[gardeners] hot & dry
Allen and Judy Merten (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 31 May 1998 12:33:09 -0500
Hello to the list,
I just signed on recently. I read Georges' posting on Sat. The
description of the heat brought to mind my problems here. We live in
Texas. We are about 40 miles se of Austin, near the center of Texas.
We had only .2 inches of rain for May. In April it looked like a bumper
year. We harvested about 500lbs. of Lasoda Irish potatos from planting
about 30lbs. of seed pieces in Jan. The 1015Y and Red Burmuda onions
were as large as softballs. Now, the expected bumper crop of sweet corn
looks like more nubins instead of nice full ears. We have 6 varieties of
tomatos; Bingo,Celebrity,Heatwave, Beefsteak,Sweet 100 and an "Italian"
type given to us by a neighbor. We have about 75 plants full of green
tomatos and have just started picking ripe ones. Every afternoon the
tomato plants get slightly wilty looking even though I have put about 6"
of pine needles for mulch and drip water frquently.
We have had great success with Yellow Squash & Zucchini and the
Butternut and Acorn Squash have lots of small squash and are still
blooming. Our snap beans are doing great but the heat is already
affecting them. We planted Jalapeno Grande,Anahiem Chili,Big Bertha and
Jupiter peppers. The results have been very good so far. I am concerned
that unless the rains return to normal our harvest will be cut way short
of normal.
How are conditions for the rest of you gardeners? 1996 was almost rain
free. 1997 was very wet early. 1998 started normal and has gone droughty
after April.
Good Gardening
Allen
Bastrop Co.,Tx.
Zone 8