Watch for bolting!!

Hey Midwesterners, there is a nice surge of hot weather coming this week. I noticed that tomorrow there will be a lot of 80+ stuff over a lot of our region. The line runs through eastern NE, extreme eastern SC, across the middle of MN, cuts down from Minneapolis to Chicago, and slices through Indy and Cincy.

That covers a lot of us. And, for us here in STL, we are supposed to get warmer on Wednesday....so maybe you are supposed to, too.

The weekend is supposed to cool right back down....after thunderstorms.

If I were you, I would put an extra bit of water on the soil tomorrow and Wed. And, I would check the TOR-CON for Wed nt and Thursday.

Try to avoid the leaves of your plants. Water droplets left on the leaves could act as mini magnifying glasses and actually unevenly heat your plants. Obviously, I'm not worried about any tomatoes. I'm talking about our lettuces, spinaches, and peas.

Just be prepared for anything. It is spring, you know. I would hate to hear any stories about bolting before you even had a harvest.

Happy Gardening!

Thank you for your advice! I was wondering what, if anything, would happen to the garden when we reach the high 80's this week. (Sheesh... would love a *little* bit of sunny, nice Spring weather before the heat of summer arrives.)

Yes, watered this morning early. I have nothing that is able to bolt now. It's 95 here in SE Iowa this afternoon. My tom's and pepper transplants were looking wonderful this morning. Then by 11am, they were really wilting. I quickly covered them with any thing I had to give some shade. First, I tried cheese cloth, but that wasn't enough. Next, I just sat some card board on edge, yanked plastic side tables into service and even leaned a piece of paneling over one box. This made a big difference. Tomorrow, it will again be in the 80's they say. Big storm after that and a nice cold front. Hopefully, the storm doesn't produce any thing too bad. I'm working on getting my hoops up, so this won't be such a quickie shade job next time.

Glad you guys have the info.

Our day was super cloudy for most of it. We never hit 90.....darned weathermen...lol. I'll take that kind of mistake anytime.

I would water twice a day if I saw wilting. I hope you watered again.

BackyardBirdGardner:

Our weather in Eastern Virginia has continued to be fairly cool. Highs in the low 70's today. Two weeks ago we had warmer temps in the low 80's for a few days.

Having said that we have had the following that wintered over go bolt on us. Carrot, Cabbage and Spinach. This is the first time that we have let some carrots go without harvesting through the winter so it is nice to see what a carrot seed stalk looks like. The cabbage stalks are 3 feet high and in full flower. We continue to harvest the lower leaves and run them through the juicer along with store bought carrots. The spinach that have bolted have leaves that are fairly small as we harvest the larger ones ones to eat.

We moved the rolling bed and 3 small beds that are built on cable reels under the shade tree hoping that those will give us a longer harvest like it did last year.

The rest of the garden is growing, but, slower than I would like. Nature teaches us to sometimes just look and wait.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.
Wake, VA

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing, Ward and/or Mary.

Thanks for the tip. I actually watered quite a bit today since it was so hot...glad to know I wasn't crazy thinking it might help. My peas have only been out of the ground for a week and a half now. I don't think I got them in early enough (box delays). I kind of wonder if I'll even get a harvest. My lettuces are getting bigger, but even those are only about an inch tall.

I did water again . They are fine now. I bought another tomato plant yesterday too. Walmart had a Cherokee purple that I couldn't resist. I had one more square that I could use and was just going to plant beans or flowers. I've never eaten a purple tomato, so this will be fun.

I started Eva Purple Ball and Purple Calabash this year because they sounded so different. They came in my hot climate tomato collection. Hope they manage to survive at my son's house until I return in late Aug. So far they've survived being dug up and transported 250 miles to a new bed.

Kay

All my salad bed and spinach are beginning the bolting process right now but I'm actually quite pleased. Had a great run this spring. Planted Feb20th and been eating salads daily now for a solid two months. I'm actually itching to get in my maters (frost free for a month now!) in that bed but had to wait while the lettuce did its thing. Of course, Simpson Lettuce is still holding out but this weekend is curtains for it all. You really cant store it and so they'll be some lucky neighbors getting some freebies come Saturday.

I love the seasonality of gardening and the cycles of change it represents.

staf74 wrote:You really cant store it and so they'll be some lucky neighbors getting some freebies come Saturday..

I think I will have to disagree with you here, buddy. I can keep my lettuce in a ziploc bag in the fridge for several weeks with no discoloration whatsoever. Storebought lettuce doesn't keep half as long as my garden lettuces.

Keep what you can eat in 2-3 weeks, maybe 4. And, give away the rest.

OOPS.....I should have clarified...you are absolutely correct BBG. I've posted before about my "special" tupperware containers. They too will hold leafy stuff for a few weeks also. I meant that I will have too much to store (as like blanch etc for longer term) and use before it goes bad and so will share. My families tummy gets the first fill !

I was posting on the fly !

I was wondering how dry I should let the soil get before I water it again? I feel like I'm playing a cat and mouse game with the weather and watering my garden. OK its supposed to rain today so I guess I won't water the garden. OK it didn't rain so sould I water it now? But its supposed to rain tomarrow. What if it dosen't rain tomarrow either? If I water it now, is it going to cause mold overnight? These are the games I play in my head. I'm getting tired.

Beaner, don't forget you can't overwater Mel's Mix. Any excess will drain out. I only worry about whether it will rain today, when deciding whether to water or not. I also prefer to water in the morning, that way if I do happen to accidently hit a leaf with water, it will get a chance to dry before the evening.

My lettuces have finally started actually growing! It has been so cloudy that this has really been the first week with any sun. I can almost watch things grow; so I am hoping for the first harvest this week.

Is my spinach supposed to be 6 inches tall? LOL. It seems the heat got to a square. The rest are doing fine. But, I expected it from this square, it's been through the ringer because I'm such an early harvester of spinach.