containers will get hotter than the soil of the ground. It’s not the heat’s impact on the foliage but the heat on the roots that is causing the die off.

Stan

Canisdirus

StanMac wrote:

I was thinking that in the heat being experienced that the soil in containers will get hotter than the soil of the ground. It’s not the heat’s impact on the foliage but the heat on the roots that is causing the die off.

Stan

Commercial pots...yes...but you counter with more irrigation.

Clay pots...do pretty well...depending on the gardener of course.

Cover on the soil is paramount in the summer....that first inch of soil has a huge amount of important micro-organisms. That will disrupt the plants conveyor belt every time.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

I put straw down around the base of my vegetables. Keeps heat down and retains moisture after watering.

Canisdirus

I use grass clippings mostly...which I have in abundance.

Any grass area in need...clippings stay put.
Any grass area that is strong (usually under shade)...I use that for fertilizer boost/cover.

I do have access to tons of 'used' straw... and I do use it...but only as a submerged layer if near the abode.