Weather Warning - Middle South

Here in my neck of the woods I don't know what temps got down last night to but I didn't see any frost until I got to work and some of the cars from the night shift had it on their roofs. Tomatoes look good the young sprouts are looking good too. I am hoping that some of the new compost I added (pretty hot still) helped because my beds were feeling pretty warm to the touch over the weekend. I had a lot of blooms on my tomatoes and they are still pretty small. I was wondering if I should pluck them off or let them go. Maybe with the cold snap they will shed those blooms and put energy into growing stronger before trying to produce fruit? In the past I have kept my plants pruned and sucker free but never had an issue with early blooms.

I resurrected this thread from when we had some bitter cold attacks.  Now, at the other end of the thermometer:

Our high in this area is expected to be about 92 F.  Folks might want to make sure plants are hydrated.  Also, folks might want to put off doing outdoor work.  I watered early and I came in drenched.

Take care all and try to keep cool.

Look at the humidity - your strap line says 67% at 12:30 pm.  I am doing the 30 minute outside and 30 minute inside cooling off.  Then back outside again.

yolos wrote:Look at the humidity - your strap line says 67% at 12:30 pm.  I am doing the 30 minute outside and 30 minute inside cooling off.  Then back outside again.

That's exactly what I'm doing... except it was 15 minutes out this time... I'm trrying to clean up summer gardening and my elevated planters (concrete mixing tubs) are on gravel... maybe I didn't think this far out enough... gravel reflects a LOT of heat, turns out... argh.  Where's the suntea???

Thermometer on the porch reads 96 already, surely that's not right.  The one a foot above the gravel walkway in direct sun reads 108.... gonna have to mulch the whole area.

From weather.com @ 4:34 PM for zip 30127
92°F
FEELS LIKE 99°

Pretty day but it feels scorching on the skin.
Sort of like the clouds are acting like magnifying lens for the sun.

From very hot to record cold.

Last night our low was 59*F.  This broke the record set in 1936.  I even wore a hoodie out to hand pollinate the squash before work this morning.  Highs projected this week run from 82* to 84*. 

With these relatively low temps, maybe this weekend I can get a decent days work done cleaning up the diseased tomatoes, aphid infested corn stalks, pickle worm infested melon, SVB damaged pumpkins, downy mildew infected cucumbers. and ants everywhere.

I will take any weather improvement.  Yesterday was so nice.  Yolos, you made me chuckle when I read your gardening woes and planned clean up (in the sense that I would rather laugh than cry).  I will be performing jobs similarly.

Good morning all my Middle Southern neighbors.  I just wanted to warn you all that we are going to have a heat wave through the weekend (according to the latest weather report on Fox news).  Temps projected to be in the 90's.  What's more, our air quality, at least for today, will be poor.   

Well, that reeks...!  Was up in NH where it was a nice lower-70's for the last few days...  I got kinda spoiled, lol!  High humidity though.

Hi Marie.  Nice to have you back.  Our weather was pretty nice these past few days.  You came home just in time for the heat wave.

I want to amend what I said about air quality.  It's a code orange which is unhealthy for sensitive people.  Don't want to overly alarm everyone.

Marie, we got a rain drenching last night.  Did you as well?

Windmere wrote:Hi Marie.  Nice to have you back.  Our weather was pretty nice these past few days.  You came home just in time for the heat wave.

I want to amend what I said about air quality.  It's a code orange which is unhealthy for sensitive people.  Don't want to overly alarm everyone.

Marie, we got a rain drenching last night.  Did you as well?

I did not get a drop, that's not fair. 

Marie, how is your garden.  Are you having the same problem Windmere and I are having with diseases and pests.

I've had rain for the last 5 days.  Last week I had 2 cuke vines that were just beautiful and producing some nice cukes.  Today they are beat down and diseased.  I just hope the tops of the vines will grow out and bloom again.  As soon as it stops raining (maybe tomorrow) I'll try to spray for fungus, mildew and what ever.  Worms on my now lacy kale and collards, but no use trying to do anything until the rain stops.  This is the first year I've had a swiss chard failure.  Nothing got above 2 or 3 inches high.  I replanted squash a few weeks ago and might get a late crop. 

The only tomatoes that are still looking halfway good are some volunteer cherry and san marzanos growing in the grass outside the beds and in the compost pile.  If they make it through this week I should have enough to eat, but none for canning.

Bean vines are black with aphids.  Not many blooms and very few beans.  I've go a second planting going in another beds.  Here's hoping the aphids stay at the first bed.

I do have a few very small, but very sweet sugar baby watermelons.

Kay

HEAT WAVE COMIMNG

Wednesday - 93* and very humid
Thursday - 97* and very humid
Friday - 97* and very humid
Saturday - 97* and very humid

Keep those struggling veggies well watered.  At least the heat wave is coming before the Sept 1 plant out date for me for fall veggies.

yolos wrote:HEAT WAVE COMIMNG

Wednesday - 93* and very humid
Thursday - 97* and very humid
Friday - 97* and very humid
Saturday - 97* and very humid

Keep those struggling veggies well watered.  At least the heat wave is coming before the Sept 1 plant out date for me for fall veggies.

