Extreme heat

[Dorothyrouse]

So we’ve had temperatures of 40 degrees down here in Kent! The tomatoes got really frazzled but hopefully will recover, I’ve actually had to remove some of the worst affected, but stuff on the plot, climbing beans and dwarf French beans have many frazzled leaves, is it best to remove these? Feed? How well will they recover? They weren’t brilliant before!

what a year!

[Plot70]

It looks like my tomatoes will end up with "cranks" in the stems as some look like the ends of the lead shoots are still alive.

[ameno]

Give the beans a feed and keep them watered and they should recover. Any crispy leaves will never recover, mind you, they'll simply grow new ones to replace them.

[Issy]

Could not believe my eyes - my carrots were doing really well - until last night! A badger has managed to get through the hedge and destroyed the whole of the carrot bed - the dog obviously didn’t hear it because she didn’t bark - this was the first year I had sown them outside - always been in the tunnel - why didn’t I listen to myself!!

[Chippy Minton]

I'd given up on carrots for that reason, badgers come through in the night when the dog is asleep and grub them all up. I've just got hold of a sizeable piece of steel mesh so I think I'm going to try again!

[Plot70]

Pretty well all animals both domestic pets and wild things such as deer and badgers respond well to a cattle fence set to fox prevention mode as used by game keepers to stop foxes getting at pheasant breeding pens.
I prepare the seed beds early with guard wires and wait for them to get dug up. Then I fix it and power the wires.
Once the unwanted visitors have been dabbed off the seedlings can be planted out.
The bright insulators work as a visual deterrent for pretty well the remainder of the growing season with the power going off at the point the seedlings have reached the wires.

[Chippy Minton]

That sounds like a more robust approach but I'm not convinced the Greyhound has enough sense to learn that . I'll stick with the heavy weight steel mesh.

[Penellype]

I think most things that have survived the heat will probably recover, although plants that prefer cool weather like brassica salads, lettuce and spinach may bolt. A couple of my cucumbers have lost the growing tip of the main stem, but they have plenty of sideshoots which will soon take over. The main issue I'm having with tomatoes (indoors) is greenback, which is simply due to the fruit getting too hot while developing. I'm also finding that they are ripening very quickly, as are the peppers.

You may find that some things that need pollinators have a gap in production, eg beans, courgettes etc as the pollinators may have found it too hot to work in the heatwave.

[Plot70]

I agree.
I have seen bees resting in the shade on one of the two hottest days. They were nipping out for short visits to flowers.