Do you guys have any advice in helping my garden to withstand heatwaves?
We are having 3 days of 100+ degrees F. The flowers on my peppers are
drying and falling. tomatoes seem fine. Cucumbers look good. muskmelon
are getting dry. I try to keep them well watered but am sure not to over
do it. Is there anything else I should do?

GardeningGuy

GardeningGuy wrote:

Do you guys have any advice in helping my garden to withstand heatwaves?
We are having 3 days of 100+ degrees F. The flowers on my peppers are
drying and falling. tomatoes seem fine. Cucumbers look good. muskmelon
are getting dry. I try to keep them well watered but am sure not to over
do it. Is there anything else I should do?

GardeningGuy

I'm wondering the same. I should invest in a soil thermometer,
*note to self, hit Home Depot on the way home*. Tomatoes might
start to feel the heat too. Some resource input I remember says
90 - 95 degrees F and they start wilting...??? My cuc's never got
past the seedling stage.

Some South West gardeners use a shade covering about 20% +/- to block
sun. Lattice or netting overhead. But that's a bit of a job eh?

Controlling soil temps. Some straw mulch, six inches thick and drip
irrigation underneath would reduce soil temps probably 5 - 10 degrees.

I'm in San Jose, Ca. Temps getting towards the low 90's here with
the inlands seeing well over 100 F. There's one last semblance of agriculture
here in the Silicon Valley. Freshly bailed alfalfa, or is it straw.
I'm wondering if I should see if he's selling them. This right next
to a 1,000 unit condo/mini city on First Street.

On Tue, 03 Jun 2003 22:26:18 GMT, GardeningGuy
wrote:

Do you guys have any advice in helping my garden to withstand heatwaves?
We are having 3 days of 100+ degrees F. The flowers on my peppers are
drying and falling. tomatoes seem fine. Cucumbers look good. muskmelon
are getting dry. I try to keep them well watered but am sure not to over
do it. Is there anything else I should do?

GardeningGuy


Look for a watering problem, it's 108F here today and my peppers are
growing like weeds!!!

Mulch well!!!


"Nature, left alone, is in perfect balance.
Harmful insects and plant diseases are always present,
but do not occur in nature to an extent which requires the use of poisonous chemicals.
The sensible approach to disease and insect control is to grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment."

Masanobu Fukuoka, One Straw Revolution--1978

On Tue, 03 Jun 2003 18:26:18 -0400, GardeningGuy wrote:

Do you guys have any advice in helping my garden to withstand heatwaves?
We are having 3 days of 100+ degrees F. The flowers on my peppers are
drying and falling. tomatoes seem fine. Cucumbers look good. muskmelon
are getting dry. I try to keep them well watered but am sure not to over
do it. Is there anything else I should do?

GardeningGuy


Send some heat over to S.E. N.Y., it's been really cool here so far, no
heat waves at all yet.

Try mulching.

In article , GardeningGuy
writes:

Do you guys have any advice in helping my garden to withstand heatwaves?
We are having 3 days of 100+ degrees F. The flowers on my peppers are
drying and falling. tomatoes seem fine. Cucumbers look good. muskmelon
are getting dry. I try to keep them well watered but am sure not to over
do it. Is there anything else I should do?

GardeningGuy

Temps 100+ here regularly.

1. Water deeply and every few days. You can't start this right in the middle of
a heat wave, obviously, but start when you first plant. My garden can go
for 3-5 days bewteen waterings. Do not water every day; this promotes
shallow roots.

2. Check when plants wilt check to see if the soil is still damp/wet. When the
root
system is not large enough to supply all the water a plant needs, the plant
will wilt as a defense. If the soil is still wet, do not add more water, as
this
promotes root rot. Shade the plant temporarily instead.

3. Mulch, mulch, mulch, (as others have said)

Emilie
NorCal Sacramento Valley