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It's rained every day here for the past week. Supposed to get a little break tomorrow.
Checked my young plants this evening, and they look fine so far. But will the long period of moisture hurt them?

Where are you in southern Illinois I use to live there?

It has rained here in Tennessee about every day for 2 months. Last year it rained exactly like what we are having now. One day we had 14" of rain the next day we had 11" of rain my 30 tomatoes plants were totally under water for several days. I lost only 3 plants.

Gary, I'm about 50 miles east of St. Louis.
Thanks for sharing your experience. My plants are in raised beds, so I'm thinking that will help.
Good luck this year.

Wow, Brian! I grew up in that part of IL. Small world.

I'm not in IL, but I've got similar weather to you! We've been getting rain like crazy, so wet Alas, all my plants seem to be doing Ok and they're still just in the seedling stages. As soon as the temps got warmer, they sprouted like madplants all over the place! Hopefully both our gardens will be Okay

We're due to get some hail and high winds over here today. Ugh. I sure hope that my in ground seedlings manage OK! They've grown there from the start, and have dealt with some horrible winds ,but it's supposed to be extra nasty this afternoon!

Yes it could.

I live just west of St Louis so I know what you have been going through. It is so amazingly wet out there. I can't believe we went through this weekend without any major rain. Oh wait it's not over yet, supposed to rain tonight.

But I have some plants in the ground that have been in for a a week or two. Some of them in the wetter areas have died or are not doing well. If it doesn't dry out a bit soon it could be ugly for me. I do have backups though so if need be I will replace some which I did today. Some of them are doing okay but could be doing better without all the rain and colder temps.

depends on 1) drainage and 2) how long this keeps going -- I'm in the same weather pattern, rain, rain, rain...

My tomatoes are in raised beds with excellent drainage and doing well so far.
If your tomatoes are in the ground and you see any water pooling you might try digging some drainage channels, sloped away from them. Water pooling around the roots and staying there is what would do them in.

For me in the long run as this keeps going and going, the problem is not the rain per se, it is no sunshine. The tomatoes and peppers would REALLY like to get some sunshine, right about now. Don't know how to fix that!

No offense RBG or anyone but excellent drainage doesn't mean squat when the water table is so full you have massive flooding in your area.

The ground here just can't take any more, good drainage or not. 2 - 3 inches or more every other day or every day is just to much for any garden.

It doesn't mean anything when your plants are in the ground, there's nowhere to drain too. That's why I added the comments about water pooling, etc. When your plants are in 20" tall raised beds, they are a little insulated from the water table, so still doing fine... but we still do need some sunshine.


Guess what, as I type this it is RAINING again outside - surprise, surprise!

Just saying in the worst case scenario like the one we are in or at least were in, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Even my neighbor with "official" boxed in raised beds covered them a few weeks ago with plywood and tarps to keep them dry. That is how wet it is here.

On top of that there is a frost warning tonight.

Can I buy break off of one of you?

We don't have frost, but it is supposed to go down to 38 tonight! Normal low temp for the date would be 50. Everything is really suffering out there. Even without flooding, it is too wet and too cold and not sunny enough!

I hate this, because this is when we should be having perfect weather 72 and sunny. By the time this is finally over, we will go right into hot humid hazy muggy summer, having missed the really nice season!