Heat Wave

[MaryDel]

Here on Delmarva we have been experiencing heatwaves off and on since spring. Today it's 100 degrees. I doubt we've had a 1/2" of rain in over a month. There's no real rain in the forecast either.

My pasture is dying early and my garden is parched. I've been watering everyday and I just can't keep up. For the first time, it looks like I am going to lose part of my garden to drought

I've got 25 Rutgers tomato plants that are ripening now, and 40 determinates of different varieties, as well as 500 feet of sweetcorn in various stages of tassel, some probably ripe next week. I've got an additional 350' of corn that's about knee high. I also have a small melon and squash patch that I have been hand watering.


One of my angus/longhorn crosses just keeps staring longingly at the green corn and mooing. If it does not rain soon I'll be pulling up the knee high corn and feeding it to him. This fall I am going to wash in an agricultural well specifically for the garden, orchard and livestock. On the bright side, I have not had to cut grass in a month

[stella1751]

Marydel, the heatwave will pass. After a week or so in the 90's, our ten-day forecast here is for mostly 60's and 70's. Today will be 80-something, but tomorrow's high is supposted to be 63. Sometimes, I see the East Coast get our weather three to four days later; maybe that will happen for you. No rain, though, just isolated thunderstorms, which could mean I receive rain while my neighbor gets none or she receives rain while I get none.

Have you looked into Sandpoint wells? If I had the money . . .

[hockeymom519]

I'm on the Delmarva too and I sure hope it doesn't last long

[Birddog]

I am on the western shore in Calvert County, MD and experiencing drought as well. Today I bought a sprinkler and ran it for about an hour on each of my two plots. I have melons, peppers, squash, cukes, beans and corn. We eat squash and cukes, but nothing else is ripe. There is rain in the forecast for Friday I think.

[garden5]

I'm finally getting some heat. The peppers are liking it, and starting to set a lot of fruit.

[applestar]

Drought here too. Ground under the Mulberry tree is starting to crack and the leaves are starting to yellow -- MULBERRY! I thought that tree was indestructible.

[LindsayArthurRTR]

Been like that here for over a month! We've had 1 night of rain in that amount of time and by noon the following morning you couldn't even tell. The ground is cracking here, too. We have to water every day, else it all just shrivels. Definitely looking into some irrigation possibilities for next year's garden renovations

[Shoontok]

topped out at 104 degrees here in NY today. Its down to 101 now, lol. I think I may venture out and do some watering. But this AC and cold beer is soooo gooooood.

[cherishedtiger]

Wow... I thought us Californians were the ones to complain about heat, but it looks like this year all the heat headed east! We had a small heatwave, but after not warming up at all this spring my garden loved the sudden heat and sun...
Do you water in the morning or evening? Have you thought about doing both? Maybe halving the time, between the two? I notice when I do that the ground seems to hold more water and the garden seems to take better advantage of it than watering once and having the sun dry it all up by the next day.
Good luck with the heat wave!!! Heres to cold lemonade and air conditioners!

[MaryDel]

It's over 100 again today I got home from work and went out to move my two week old soaker hose. I picked up the end you hook up to the hose and it just broke clean off, just like that . No tugging or yanking or anything. I guess it was the heat. $15 down the drain.....To top that off, the power was out until an hour ago, and I couldn't water.


I watered my melons heavily last night, and they looked like they hadn't seen water in a week. The leaves were shriveled and wilted. I hit them again with over a gallon per plant, that I had stored in buckets.. There's no rain in the forecast until Saturday when there is a possibility of storms. I did find two ripe ears of "Argent" sweet corn today....it was spectacular.....what gardening is all about

[Shoontok]

I water in the evening, just enuff to keep the soil at a good moisture level without totally drying. have enuff peat material and earthworms in there to provide retention and airation. So far so good.

Tommorow gonna be 100 again, I say bring it on!

[shaefins]

If you live anywhere near the Virginia Beach area, have no fear - rain is coming your way. My family and I are heading that way for vacation on Friday. I guarantee at least 3 days of rain.

