So, I am thinking of planting lettuce....

...in 100° heat. Boy, I must be stupid, right? Welllllllllllllll..............



Now that the summer travels have concluded with the fam, I figure I can devote a bit more focus to getting something started for fall. My plan was to start some things indoors for a couple of weeks and transplant them out.



The calendar is going to force cauliflower and broccoli soon. And, I need to get stocked up on lettuces, spinaches, and carrots. And, of course, peas.



But, when I think of the 100+ heat out there the past few weeks, I'm all but discouraged. Will it stop in time? Will it crush my seedlings if it continues? Most likely. But, what a fun experiment to see if we can't roll the dice with Mother Nature again. After all, we had great luck in getting the upper hand with her this spring. Let's see if we can't beat her at her meanest. Well, again, that's an exaggeration. We can be somewhat successful in the dog days of summer. We can't do a darned thing with the sled dog days of winter....lol.



I was going to do vermiculite trays again, but decided I need to keep things indoors a bit longer than that technique allows. So, I ran outside and grabbed some MM from a couple squares lying fallow at the moment. Perfect! I have a growing medium that I can sprout in and transplant from with no problems, right?



Dead WRONG! The soil is so hot currently. I stuck a meat thermometer in there and it came out reading.........Medium Well! Haha...gotcha. But, it may as well have. It said 96°!!!



Not much I want to plant will sprout in that. So, I just set up my lights for indoors and set the tray aside until tomorrow. My basement is a perfect 72° right now. According to Mel's appendix on pages 252-3, my lettuces will pop in 2-3 days at a 99% germination percentage.



I'll post pictures as I give this a shot. Just wanted all to know what I was thinking. I may not be able to do much at the moment, but I'm still thinking of fall gardening.



Someone in the spring mentioned the Indian traditional way of checking the ground for planting corn or something. They mentioned if the Indian can sit on the ground for a bit with nothing but his loincloth to protect him, the soil is warm enough to plant. Well, I assume the reverse is also true. I don't know too many Indians. But, I would imagine NONE of them would sit in 96° soil in just the loincloth, either. I guess we just wait for things to cool off a bit........indoors. (Talk about hot enough to fry eggs.... )

My Summer Glory Blend lettuce is doing quite well now that I have moved their space to dappled shade from full sun...and this mostly Romaine type is tasty if you like the type. I have been thinking of putting some old large containers in the semi-shade under this terrible but beloved tree I have, and see if anything comes of it in this heat index 115! Seems like everything in full sun this Sprummer is suffering! Crackle, crunch.

One of the driest, hottest summers over here in 5 years. Crunch doesn't begin to describe what happened to our yards. However, the MM is performing phenomenally with a daily dose of water.



Seeds started. Should pop their heads tomorrow or Sunday...yay!

I have to figure out a different game plan for lettuce...

All of mine in the SFG became trap crops for the slugs, no amount of sluggo helped. I think I might container plant lettuce in some shallow bowls or something from the dollar store and put them up on the deck rail. We only ate one salad out of the garden and I was freaked out the whole time I was gonna encounter Escargot!

Wish it were hot enough here to dry the little suckers right up in their tracks!

Yup. Climate is likely your issue this year.



I wonder if there is an alcoholic variety of lettuce that thrives if it just sits in a puddle of beer? I know I would do well if my wife just sat me in a puddle of beer. And, I'd have no slugs near me, either.

LOL....All those seed people should work on that.

In the meantime I just have to outsmart them....but a tabletop isn't in my future yet.