It's been over 100º for the past week and the garden is really feeling the heat. Prior to that, the temps were in the upper 90s...a big cool down! Not!! We've had to up our watering just to keep the plants alive. I'm not too sure it's helping the zucchini, though! My poor zucchini plant has been suffering from incomplete pollination as well as getting very, very droopy in the middle of the day. We've been watering it daily. Everything else gets watered every other day. I don't know if the zuke will make it. I told my husband this morning I was just about ready to pull it up.
The watermelons have three almost ripe melons on them, but it looks like some kind of disease has attacked part of the vines. Not sure what has gotten them, but they've stopped producing flowers and the leaves are dying. Once we harvest the three melons, we're going to yank the vines.
The cantaloupes are doing well, but they wilt in the hot afternoon heat as well. There are currently 5 melons on the vines. I thought there were only 4, but I found another one this morning when I was perusing the garden.
The tomatoes have pretty much been wiped out by some disease or something. It could also be the heat. I'm babying my 50 cent heirlooms we got in May and hoping they produce in the fall. The others are still producing, but dying a slow death. I did see one cherry tomato plant that had new babies on it today. One of them was above the bird netting!!
Now remember, the beds are 18" high, the cage/frame on the bed for the tomatoes is approximately 3.5' high with bird netting draped over the top. The baby tomato in the last picture above is about 4" to 6" over the netting. I didn't think maters set fruit when it got to be this hot, but I guess this little (!) plant doesn't know this!
The okra is handling the heat very well. It's continuing to produce a harvest daily. The bell peppers are also doing well, but the fruit is suffering from sunscald on the yellow peppers. They still taste good, but look ugly. The bell peppers are even starting to produce flowers and more baby peppers!
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