This years HEAT

Man I'm having a hard time growing anything that's not under shade cloth. Corn made it to 3 feet high, Cucumbers aren't even taking off Hell my Zucchini that usually grows like mad is stunted in growth Finding that to get anything to take off I have to water the raised beds every fricken night!  
 
Man, it seems like a lot of people are having slow/stunted growth this year, myself included. We have just got to be patient. You've got a nice long growing season, so you should be good. Patience is a virtue.
 
My non pepper garden is stunted because we had a month of no rain.  Peppers did absolutely fine then, put on shit tons of pods.  Then the rain started.  Now I have plants that need staked up for all the pods, but they are ripening slowly.  As I am pulling potato and onion, I am replanting cucumbers and zucchini to make up for what did not grow when it was dry.  No problem with heat itself, just water not being spaced out enough.

Not trying to get all political n all, but do think we gardeners must be ready to adapt to what I am calling global weirdening.  If it were just a gradual change in one direction it would be easy to manage, but it keeps changing from year to year.  Am putting up shade cloth this fall or maybe next spring.  Have the poles in the ground already.  Thing is, going to do it in a way I can pull the cloth down.  Building a green house, but building it so I can roll the covering off.  Anything I do at this point is something I can undo easily because if you do not like the weather, stick around and it will change.
 
Here in North Carolina, we've had I don't even know how many record high days. 86-90 is typical for us in the summer for a high. This year, so far, most days have been 98-102. It's been awful. ...and the humidity... My peppers have done just fine. Sometimes they look like they're dying at 5 PM but perk back up before dark. I haven't lost any plants except 3-4 that I planted way too late & when they were way too small. I knew it was hit or miss with those. Melons have done fine. Everything else, including tomatoes have just been zapped. Beans are lousy. Cucumbers worse. Squash eh OK for a couple of weeks but not much lately. Not only do the plants need a break- so does their caretaker. Ugh.
 
coachspencerxc said:
Here in North Carolina, we've had I don't even know how many record high days. 86-90 is typical for us in the summer for a high. This year, so far, most days have been 98-102. It's been awful. ...and the humidity... My peppers have done just fine. Sometimes they look like they're dying at 5 PM but perk back up before dark. I haven't lost any plants except 3-4 that I planted way too late & when they were way too small. I knew it was hit or miss with those. Melons have done fine. Everything else, including tomatoes have just been zapped. Beans are lousy. Cucumbers worse. Squash eh OK for a couple of weeks but not much lately. Not only do the plants need a break- so does their caretaker. Ugh.
What part of NC? I had 3 pepper plants that survived long enough to make a transplant in the raised bed and lost one when those temps started rolling in. They're taking off now, should be flowering in a week or so, I guess. Cucumbers have a growth spurt after every rain, and if I cared about them, the tomatoes are growing like crazy, just small fruit.... North of Charlotte, here....
 
It's hot here in S. California with little or no rain expected anytime soon except for our mountain and desert thunderstorms that occasionally creep over the mountain and hit my plants.
Productivity is good though. Even with our water shortage..my plants will continue to get plenty :p
 
rhm3769 said:
What part of NC? I had 3 pepper plants that survived long enough to make a transplant in the raised bed and lost one when those temps started rolling in. They're taking off now, should be flowering in a week or so, I guess. Cucumbers have a growth spurt after every rain, and if I cared about them, the tomatoes are growing like crazy, just small fruit.... North of Charlotte, here....
Yeah? Close. I'm in Matthews.
 
PA has been weird.  Late start to the season because of frost all the way through mid May... then super hot (90s) for a month.  Now rain for a week, 80 for a week... rinse and repeat.  Half my plants are thriving.. the others look like a bonsai garden (but seem to be holding on, even producing a little.)

