Weather

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by b54red

Still no rain. Dry as a bone here and no end in sight. Looks bad for fall. We had a few days where it cooled down but that is now over and mid to upper 90s forecast as far into the future as they will predict and it is no rain and continuing high temps.

Same here. No rain forecast. Upper 90's the rest of the week at least.

Originally Posted by b54red

I am almost ready to throw in the towel. This having to water almost every spare minute that it isn't above 90 is getting very old and very expensive just for some bell peppers, a few tomatoes and some fall cucumbers.

I've been watering mine in the late evening so that they stay hydrated all night. Yeah, I know... "watering plants at night is bad!". Well, I water at the base of the plants so the leaves stay dry. It hasn't ever hurt anything yet. By late afternoon the next day the plants start having the droops but that evening's watering cures it in a hurry.

Originally Posted by b54red

The beds that need preparing are so dry that I will need a rain or lots of watering to get the soil moist and soft enough to work it up. I have to dig each bed out both spring and fall due to tree roots. If I skip one season the digging is too much for an old guy with arthritis.

It's amazing how similar our gardens are, Bill. I have about four beds that have to be dug both spring and fall for the very same reason. Can't *even* let those fibrous and small roots get bigger! Pulling on that broadfork gets worky so I pull it a bit past vertical, then step to the side and push it to the ground before pulling out what was dug up. Easier than totally pulling. Still, the knees are hollering the rest of the night. I too wonder when it will finally become too much and don't really want to think about it. I hate surrendering to anything!

[Worth1]

Smokey isn't liking the weather.
I come home from work she wants out and wants back in around 15 minutes later.
The next much anticipated fall cool front that will come in she will be kicking up her heals.

[b54red]

Dawg I used to use a garden fork before the roots got so bad and then I started using a good sharp shovel and it made the work much faster and the roots were cleared out much better. After I have turned the bed from one end to another I just take a cultivator with four tines and rake through the dry soil and remove the fine roots that have been cut by the shovel. Sometimes I get a pile of roots the size of a square bale of hay and other times not a huge amount it just depends on which bed is closer to the trees.

After I get the bed turned and the worst of the roots out I add some compost, peat, and pine bark fines along with some fertilizer in the form of chicken manure, cottonseed meal, alfalfa pellets and some potassium sulfate. I then till it into the top three or four inches of the soil with my Mantis tiller with the tines reversed so it doesn't go too deep or wad up with fine roots. I then wet it down and cover it back with cypress mulch until I need to plant. I have found keeping mulch on the beds year round really helps with the weed problems and promotes more worms in the soil.

My bell peppers are still making very well but the sweet potato vines I plant under them are a pain to keep under control. I use my gas powered hedge clipper to cut them off along the edge of the raised bed or I'll end up having sweet potatoes growing everywhere. The first two years I let them run and it was such a mess and then I had to fight all the sprouts coming up between the beds all the next year.

If it will cool down here before too late in the day I would love to water late in the evening but by the time it is in the low 90s now it is dark and skeeters just love me to come out then. I don't even know where they are coming from with this extreme drought but they find me every time I go out too early or too late.

The whiteflies are wrapping up my fall cucumber plants along with the new bean plants I set out. I am also having to pull a lot of my tomato plants due to TYLCV that started showing up with the whiteflies about a month ago and it is progressing rapidly in infecting my remaining tomatoes. Once a plant gets it unless it has some really large fruit on it you might as well pull it then because it isn't going to make much if anything after that. I didn't see it last fall but the year before it was devastating. I am now glad I didn't plant a lot of fall tomatoes this year but rather just kept some of my older plants well cared for so they would last longer.

The nearest Weather Underground station to my house was reading 105 and hour ago and so was my thermometer but it has now dropped down to 104.

Bill

We've got our first frost coming on Wednesday morning, according to the forecast; a little earlier than it's been for years, but not far off the average. We've been harvesting and canning. I just finished prepping 20lbs of cherry tomatoes to cook and can (not particularly big ones!), along with the other tomatoes:

[bower]

Cold and rainy all week with NW winds, pretty breezy. Temperatures are in the 40's F well below normal, more like the beginning of November. I had company - two fellas took over the garden this afternoon -I didn't want to fight em for it. The bigger bro did not look a bit friendly.

[maxjohnson]

Originally Posted by bower

Cold and rainy all week with NW winds, pretty breezy. Temperatures are in the 40's F well below normal, more like the beginning of November. I had company - two fellas took over the garden this afternoon -I didn't want to fight em for it. The bigger bro did not look a bit friendly.

During rutting season? I wouldn't mess with them either.

[tryno12]

Originally Posted by b54red View Post
Still no rain. Dry as a bone here and no end in sight. Looks bad for fall. We had a few days where it cooled down but that is now over and mid to upper 90s forecast as far into the future as they will predict and it is no rain and continuing high temps.

b54red: here in Indy 22 days in a row above normal temps - last 2 plus tomorrow set records over 90. no rain either.

I water every day and have except for the few days of rain since spring. that's like 4 going on 5 months every day except a few rain days.

because of this water work etc and time involved will only have 50 plants next yr instead of 100+

Pete

[AlittleSalt]

Summer drought is still going on here. Next week is supposedly going to be cooler. I hope so.

[tryno12]

supposed to get cooler here in a couple days , but no rain although they forecast it now and then.
Pete

[GoDawgs]

It got up to 101 Monday. Saturday a front comes through and the high is supposed to be only 82, down to 78 by Tuesday! It's about time. Come on, weekend! Maybe some t-storms Monday. Everything around here is parched.

Yesterday Pickles spied some deer scat under a tree in front of the house. Sometimes that means all of their browse has dried up and they start eyeing the stuff in the garden! Haven't seen any of that since spring before things greened up after winter. I'll have to keep an eye on things.

[Worth1]

Got up to at least 92 at my house today.
I turn the thermostat up to 80 when I go to work and turn it back down when I get home.
Today in a long while now the temperature in the house was 77.
That means the AC never ran all day and it only rose 7 degrees. .

[rxkeith]

if you want cool weather, we have it.
if you want rain, we have that too.
40s, and 50s is where we are mostly at currently.
it started raining wed. night, and continued all through the day thurs.

fall colors are really starting to show.
now is the time to come for a visit. it is a spectacular show while it lasts.



keith

[GoDawgs]

I think (hope!) yesterday was the last 100 of the year. A dry front came through last night and we're to have a cloudy day, a 10-15 mph breeze and 83 temps today and the next four days at least. Just a small chance of a stray shower, maybe storms mid week. We desperately need rain.

The breeze is delicious right now! All doors and windows are open. Time to change out the air.

[bower]

Rain and yes, snow and graupel falling, just drove me in out of the garden. You can have it!
graupel = frozen snow pellets. The snow that bounces. It's as close as we get to hail, so for that at least I can be grateful. But we do have several nice days in the forecast, days without rain, bit of sunshine, normal and even temperatures above the normals for a couple, so for that I am REALLY grateful.

[ddsack]

bower, loved the moose intruders! Our deer have been pretty active too. Leaves on our driveway are coloring up.

It's been a cool week here, in the 40's and lots of rain the last couple of days. Have not had a true freeze yet, but very close to it. Might get snow later in the week.