[BP]

Everyone was over to enjoy the pool on the 4th. Grandpa had his digital weather station with him and IN THE SHADE he was getting a high of 97 degrees and when one of the few clouds would pass it went down to 94 lol. Just saw on the local news tomorrow will be day 4 in a row of over 90 degree temps. I have a small garden (25x10) and can water easily, so this has not been an issue for me.
I am amazed how much watering I have been doing. It's a raised bed that has been there over 15 years and lastnight (eventhough I hate doing it for melons) I let the sprinkler do the job for about a half hour. Get home from work today around 8pm and it was as hard as concrete! I poured 2 gallons of water on each mound and hope it will be enough?

[stella1751]

This is probably the wrong thread to report that we tied a record low last night. It is currently 39 degrees outside. I've never seen a year like this one for weird temperatures.

[MaryDel]

102^ here today with a breeze

No rain on the radar but a chance of a T-Strm tomorrow afternoon. The sprinkler has been crankin for 7 hours today already with no end in sight. I hope my well guy was wrong when he told me I have just enough water to run my house........

[pepper4]

The past few days has been a heat wave here. Unbearable especially at work where we do injection molding. Our little beagle is having a hard time finding a place to be cool. She hates the water but made her come out and misted her with the hose. Tomarrow is supposed to be worse then the last few days and then supposedly it should cool down to the mid to upper 80's. I wish for rain and I get it, then hope it stops. When it stops and you get warm to hot weather you wish for rain. Hope the best for all you gardeners whether you lack rain, get too much, temps too hi, temps too low. My neighbor said there are some things you cant change and it is what it is.

[BP]

just saw that next week we are supposed to get same as you down there, but the week after a few degrees warmer heatwave then this one.
I'm glad my little gardens are easily hand or hose watered. Gotta be really hard for the bigtime gardeners and farmers.

[Liska]

I'm right there with ya! We've been over 100 for the past few days as well, and my brussells sprouts are progressively looking worse. I'm afraid I'm going to loose them! Hell- I cant' even get my lettuces to bolt ;(

[LindsayArthurRTR]

I'm losing my second plantings of squash cause I just can't keep them watered enough. I water marning and night, as much as time will allow. Problem is that the area is just too big.

[applestar]

Try leaving the water on -- just a trickle -- for the night. Do you have a soaker hose? That would help to spread the water more, but I've also been using the oscillating sprinkler, just trickling out from all the little holes, in the middle of the bed or upslope of the bed. Also leaving the end of the hose, dripping, tucked under the mulch at the base of a shrub or a tree.... I've actually overwatered some areas ... not entirely my fault though, I've discovered that the water pressure goes up considerably during the night.

[gaberdeen]

sure glad I got my drip irrigation installed before this heatwave. Here in Byram NJ it hit 97 in the shade on my front porch. Some plants are suffering like my kohlrabi, but the eggplants sure love it.

[LindsayArthurRTR]

yeah, Imma have to get some soakers. Sprinkling is just not an option... My garden is about 45x100. I'm just gonna have to get crafty with next year's garden. I already have some ideas rolling around up there in ma kidneys (that's an old saying of my papa's... )

[jal_ut]

Cooler than normal here. The last rain of any amount was June 12 when we got 0.53 inch. The lack of rain is not a problem here though as we have good irrigation systems. Our irrigation water comes from snow melt and is held in a reservoir.

Just to let you see how cool it has been, my peas are usually ready about the tenth of June. They are not ready yet this year. A month late. The cool weather crops are still hanging on though. Lettuce and spinach still in July?

What I can say for sure about the weather: It is always weird. It will always break another record. It just can't be trusted to cooperate. Hang in there.

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/porcupine%205_4_2010.jpg[/img]
Reservoir

[hockeymom519]

@jal_ut...that picture is so beautiful. I love seeing all of your pics....makes me envious

[garden5]

The darn continuous heat here is making the peppers drop blossoms.

[pepper4]

Know what you mean Garden5. Another hot one today but I THINK it is supposed to let up starting tomarrow If it gets down in the 80's it will feel after these past few days.

