Australia is in Heatwave mode
 

I'm not sure if you realise it or not, but we're currently half way through our Australian Summer here and we're getting pretty hot at the moment. Adelaide broke an all time record today of 46.6C and Melbourne is in for the same tomorrow (Fri) with temperatures ranging from 44C-47C in Victoria. For those unfamiliar with Celsius/Fahrenheit conversion, 46C equal 114.8F



I for one can tell you that growing tomatoes is a difficult task, as I lost a big chunk of my crop 3 weeks or so ago when we got to 44.2C here where I live in the east of Victoria. Tomorrow we are expecting 45C+ temperatures which will cause a lot of garden casualties around the country.


If it's cold where you are, spare a thought for those of us downunder as we fry in the Summer sun. Growing tomatoes in Summer here is going to become an art in the next few years and beyond.


I'll report what happens after the sun goes down tomorrow. :wait:

I understand your pain, here in north Texas, we often get triple digit highs in the summer, even have a bicycle race named the "Hotter'N'Hell" hundred each year. Tomato plants just stop and if it is too hot, just die off in our summers. Most try an early crop and a fall crop for tomatoes.

Congrats, you got the heat wave from the Northern hemisphere... we were suffering because of it half a year ago.

You can have it back NG. lol

I saw what happened to your Karma Pink and others on one crazy hot day, while popping in and out between the outages here. :no: Your temperatures would be unbearable to us. :shock:

Good luck with the poor tomatoes... they are always a goldilocks.
I hope our Texan friends can tell you something you can still grow in the shade, when the heat gets out of hand!

[B][SIZE=4][FONT=Garamond]I'm a miserable and ornery cuss when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 27 degrees Celsius)... I'd simply melt away in Australia![/FONT][/SIZE][/B]
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:lol:

By 11 am, 39C at Trafalgar where I live, 42C in Sale, not that far from Mcsee.

Yes it seems to be that our weather follows yours by 6 months

Ya'll have my empathy, I know what it is like to stand still and still get sweaty!! And keep most of the heat for right now, okay? We'll have it back again over here soon enough, and those people who are crazy enough to pay good money to ride bicycles for 100 miles in our sweltering, drippy August will be back as well. Nice folk for the most part, but me, I think they are a tad bit touched!!


As for tomatoes and triple digit heat, there is not much to do except wait it out and either you try to keep the tomato plants alive, or plant fall tomato plants.

Sorry about your excessive heat. In our central Texas garden we use a white, mesh covering that cuts the light in half. It makes decent shade, but the ambient heat still prevents blossom-set. So far, the bestmost heat-resistant tomato variety for us is Porter. If there is something to better survive the heat...and set blossoms...news of that would be welcomed.

For mcsee!
 

Mcsee, Here's a view of the white tarps that we stretch over out plants. The 800-gallon water tank, Bushman, we are told, is manufactured in Australia. An inch and 3/4 rainfall on the roof of the adjacent garage will fill the tank.

Nice setup Harry.

Very clever

Great idea Harry, thank you. I will definitely do something similar next season. I think I still have Porter here, so will try them.


mcsee

Love it Harry!! Bushman tanks are indeed Australian made, I have about 8 here of different sizes. Any particular name that cloth goes under?

Woz, I have a shade cover for my igloo, it's white, but a different weave to shade cloth as we know it. More a commercial cloth.

Whwoz--Purchased the woven 50% mesh in white a few years ago on line. Cannot remember the manufacturer, but many are listed. In searching today, have noticed there are now many more offerings, some are woven.

[QUOTE=mcsee;725177]Great idea Harry, thank you. I will definitely do something similar next season. I think I still have Porter here, so will try them.


mcsee[/QUOTE]


If your interested, I grew a hybrid last summer that bloomed, set fruit, produced very well; with great tasting tomatoes in the highest summer heat. I planted the purchased seedlings in 110 degree heat in full sun in late July. The variety is Heat Master. I have no idea if the seeds or seedlings are available in Australia. I purchased seeds this year and germinated twenty plants. Normally I try to plant out as early as possible after the last frost date. This year I am afraid to plant out until it gets hot in late May or early June. They also produced large tomatoes until the first freeze of fall. The seeds are available in the states, but not everyone has them plus they cost about $5.00 for ten seeds. They seem to perform best in full sun and not as well in partial shade. There is also a variety named Heat Wave but it did not perform well for me in the heat a few years ago.

Thanks DonDuck, sounds exactly what we need here. Not a chance these would be available here anytime soon, worse luck.

mcsee

In the 4 weeks since this thread was started, Townsville has had its annual rainfall inside a week, with the rain crossing the main range, flooding 55 million acres at its peak, killing half a million cattle and flooding down through the channel country in South West Queensland and will probably reach Lake Eyre. Now after a relatively mild February by our standards we are having another block of days around 100F. Getting dry thunder storms sparking bushfires. Nothing to close at this stage, fortunately wind has been low.

[QUOTE=Whwoz;725073]Yes it seems to be that our weather follows yours by 6 months[/QUOTE]


Give yourself credit, you might be 6 months ahead of us :shock::?:


Hope the heat breaks soon but suspect it will be a while. These extreme events are dangerous.

We've been hearing about the flooding in Queensland in the news. So sad about all the animals. I hope things settle down to comfortable soon for you all.

We are currently having a warm spell with temperatures in the high 30C's, which I hope is the last of it here. We're three days into our Autumn (Fall) so we'd expect the hotter weather to be behind us now, but mother nature is full of surprises as we've all seen.

[QUOTE=mcsee;725640]Thanks DonDuck, sounds exactly what we need here. Not a chance these would be available here anytime soon, worse luck.

mcsee[/QUOTE]

Just ask a friend here in thd USA to get the seeds after you order and pay for them, with shipping to the USA friend's house. Then that friend can ship them to you.

Oh my gosh, I hadn't heard about your terrible flooding. :bummer: Fire after flood, what could be worse. :no: Stay safe, friends, and I wish you some moderate weather ahead! :o Boring is good, when it comes to the weather! ....

Oh, please, you Aussies, upload a little of that lovely heat to us; we're freezing up here!

If only we could redistribute the heat & water, wouldn't life be grand?

Bower, the flooding and fires are 2000 km apart, fires bad enough but the unfortunate people who have been flooded were in drought beforehand, some had not seen rain for over 2 years.

Nan, yes it would be good if we could even out the world's weather, but it will probably only get more extreme I fear

[QUOTE=bower;724999]I saw what happened to your Karma Pink and others on one crazy hot day, while popping in and out between the outages here. :no: Your temperatures would be unbearable to us. :shock:

Good luck with the poor tomatoes... they are always a goldilocks.
I hope our Texan friends can tell you something you can still grow in the shade, when the heat gets out of hand![/QUOTE]


My heatmaster hybrid tomatoes thrived in the highest heat and full sun last summer while the other varieties were wilting and dying. I'm growing them again this year, but I will not plant out until ir starts getting hot. They don't seem to like cool weather or any shade. They also were very productive with large, tasty tomatoes in the high heat.

I apologize. My comment on Heatmaster was redundant since I had already posted about it earlier in the thread. I sometimes get a little wordy. It may be due to hopefully having found a variety of tomato which seems to love high heat and will grow the same every year.


I don't know what the laws proscribe, but it would seem we can purchase the seed in the United States and send them to you unopened, in Australia.