[CH] Dry Times At Bloomingulch, Indyanner...
danceswithcarp (dcombs@bloomington.in.us)
Tue, 3 Aug 1999 19:26:25 -0500 (EST)
Man, I should've taken those weather classes for grades instead of on the
pass/fail option. It didn't even threaten to rain this weekend last and
even though the heat has broken we've now pretty much written off
production from 50+ tomato plants except for the fruit they've already got
on them.
The chiles are a different matter. Yesterday I watered them all by hose
and it took almost 2 hours. The best I could do was water until the water
ran off, move to another plant and then when the water started running off
from that one, move back to the first. Two hours it took. The
narrow-leaf plants (cayennes, jalapeno, thai dragons, aji, and especially
the cascabellas) were/are all very heat stressed and were wilted when I
started. When I finished maybe about half were back awake.
The broad-leafs (habs, ancho/poblano, jamakes, ornamentals) haven't yet
shown heat stress and seem to be weathering the dry a whole lot better.
They are all 3-4 feet tall and have deep green leaves. I think part of
the reason they are doing better is their foilage shades the ground better
and keeps the residual moistures around longer. Under these plants the
ground was still darker from the watering today while in the narrow-leaf
sections all of the plants were back to minor wilt stage. The ground here
was so dry today that the hard palces where there was surface mud
yesterday crumbled into dust in my hands. I dug down 4 or 5 inches with
my hands and it was all just dust.
These are sad times. I put up a gallon of crushed cayenne mash in
vinegar and salt over the weekend, but I wanted a lot more; love that
stuff on everything. We sweet pickled 20 pints of jalapenos before the
fair, but it doesn't look like they are going to make it for another
picking.
The way I calculate I put about 250 gallons of water on the entire patch
yesterday which I know isn't even a gallon a plant, and I did the same
last week. I can't imagine how much it will take to get the narrow-leafs
to produce and it will take a lot just to keep them alive, if it can be
done.
I am sad. Very sad. We wirked hard to get all of those peppers in the
ground and there isn't any rain in the forecast.
If only I could cry a river.
[sob]
(Hey? Will this give me a salts buildup?)
carp