I think your plants likely will be fine, unless you get into the mid-90s.

There's not much you can do--shading the plants and making sure they're well-watered is all you can do really.

At least it is early enough in the year that the nights still are very pleasant, and the temperatures are only at their peak for a few hours, unlike in the summer when it can be very hot very early in the day.

Anyone who's hitting the mid-90s through the low 100s probably will see their cool-sesason plants suffering by stalling, bolting, etc.---whatever is the typical heat stress reaction in a given veggie.

I'm sure the warm-season plants will be thrilled.

I just hope this is not an omen that May is going to get hot early.

I knew it was feeling kinda warm outside before I came inside for lunch. When I went back outside after lunch a few minutes ago, I thought to myself "It is too danged hot!" and checked the thermometer.

Our forecast for today's high was 84. We're now at 87 and it sure feels like it. It is popsicle and lemonade weather. (sigh) I hope this is not a sign that we're going to get hotter than forecast every day for the rest of the week. Since we are 87 right now, I think we might make it close to 90 degrees this afternoon. I hope we don't. The wind isn't helpful either in terms of the plants because it will help dry them out more quickly, unless is is carrying nice humidity with it, which our wind right now is not. It is a hot, dry wind.

Now, back outside to water all the little plants in cups destined to find new homes at the Spring Fling on Saturday.

Dawn

Dawn
I was disheartened to see I needed to water my plants again today after having done so yesterday. I had flashbacks of a time when it was severely hot and windy all the time... last year lol

We broke out the lemonade this morning. By this afternoon we put the pitcher in the frig to cool down!

It was warm yesterday, altho the wind did help some. I, too, needed to water the garden - if nothing else to cool down the lettuce a bit. It was supposed to hit 89 degrees. Today, 92 is the forecast, and tomorrow as well I believe. Then another cold front bringing temps back to 60s and 70s (one nighttime low forecast in upper 40s).

I saw a long range forecast on TWC the other day, though, that we are not supposed to have heat like we did last year. Some temps average, some below, but nothing above. If that's on target - YEAH!!!! I am not very trusting of Oklahoma forecasts.

Susan

I also had to water. I have not installed the irrigation tubes yet. In the past I would only install the tubes on the summer crops, may have to change my method.

Larry

We ended up hitting 90 degrees, and we were doing heavy work like cutting down trees that were encroaching on the north side of the garden, working on the fence, and hauling wheelbarrows of soil amendments, so we really were feeling the heat. We did the only logical thing you can do mid-afternoon in April when your thermometer is approaching 90---we took a break and drove to town to get big ol' glasses of Cherry Limeade at Sonic during Happy Hour. In a way, it was silly to drive all the way to town just to buy a cold drink, but it was smart because we got to cool off and rest in the air-conditioned vehicle on our way to and from town. Then, we went right back to work and worked until it was time to cook dinner.

That 90 degrees sure felt too hot but a month from now we'll think 90 degrees is just fine, and two months from now we'll be wishing it were only 90 degrees.

Our forecast for today is 86 but based on yesterday's actual high going 5 degrees higher than forecast, I wouldn't be surprised to see 90 again, although I hope we don't.

Yesterday's weather did remind me of last spring when we had too many hot and windy days drying out our plants.

I hope TWC is right about more normal summer weather, Susan, but even normal summer weather has periods of brutal heat. I just hope we have adequate rainfall.

Larry, we don't usually put out drip irrigation lines and soaker hoses until summer, but I was thinking yesterday that I might do that in next week's cooler weather.

It looks like we're gonna have another couple of lemonade and popsicle days, and I think my lettuce is going to bolt right and left after hitting 90 yesterday. It usually starts bolting after we hit 85, which happened some time ago, but so far it has just been a plant here and a plant there that's bolted. I bet it is about to be every plant.

Dawn

They've upped our high to 102 today! I hope that was just to compensate for the fact that they missed by 7 degrees yesterday and it's not actually going to be 109 today. Although, once it hits 100, I don't really think it matters whether it's 102 or 109.

I sure am glad I didn't bother with most cool season plants this year.

