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Vegetable Gardening Fruit & Orchards Growing Tomatoes

Gardening Weather, so far....

last year

...so far Mother Nature has been nice to us here in central Va. Temps and moisture levels are off to a good start other than a couple of late cold snaps and one hail storm of which things have recovered ok. I feel for you folks in Texas and other nearby southern areas with this record breaking Heat Wave going on down there. Was watching the Weather Channel this morning and Jim Cantore had a bleak outlook for Texas saying that there's no end in sight for the rest of May, and that the only thing that might break this gripping heatwave is that a tropical disturbance could do it...... that's a heck of a way to get relief? The hurricane season is predicted to be an active one, hope we don't jump over 'Z' again!!

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Comments (11)

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
last year
Well, things that like heat are going nuts down here. Cukes, peppers, melons, tropical greens, etc. But I think this is a loss-year for tomatoes. They too are growing like crazy, but not setting any fruit.
vgkg Z-7 Va
Original Author
last year
The next 3 days here will be in the low 80's for good tomato pollination temps. But depending upon the forecaster this coming Fri & Sat will be 95-100F, thankfully just for 2 days before returning back to the lower 80's.
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It's still early in the season here. Pruning, otherwise known as Me vs. The Garden is still progressing. Sort of. At this point, I've done all the 'easy' roses. The ones that go snip, snip, snip. What's left are things like Queen of the Prairies and Clair Matin, the ones that need saws to cut out old canes that should have been cut out years ago, except that I never bothered to get the saw out of the garage. The early roses have started blooming. R. hugonis, R. primula and Glory of Edsel. The lilacs are in full bloom, the doublefile viburnum is turning white, and the first of the tree peonies are opening. The early iris are fading, so it's time to anxiously await the opening of the first TBs. The bloom stalks are there, the flowers are starting to show color, but are at least a couple of days away. Having drastically redone irisdom a couple of years ago, I'm refusing to mess with the bed until it starts crowding. The result is a bigger and better show every year. This is the way it's supposed to work, but doesn't always. People are starting to drop hints about garden visits. That means it's time to start taking the quarry work seriously again. Most of the beds are dug to about a foot, then amended. Since we start with heavy, rocky soil, the result is quite good rose soil and a pile of rock. The exception has always been a relatively small area with bedrock near the surface. It started off garden life as an iris bed. The small, early iris species that were placed there didn't mind the almost total lack of soil. It was close enough to their native habitat. But over time, as the garden vision changed, it was thought desirable to have a deeper bed as a more normal extension of the rest of the garden. So the rock had to go. The rock is still going, and the excavated topsoil still sits on a tarp in the middle of a garden path. I refuse to even think about how many years this has been true. Last summer, I got the hole to a point where there is deep enough soil for most things. However, the hole produces about the best paving stone I've dug here. Paving stone has uses, and if I don't dig it out of that hole, I'll have to *horrors* BUY it.
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gjcore
last year
daninthedirt, have you ever tried using shade cloth on the tomatoes during extreme heat?
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
last year
last modified: last year
It's not about sunlight. It's about temperature. Shade cloth doesn't change the temperature. If it's 95F in the sun, it'll be 95F in the shade. More to the point, if it's 95F on a cloudy day, your tomatoes still won't pollinate.
vgkg Z-7 Va
Original Author
last year
I put my early corn in a heated light bulb tent, but I ain't putting my tomato plants in an air conditioned tent....I have my limits, ha.
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
last year
Vgkg, Same here for corn. I planted on April 11 and needed to tent it because of the weather. It is doing well now and is about 12-15 inches tall.
CA Kate z9
last year
Im in CA Central Valley and it is already too hot for tomatoes. Our temps are aat or near 100 degrees for the whole of this week. I can’t imagine what the rest of the summer will be like.
beesneeds
last year
Weather is a bit wobbly here. Chill then summer, now spring again gently... supposed to be summer again by the weekend, hehe. I'm already preparing for a goodly dry streak this year, just feels like it's gonna be like that. It's throwing my usual spring routines off a bit. But everything is growing well that's been put in, not much left to plant in, and getting caught up on mowing and working on the garden yard.

I think it's going to be a full work summer around here.
vgkg Z-7 Va
Original Author
last year
Hey Wayne, here's my young corn under the "tent" (shower curtains with 4 -75W bulbs)

^^^ That was my first freezing night, the temp inside was around 50F. After that attempt, for the 2nd freezing night (both ~32F) I covered the shower curtains with old blankets and reduced the the bulbs down to 2 - 75W. The blankets help keep the temp at 55F with using just 2 bulbs. That same corn has its tassels peaking out now. I have hamburgers on stand-by ;-)
beesneeds
last year
vgkg, your UFO spring tent always makes me smile. And makes me want to share the photo on a spooky forum just to mess with people :)
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
last year
last modified: last year
Every year I dare myself to just avoid planting tomatoes. In my climate, they are really screwball. You have to plant out super early and endure the cold (or else plant out REALLY BIG) in order to mature before it gets too hot. If you try fall tomatoes, it's the opposite. I actually like melons a lot better.

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