On Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:20:15 -0400, Pat Kiewicz
wrote:

:Sacramento is flirting with record highs nearing 110 today, according
:to the Weather Channel. I hear it's a dry heat, though...we've been pretty
:steam-bathish here. The sweat pours off but has nowhere to evaporate to.
:
:We've had so much rain that I don't think I've had to water anything other
:than pots and initial transplants for the last month. That's really unusual.

I watched the news' take on the weather last night but they didn't
announce Sacto. I figured somewhere in the high 100s. Indeed communities
only 20-25 miles from me were hitting 110 and above in some cases. It
only reached 83 here, according to my outdoor digital thermometer, which
features a memory! I was rather surprised.

I think the weekend will see some significant improvement in inland
weather in Northern California. It will still be hot there, of course.
That's the norm. Dry, yes. Humid seriously hot weather is pretty much a
rarity in MY experience in CA.

When it's hot like this I water my squash in the morning as soon as the
sun is prevalent enough to evaporate the water on the leaves. I don't
want the leaves to have any more wetness than necessary for any longer
than necessary due to the fungus problems I always have on the squash
leaves toward the end of the season. I've been treating the leaves with
a solution of baking soda (sprayed on with a hand sprayer) when I start
noticing fungus on the leaves, and that seems to control the fungus
pretty well. I also have sulphur, but figure baking soda's probably
healthier to be applying to the plants.

Seems like we've had little more than enough cumulative rain here since
February to even get your clothes wet! My tomatoes tolerate occasional
watering far better than the squash. Even when the root zone is very
wet, the squash leaves droop some in full sunshine for many of the
plants. This may not threaten the health of the plants but obviously
they are going to grow better if the leaves don't droop and absorb
accordingly more sunshine. The plants seem to do better when growing in
a bog, as long as the fungus is kept at bay.

Dan