heat wave

[tracy]

im praying for rain my veg beds are looking a sorry sight as we are in the middle of a heat wave on the forcast last night they said 28 degrees in the shade so planned to do loads today.....how wrong were they at the moment its 36 in the shade and all my plants are looking preety bad any ideas on something that i can do now so i can protect my veg plants or is it too late to do anything now help pls

[HeyWayne]

You could move to England - the weather's been rubbish here this year - we've had nothing but rain and the temperatures have been nothing to write home about.

Have you thought about using old plastic drinks bottles? Cut the bottoms off, screw the lid back on and make a couple of small holes in it. Then bury it top side down in the ground about half way up - so that the "bottom" is sticking up in teh air. Then fill it with water. The water will go straight to the roots and minimises evaporation.

Using plenty of mulch would be a good idea too - cardboard, grass clippings etc - anything to help avoid evaporation really.

Good luck.

[tracy]

i think i will try the mulching rather than moving hopefully this weather wont stay this hot for long and next year i wont bother with too much over the aug sept time.... do you think black netting would help if i laid it over my crops or would it make it hotter cheers tracy

[Phreddy]

We are having our annual heat wave, around the high 30's low 40's. Our neighbour has a large tree that provides lots of shade, her garden is wonderful.
Generally we don't worry, the plants wilt - it is their defense- then come back in the evening.
Grow petunias, they love the heat. My latest discovery is black eyed peas, cow peas of field peas - all the same plant. They love the heat.

[tracy]

do you know the latin name for the black eyed peas ? it take it your in malaysia now do they grow veg out there like us brits and what do you grow veg wise in the summer
cheers tracy

[Phreddy]

I can get it for you, Tracy.
I am in Bulgaria where we have seasons. One grows it like ... a cover crop, I suppose. They come in many varieties. Mine were supplied by Seahorse who sent me about 30 of each of 2 varieties. I planted the one lot to try and we loved them, young pods as green beans, young leaves as spinach, mature beans for soup except that I have saved them for next year.
I will be buying half a kilo from Sainsbury to use as a cover crop. Probably some from an asian shop when we are in UK.

[Phreddy]

Sorry, missed the last part of your message.
The Bulgarians grow stuff to save for the winter so: tomato, pepper - both, peas early while it is still cool, cabbage, caulie, marrow/squash.
Not a lot of roots, runner beans just don't work here, too hot.
Over winter Broad beans, onion sets and old onion for the greens, early garlic, lettuce.

[burnie]

Last time I was in your neck of the woods the commercial tomato growers were using a brown netting for shade,maybe they can help with both the netting and some growing advice.Always head for the profesionals,they will usually have good advice when they know you're not competition.When I moved to Scotland I found the pro's were very helpfull,of course I have exactly the opposite problem to you.Maybe if you can export some of your heat,we could probably spare a bit of our flood water!

[tracy]

sounds like a good swap ive just been outside to water my cucumbers for the third time today and they still look limp and like they are about to die i think that netting is an excelent idea why oh why did i not think about the tomato growers cheers tracy

[jackie j]

When I read the first part of his thread I thought you must be on a different planet to the rest of us you can gladly have some of our rain.

[tootles]

All my plants wilt terribly in the heat, they perk up in the evening and I give them a good soaking. A good watering in the early morning may help too (and mulching).

[markwcel]

was it on allotment tv i watched about the benefits of a good afternoon watering????

[tracy]

i decided today to harvest and freeze as much as i possibly can to give the plants a chance ive picked all my peppers,aubergines,courgette and tomatoes so now im roasting hot in the kitchen with pans on blancing ,oven on roasting peppers and tomatoes reducing oh well it will all be worth it in the long run !!!!

[tracy]

have you found another name for black eyed peas ???? i cant find them in my usual seed suppliers that i have here x

[Rodley]

From Wikipaedia:
The black-eyed pea, also called black-eyed bean, blackeye, 眉豆 (Cant. mei4 dao6), lobiya (ar: لوبيا), rongi, feijão-frade, Thatta Payir (Tamil), Alasandee (Kannada name) or chawli/chawle, is a subspecies of the cowpea, grown for its medium-sized edible bean, which mutates easily giving rise to a number of varieties, the common commercial one called the California Blackeye being pale-colored with a prominent black spot. The currently accepted botanical name is Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata, although previously it was classified in the genus Phaseolus. Vigna unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana is the wild relative and Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis is the related asparagus bean. Other beans of somewhat similar appearance, such as the "Frijol ojo de cabra" ("Goat's eye bean") of Northern Mexico are sometimes incorrectly called "black eyed peas" and vice versa.