[MaryDel]

The heat broke some today, but still no rain. Maybe tomorrow. Even my asparagus is starting to turn brown.

[Shoontok]

Be careful ya don't burn out the well pump. 7 hours straight is a large strain on that pump especially if its pumping faster then the ground water is seeping into the vein that well is drilled into.

[sweet11]

We have been having a heat wave to,yesterday it was 102 degrees.My advice to you is to water the heck out of the garden,constantly,sldo try putting potted plants into more shade.Alot of my crops died because of the heat,so did the lawn.Everyone is experiencing this problem.Always make sure plants are not exposed in the sun barely at all,avoid sunlight at this time...Good luck to you!

[applestar]

We FINALLY had a brief, passing shower this afternoon. When my DH came home, he said he told his co-workers that it rained because his wife watered heavily yesterday and last night -- it's a running joke between us that if I water the garden thoroughly, it inevitably rains He said the entire room applauded and told him to pass along their thanks.

[stella1751]

Cooler than normal here. The last rain of any amount was June 12 when we got 0.53 inch. The lack of rain is not a problem here though as we have good irrigation systems. Our irrigation water comes from snow melt and is held in a reservoir.

Just to let you see how cool it has been, my peas are usually ready about the tenth of June. They are not ready yet this year. A month late. The cool weather crops are still hanging on though. Lettuce and spinach still in July?

What I can say for sure about the weather: It is always weird. It will always break another record. It just can't be trusted to cooperate. Hang in there.

I thought about this posting, Jal_UT, when I looked at my plants tonight. It's feast or famine for me this year: either extremely cold or extremely hot (mostly the former, though). A month behind is just about right for the peppers and the melon, and the cucumbers are perhaps three weeks behind. I looked at photos of my peppers that I posted last year on THG on July 27. Those peppers were twice the size this year's peppers are right now.

Today we had a normal Casper day, and I found myself drifting past the peppers, melon, and cucumbers several times, just to see whether they had grown.

I'll need a late fall to have any kind of a harvest.

[garden5]

Well, my little heat wave has abates, so I guess the darn peppers can stop dropping their flowers, now .

[applestar]

It's...... RAINING !!!

...oh, wait, I might have spoken oo soon.... it's slowing down.

...yep, definitely spoke too soon, the SUN's shining now.

[pepper4]

Alittle muggy today but cooler then the past 3-4 days and we got a nice steady rain for a few hours which was much needed.

[731greener101]

Apple I feel your pain.We got a 20 minute drizzle this morning after 5 weeks of no rain.On an upside the radar shows another wave that looks to be heavier.Also temps are 10 degrees cooler.I used the cooler temps to empty my compost tumbler on raised bed and refilled tumbler for another batch.I'd share with you if I could.Greener

[stella1751]

Things could be worse. Oh. Wait. They are worse.

[url]https://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/la-nif1a-returns-3-things-to-watch-out-for/19548175[/url]

[MaryDel]

We've gotten two showers today, a decent 20 minute morning shower and it's raining right now. It looks like we will get some more storms this weekend, but as of now storms are widely scattered. 10 miles to the east is still bone dry.

[BrianSkilton]

Here in South Dakota we've had a heat wave since the end of May. However it was broken up by a few severe thunderstorms with very high winds that dumped 3.5 inches of rain in 40min. Other then that we have not gotten any casual shower just rolling through, we've only got rain with the very severe storms and too much all at once. It's basically been in the 90's since the end of may, I have no idea how I got cauliflower and broccoli to grow!

[731greener101]

Got the afternoon shower as promised.20 mins. A real shower though. Actually settled the dust.I feel sorry for the robins though.They have a honey hole in the next yard they frequent when rain drives the worms topside.They jockied for position over the flood zone to no avail.Greener

[731greener101]

Got a more substantial shower overnight.There were two roosters in the hood letting everyone know.Morning temps were below seventy.I hated to see the clouds moving off to the southeast but they did make room for a mist-filled sunrise.Gorgeous.Would not have missed it for the world.Greener