Summer has arrived here in the desert and with it, relentless triple digit temps until October.
When it is so hot during the day and does not cool down even at night, the blossoms have a tough time setting fruit. Local experts recommend shading and spraying the plants down to give them a little relief. Others tell you to cut them back and just keep the vines alive until the weather cools and they can produce again.
In a most likely futile attempt to prolong their production,
we wrapped them with some shade cloth.
The sun still shines through, just not so intensely.
The cherry tomatoes don't seem to suffer blossom drop like the larger ones do and they are partially shaded in the afternoon, so no cover for them.
There are four plants huddled behind this cloth.
When you walk behind and into the shaded area, there is a noticeable difference in the intensity of the sun and heat. So we'll see what happens.
It was in the nineties here for several days but has dropped a few degrees this week. I cannot imagine living where it's in the triple digits for that many weeks. Do you have some type of drip irrigation system? I have some potted tomatoes and cucumbers and the 90 degree stuff really took its toll on them. In the afternoon they would look like something had taken all the moisture from them.
ReplyDeleteThere is a drip irrigation system that serves the landscaping. We tapped into that and fed lines into all the pots. Having the water reservoirs in the bottom helps also. It is still a battle.
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