Luckily, that "global weirdening" has left this area pretty much in harvest weather until at least mid October the past years... so there should be a decent amount of time left to grow.  Waiting on my first ripenings (annums, habaneros) and finally setting some really nice superhot pods this past 2 weeks.
 
stoney's_ghost said:
It's hot here in S. California with little or no rain expected anytime soon except for our mountain and desert thunderstorms that occasionally creep over the mountain and hit my plants.
Productivity is good though. Even with our water shortage..my plants will continue to get plenty :P
We haven't had any real rain either.  I'm East of Sacramento valley, at the bottom of the foothills and beginning of the valley.  It was 108F here a couple of weeks ago and my peppers dropped all of their blooms.  My Cherokee purple tomato looked like it was being burned alive!  I put up some shade cloth and moved the sensitive ones to sanctuary.  The Cherokee had nice new growth, but the old growth is still wrinkled and tortured looking.  It decided to flower again, which is nice.  The pepper plants are finally starting to make some tiny fruits.  I'm behind a lot of folks here that are harvesting and whatnot, but am pretty happy about keeping the humble bucket Rigatoni garden alive!  
 
ajdrew said:
My non pepper garden is stunted because we had a month of no rain.  Peppers did absolutely fine then, put on shit tons of pods.  Then the rain started.  Now I have plants that need staked up for all the pods, but they are ripening slowly.  As I am pulling potato and onion, I am replanting cucumbers and zucchini to make up for what did not grow when it was dry.  No problem with heat itself, just water not being spaced out enough.

Not trying to get all political n all, but do think we gardeners must be ready to adapt to what I am calling global weirdening.  If it were just a gradual change in one direction it would be easy to manage, but it keeps changing from year to year.  Am putting up shade cloth this fall or maybe next spring.  Have the poles in the ground already.  Thing is, going to do it in a way I can pull the cloth down.  Building a green house, but building it so I can roll the covering off.  Anything I do at this point is something I can undo easily because if you do not like the weather, stick around and it will change.
 
Maybe try an improvised hoop-house design that can alternate between shade cloth & Green house plastic.
 
I agree.  From last years cold to this years heat I'm baffled.
coachspencerxc said:
Here in North Carolina, we've had I don't even know how many record high days. 86-90 is typical for us in the summer for a high. This year, so far, most days have been 98-102. It's been awful. ...and the humidity... My peppers have done just fine. Sometimes they look like they're dying at 5 PM but perk back up before dark. I haven't lost any plants except 3-4 that I planted way too late & when they were way too small. I knew it was hit or miss with those. Melons have done fine. Everything else, including tomatoes have just been zapped. Beans are lousy. Cucumbers worse. Squash eh OK for a couple of weeks but not much lately. Not only do the plants need a break- so does their caretaker. Ugh.
 This is my life right now. 
My beans are less than a foot tall!  I planted in May!  My peppers are booming.  The tomatoes are meh.  Growing massive, but have so much blossom drop from the heat I'm loosing my mind.  I count the blossoms because I am weird.  83.  83 individual flows I have found on the ground so far from 4 tomato plants.  I don't even want to think of all the flowers that have actually dropped.   My Habanero plants are going insane though.  40-50 peppers a plant. 
 
 
Vicious Vex said:
 
Maybe try an improvised hoop-house design that can alternate between shade cloth & Green house plastic.
 
I agree.  From last years cold to this years heat I'm baffled.

 This is my life right now. 
My beans are less than a foot tall!  I planted in May!  My peppers are booming.  The tomatoes are meh.  Growing massive, but have so much blossom drop from the heat I'm loosing my mind.  I count the blossoms because I am weird.  83.  83 individual flows I have found on the ground so far from 4 tomato plants.  I don't even want to think of all the flowers that have actually dropped.   My Habanero plants are going insane though.  40-50 peppers a plant. 
 
 
 
Vex, also very frustrated here in Iredell County, NC with blossom drop from the heat.     I have some 7 Pot varieties that are 4 feet tall with less than 5 pods on them.      Others have fared much better, like my datil crosses with over 100 pods.    'Maters are OK but could have been so much better.    I double mulched during the June heat wave ( 95+ for two weeks) by putting straw around plants that were already growing through black plastic.      It's interesting to see which varieties can take the heat better. 
 