Leslie

Oops! Temperature hitting triple digits in April is distressful... I not worried about any other cool season crops but peas! Yesterday I managed to provide some shade snap peas, they are in tons of blooms and producing pretty well. I hope they will keep going for few more weeks. Sweet peas are the only my favorite cool season crop. -Chandra

Chandra, Sugar Snaps are my favorite Spring crop also and mine aren't blooming yet. I have a few snow peas blooming. So far we are staying in the 80's so I have hope for a crop. We are at 78 today and the forecast is for 85 for today and another day this week and a 20-30% chance for rain for about 4 days.

Of course, in my garden only a small area has sun all day. Most of my garden is in the shade during some part of the day. I once thought that was a big disadvantage, but with last years summer temps, it was kind of nice.

Leslie, I went through a period in the early to mid-2000s when I didn't bother with cool-season crops much either, except I kept planting onions....and it kept getting too hot too early and they kept bolting. I am about to go back to that---planting cool-season crops in early fall for winter production under low tunnels, and only planting onions in spring. Well, maybe some sugar snaps, but I will try growing them in the greenhouse in the winter. If they do well that way, I probably won't mess with them in the spring.

If I lived where you live, I don't think I'd invest a lot of time and space in cool-season crops either.

102 sounds bad enough, and I hope y'all don't go 7 degrees higher. And, I agree with you that once it is 100 degrees, it doesn't seem like it matters what the temperature is because it all is just too hot.

Chandra, Sugar snap peas are my favorite cool-season crop too and mine are blooming beautifully and producing well and I am going to be extremely disappointed if they start burning up in this heat.

Carol, When we chose our garden site, I worried the woods would encroach from the north and west, but it was 1999 and that seemed far out into the future. Every year now, the shade closes in on the west end, and I like it there. I plant peppers and tomatoes at that end so they get some afternoon shade from the big pecan tree there. It is a nice, dappled shade. On the north side, though, the entire woods is creeping closer and closer and closer and starting to shade it too much. Tim cut back a lot of low-hanging limbs on the north side of the garden and really opened up that area to more sunlight yesterday, but what we really need to do is to clear everything within 40 or 50 feet of the garden on the north side because it produces a heavy, dense shade.

I've been transplanting tomato, pepper and herb plants into molasses tubs today, but despite the heat it is not too bad. I am in and out of the potting shed and greenhouse constantly so I get some shade for a minute or two and the wind is even stronger than yesterday so that makes me feel cooler, although it undoubtedly is harder on the plants.

It is only 84.7 degrees here now, so I think it may stay a touch cooler than yesterday, which would be good.

Dawn

Here is how I created row cover shade awning over snap peas;

Super Sugar Snaps already 4.5ft, it looks like 5ft high cattle panel may not be enough LOL

Today I found pea aphids are back again... do you think should I spray some neem oil or garlic spray?

-Chandra

At some point yesterday, they lowered our high to 99. I guess they were afraid they were actually going to be right and had to scramble to fix it. It ended up being 105. 6 degrees off. So close to being right.

Leslie

Leslie, lol lol lol I am baffled by their temperature forecasts. For example, they'll give us a forecast of 86 and then, when we are at a temperature of 89.2 by early afternoon, the forecast high temperature is revised to 90. (I'd already figured out on my own we were going to hit 90 within the hour.) Then, we'll hit 94 before the temps start dropping in early evening. All of that is my description of yesterday. I don't expect them to be 100% accurate with the forecast high--you know, if they say 86 maybe we'll hit 85 or 88. I get that. But to consistently say mid-80s and for us to consistently hit the low or mid-90s, well....that tells me their forecast models weren't handling this week's weather very well. It was that way most of last July and August as well---whatever they said our forecast high would be, I just automatically expected the actual high to be 3 to 5 degrees higher, and it was.

105.6 is just ridiculous for this time of the year! I know y'all get hot pretty early out west but, even so, it would have been nice to make it to May before you starting breaking 100.

The plants have liked the heat up to a point---they have made really good growth this week, but then by afternoon they are so unhappy that the leaves curl.

I'm ready for some cooler weather. It is overcast today and supposed to be cooler. Our forecast is for 87. So, unless we go higher than forecast by several degrees for the 3rd or 4th day in a row, maybe it will at least stay below 90 since it is cloudy. Maybe y'all will stay below 100!

Dawn