The Heat Has Taken Its Toll on the Garden

The last several days have been brutally hot. We have had 90+ temps for 14 days, and we just went through three days of over 100 degrees. Two of those days were at 105 degrees at the Norfolk Airport, and Portsmouth is historically 3 or 4 degrees higher than that location all year. So I took my AC probe thermometer out into the garden to measure what the equivalent heat would be on me if I were working the garden that day. It registered 108 degrees!





My potatoes in the barrels are looking very weak, even with watering thoroughly every day.






My chayote fruit is looking poorly, although it is developing two blooms. I believed that this was a hot area plant, so I don't know what's going on with it. I water it every other day, and fill the white container with water, and it drips out slowly through a 1/8th inch hole I drilled at the bottom. That's to allow the water to soak in good. It is supposed to bear between 75 to 100 fruits a season. That's not happening this year. Harvest time for it is supposed to be in September.








The tomatoberry is finished, and the horseradish plants are looking significantly stressed.








The tops of the snap beans are scorched from the heat.








Some of the tomatoes are suffering from sun scald.







The squash have been cooked by the heat. No more yellow squash this year.




I pulled up all the Henderson Butter Bean plants because all of a sudden the plants were collapsing and turning brown, even with ample watering. I only got eight pounds of butter beans from this crop. I'll till up the area and plant some more for a fall crop.


Well, that's all for now. Stay cool and drink plenty of water.

Thanks for visiting.

Veggie PAK