Oh gosh.  Thank you for this yolos.  I knew that heat was on the way... I did not realize just how bad it's going to get.  Keep cool all you Georgians!

Hi all you Middle Southerners (and those who are interested in our area).  Well, Fayetteville will dip to 26 tonight (according to The Weather Channel).  Yolos, I see Brooks will be 27.  Your area too Marie.  Bob, I see your area will be 24.  Brrrr.... seems just like yesterday we were bemoaning how wickedly hot it was.

I have decided I want a winter garden... so the process of tarping my tender young plants has begun.

I have been squirreling away tarps all summer (free promotional tarps from Harbor Freight ... which is literally around the corner from me).

Here's the view today:



I admit, this process is an awful pain...  but it keeps me physically active, so I am glad to do it.  Please try to ignore my overgrown camellia.  I haven't been able to get to it yet.

The two un-tarped boxes are garlic.  I think they will be fine (well they were last year anyway).

Windmere wrote:
I have decided I want a winter garden... so the process of tarping my tender young plants has begun.

Well, I have decided to see just how cold my winter veggies can stand before they succumb to the cold.  No covering this year for me.  I just got home from work and can't take the cold and dark.  I am on my way outside to put more mulch on my garlic.

Okay, that's it.  I put another inch of wheat straw on my garlic but no more winter prep for me.  Too darn cold for this southerner and I couldn't take the time to find my gloves before it got too dark to see.

yolos wrote:

Windmere wrote:
I have decided I want a winter garden... so the process of tarping my tender young plants has begun.

Well, I have decided to see just how cold my winter veggies can stand before they succumb to the cold.  No covering this year for me.  I just got home from work and can't take the cold and dark.  I am on my way outside to put more mulch on my garlic.

Okay, that's it.  I put another inch of wheat straw on my garlic but no more winter prep for me.  Too darn cold for this southerner and I couldn't take the time to find my gloves before it got too dark to see.

I followed your lead yolos.  I just came in from putting a layer of wheat straw on my garlic too. 

The tarping:  As usual, I got a very late start on the planting process.  My plants are seedlings  (literally).  I've mainly got kale, carrots, shallots, and winter lettuce... but despite their resilience, I'm not taking any chances.  I've had a plague of sinus and respiratory infections (welcome to Georgia Windmere... golden rod, etc.).  I got to planting so late that I'm embarrassed to say when I actually got all the beds composted and planted.

I won't keep tarping once they are big enough, but until then....

Yeah, just saw the weather report...  yippee....

At least we figured out what was going on with the heater, so we have heat again!

Have some swiss chard I got for 1/2 price at Ace.  Haven't planted it yet though.  May just try to grow inside for the winter.  same for rosemary.

Windmere - don't you love those free tarps??  I get one every time I go over there.  The garden spots look fine!  Whatever works, ya know?

AtlantaMarie wrote:Yeah, just saw the weather report...  yippee....

At least we figured out what was going on with the heater, so we have heat again!

Have some swiss chard I got for 1/2 price at Ace.  Haven't planted it yet though.  May just try to grow inside for the winter.  same for rosemary.

Windmere - don't you love those free tarps??  I get one every time I go over there.  The garden spots look fine!  Whatever works, ya know?

My goodness Marie!  I'm glad you have heat now too.  Perfect timing for it to be fixed.

I live for the freebies at Harbor Freight.  Our family is four people and we occasionally go in there and buy respirator masks for me (for when I work with grass, etc), and sometimes a pair of scissors (we are always losing them).  We use the 20% off coupons and then get the freebies.  They often get my business instead of the Home Depot across the street because they have very competitive prices for fairly well made products (except the trash bags, don't EVER buy the trash bags).

I have a very established rosemary plant in a large (very large) pot full of MM.  It's doing very well... but it's going to live outside this winter.  I have it in a sort of sheltered corner, so we'll see.  I also have some lemon thyme with it.   Marie (or anyone who wants to chime in), do you have any thoughts on lemon thyme over wintering?

My outdoor lemon thyme fizzled out over a period of about 3 yrs.  I vote to at least cover it with straw or leaves or something.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:My outdoor lemon thyme fizzled out over a period of about 3 yrs.  I vote to at least cover it with straw or leaves or something.

CC

Thanks for the advice CC.  Last night I turned the large pot its in so that it was shielded from the elements by its pot mate, a large rosemary plant.  They both fared well, no real signs of any damage at all (26 degrees last night with some winds).  However, since I have some wheat straw, I may add that too.  Thanks for your input.

Last winter, my lemon thyme lived in on the deck in a long, narrow planter and made it thru.  Nothing else did, including all my mints.  This year I transplanted it to the garden.  So we'll see.  It has seemed much happier out there this summer.  I may cover it with some pine straw...  

It was 26 this morning...

Warming spell coming on Sunday for one day.  Big deal.  The high on Tuesday is predicted to be 39 degrees.  We usually only get one real bad spell each winter but it is usually in Jan, Feb or March, not in Nov.  GRRRR !!