On a positive note, I have seen much less disease this year which may be due to the dry heat.    I usually see some anthracnose or BLS but not right now. 
 
TrueNorthReptiles said:
Man, it seems like a lot of people are having slow/stunted growth this year, myself included. We have just got to be patient. You've got a nice long growing season, so you should be good. Patience is a virtue.
Ain't that the truth. Nothing to brag about here. Slow growth as well.
 
My peppers are just now finally taking off and I'm in the Central Valley . My cucumbers just started producing this past week along with my zucchini plant. Tomotoes have been doing great.
 
We are baking up here in Western Washington. Supposed to be right around 95 today. Peppers are doing amazing. Last week was normal with temps around 80, but I don't remember ever having this many 90 degree days here. Most of the plants are doing OK.
 
It's been unusually hot here in central British Columbia too. We've already had fairly large fires (record size for may) and many other parts of the province ate burning too.

We've been sitting at 30-35c for some time. We had a few days of rain. Although it's cooled a bit - down around 25c - my peppers are loving it. I've already managed a few small harvests which is a bit unusual for me at this time of the year.

Neil
 
MisterBigglesworth said:
 
 
Vex, also very frustrated here in Iredell County, NC with blossom drop from the heat.     I have some 7 Pot varieties that are 4 feet tall with less than 5 pods on them.      Others have fared much better, like my datil crosses with over 100 pods.    'Maters are OK but could have been so much better.    I double mulched during the June heat wave ( 95+ for two weeks) by putting straw around plants that were already growing through black plastic.      It's interesting to see which varieties can take the heat better. 
 
On a positive note, I have seen much less disease this year which may be due to the dry heat.    I usually see some anthracnose or BLS but not right now. 
 
 
MisterBigglesworth said:
 
 
Vex, also very frustrated here in Iredell County, NC with blossom drop from the heat.     I have some 7 Pot varieties that are 4 feet tall with less than 5 pods on them.      Others have fared much better, like my datil crosses with over 100 pods.    'Maters are OK but could have been so much better.    I double mulched during the June heat wave ( 95+ for two weeks) by putting straw around plants that were already growing through black plastic.      It's interesting to see which varieties can take the heat better. 
 
On a positive note, I have seen much less disease this year which may be due to the dry heat.    I usually see some anthracnose or BLS but not right now. 
my peppers heard me talking smack.   They shot up over a foot this weekend.  We had off an on rain for a few days that brought down the temps.
 
With all the heat here in SC, mine seem to be slow too, but then again I'm a first year grower so there are probably a dozen other things I could have done better. 
 
Anyway, I'm getting a ton of flowers, how long does the growing season last usually?  Would it be safe to say I have until October to let them do their thing, flower, bud, mature, change color from now until then? 
 
More precisely, my Trinidad Scorpion has flower buds, but none have opened up yet.  Both of my Savinas have a bunch of open flowers.  Hoping to see some peppers soon :)
 
Just smiling and waiting.
 
M
 
mlittle74 said:
With all the heat here in SC, mine seem to be slow too, but then again I'm a first year grower so there are probably a dozen other things I could have done better. 
 
Anyway, I'm getting a ton of flowers, how long does the growing season last usually?  Would it be safe to say I have until October to let them do their thing, flower, bud, mature, change color from now until then? 
 
More precisely, my Trinidad Scorpion has flower buds, but none have opened up yet.  Both of my Savinas have a bunch of open flowers.  Hoping to see some peppers soon :)
 
Just smiling and waiting.
 
M
I'm in Chicago and harvested through most of October last year so you'll be fine. I wrapped them in huge black plastic bags on nights where frost was a threat which helped buy me a week or two
 
Genetikx said:
I'm in Chicago and harvested through most of October last year so you'll be fine. I wrapped them in huge black plastic bags on nights where frost was a threat which helped buy me a week or two
 
Cool (pun not intended).  Thanks for the info.  How's your crop coming along this year?
 
M
 
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