Rediculous Heat here in CA-- Help me help my sad toms!

15 years ago

OK, so I live in a little slightly inland valley just off the coast of central/southern CA, and we usually have beautiful weather. In fact, ridiculously beautiful weather that justifies our just as ridiculous home prices for our county. (That would be about 800k for a 30 year old 3 bedroom house that needs a total remodel. 1.2 million for a newer home on 1/4 acre).....OK that was an off the topic rant.......back to tomatoes...yeah, so usually the high temp in the summers is in the 80's, some hot days in the 90's. Well, holy crap, it was 108 today. 2 miles from my house it was 113. Dude, we don *not* live in Las Vegas or Arizona for this exact reason!

So my tomatoes are struggling. The lower 3/4 of the plants look fine, the soil is dry on the top couple inches, but moist below that (they are in raised beds 12" high, soil dug out under that). We have mulched/composted heavily, which has retained the water, BUT the top 1/4 of the plants are sad! They are falling over, curled leaves, wilted and just pathetic. I don't want to put more water in, as we have had problems in years past with overwatering, and besides, if the plants wanted more water, it is certainly available to them in the moist soil. Today we misted the plants which seemed to help them at least look better for an hour or so, but is there anything else I can/should do???

Any and all ideas welcomed! (FYI- we only use organic methods-- not that you would suggest RoundUp or Miracle Gro to help this specific dilemma, but just thought I would put that out there. Wow, I am loopy tonight, just throwing out randomness onto the web.....)

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Comments (8)

bdobs
15 years ago
Dont know how to help, but I can feel your pain with the heat. It was 103 at my house in the Bay Area.
My mom called me and told me it was 116 where they live in Pismo Beach...WOW
Maybe try and shade them in the extremem heat?
digdirt2
15 years ago
Is there any way you can rig a temp shade over them? Burlap works good - we have to do that here sometimes - and if $$ are no problem, shade cloth. Even a tarp. If you can block part of the sun in the worst heat of the day it helps. It all depends on how many plants you have but even shading a few will help.

Take care with the misting though - it encourages bacterial diseases.

But most important, keep in mind that even if they don't look all that good on the top, it is a natural response of the plant to the heat. It will curl up and almost turn in on itself to restrict the transpiration. As long as the roots are well mulched - thick as possible - the plant will survive. Only small comfort I know, but still some. ;)

Good luck. It will pass.

Dave
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Also for watering: the soil looks too dry too soon currently. Mine, too--and I have no real problems. The very top surface of the soil dries out really fast in sun and wind, but that doesn't mean there isn't water underneath. You can test that by pushing a screwdriver into the soil. If it goes in fairly easily (barring rocks), your soil is damp. Or drive a small trowel into it and separate it into a V shape by rocking it a little bit. That'll give you a direct visual on how deep the water is. Here would be my plan: for now do very frequent waterings to help really wet the soil, I'm not familiar with California (except for the part about moderate temperatures and no rain), but this doesn't sound like a good idea--it encourages shallow roots and lawn diseases. The standard is 1" of water a week, all at once (well, within a day to allow for on/off cycles to allow the water to penetrate). For sandy soil your mileage will differ because the water wicks out fast and goes very deep very quickly. I will also probably try milorganite as a jump start, as I fear my soil is probably pretty depleted. I swear by it, others don't (it is processed sewage, but heated enough to kill everything in it). The 18 lbs/thousand square feet I put down last weekend kicked in and it's a rainy week. The grass, since Sunday, has grown one and a half inches and gone a deeper green. Once it stops raining, I'll mow. I went high, but I'm going to renovate this fall--with a deep, heavy core aeration I want lots of organics mixing into the holes. I alternate it with alfalfa and soy. When I started (early last year), my soil profile was slightly silty clay, poor drainage, very poor water penetration, hard as a rock, and a light tan. It had been corn field for as long as I could remember prior to building, and even my parents don't remember when it wasn't. Call it 40 years of abuse. Now it's still slightly silty clay (nothing's going to change that short of a renovation down to a foot or more). Drainage is fair to good, penetration is good to excellent, the soil is still hard when dry (it's supposed to be), but spongy when wet. The top half-inch is black, another inch is deep brown, and a good three inches below that have turned a midrange brown. Everything grows better and more strongly. I'm very pleased. Some older photos are here. I have to update them--the grass has improved since these were taken and the season advanced a bit.
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bate181
15 years ago
im in socal and my plants are showing the same signs. its supposed to cool to the 80s next week
tomatojoa
15 years ago
I'm in the hills on the peninsula south of SF - we've got this heat too! Normally we share your gorgeous weather (and house prices), but yesterday we hit 99. I've got the tomatoes under a shade cloth, am keeping them well watered, and they seem to be doing fine. Probably better than me, in fact (nobody has AC because we don't usually need it!). JoAnne
doof
15 years ago
Here I am, in southern California. Long Beach.

I'm picking dead leaves off of almost all my plants on the south side of the house, none so far off the plants on the west side. The ones on the south side are taking a real beating from the heat.

I'll tell you, though, one type that seems to be really hardy in the heat, and that's Ananas Noir (Black Pineapple). It is very, very hardy and perky, even while plants next to it are looking like they badly need some Gatorade. I have them in two locations, and both are outperforming the other plants in terms of healthiness.

I just wish I liked the flavor more. I've only picked one, so far, and it was so bland, I'm going to assume I picked it too early. It's a weird multi-color, so it was hard to assess the ripeness. Hopefully the next one (which I will let set longer) will taste as sweet as its reputation.

Last year, Druzba was a good heat-survivor as well. Prolific and hardy.

It would be nice to know which tomatoes other people in this area have had as good summer heat survivors. (Production is a different issue).
di_h
15 years ago
2 of my bigger tom plants are doing ok with deep watering, the others smaller ones, not doing as well. I moved them under the patio cover but I think one is beyond help.
109 degrees here yesterday and hot again today. Please say this isn't a precursor to the temps this summer!
katib_gardener
15 years ago
At least I am not alone. We've been getting that type of heat for a couple weeks now and I feel like I am fighting a losing battle. I DO live the desert, so it's expected for me.

Burlap works pretty good, or shade cloth. I just enclosed my covered patio with shade cloth today, and I'm moving plants under there as fast as I can (problem is that I will have to move my drip irrigation to accomodate as well). I think it's worthwhile though because we have monsoons coming soon, and I am afraid the winds and rain will destroy the plants.

Good luck! Hope the heat breaks for you.
texanjana
15 years ago
Welcome to my world! We have been in this heat wave for about a month now, temps 97-101 every single day (even in Texas this is not normal for May and June). I have given up on my tomatoes. They have not set any fruit in a month, and I just can't keep enough water on them even with drip irrigation. Wish I could be more encouraging, I usually use shade cloth here in August-September, but the toms look so pathetic I haven't even bothered! I hope it ends for you soon, our worst is yet to come!

Rediculous Heat here in CA-- Help me help my sad toms!

Comments (8)

bdobs

digdirt2

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