Re: [gardeners] hot & dry
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 31 May 1998 20:46:00
At 12:33 PM 5/31/98 -0500, you wrote:
>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.
Hot dog, another Texian. Me and Catharine Vinson are expatriate Texians
except I had sense enough not to move more'n 30 miles from Texas. I live in
SW Louisiana and can spit on I10 from here.
> 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.
You got .2 inches more than we did in May and April too. At our swankienda
we haven't had any significant rainfall since March 16th and that's purty
dry for Loosyanna. It kinda misted early one morning but I'm not sure it
wasn't Mexican smoke instead of mist. I've grown Heatwave and have Heatwave
II started now for planting out in July. They can take the heat of July and
August here with no problem and will produce until first frost easily. You
obviously aren't a hobby gardener with all them taters, onions, and
'maters. Either that or you're like me and Miz Anne was when we was young
and had a passel of younguns hanging around. Had to grow enough to feed
them and us and enjoyed doing it.
> 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.
I've got lots of Butternut, Cushaw, and Green Tint squash plus Cucuzzi
edible gourds. Today I fought the dreaded squash borers, look like big
maggots and kill the plants quick. Hopeful the injections of Bt-kuraki and
the Bt powder will take care of the little buggers. Tomorrow I have to put
the Safers Soap to the tomatoes again, about got the aphids whipped.
> 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
>
Welcome to our community.
George
George M. Shirley, USDA Zone 9b, Southwest Louisiana
Gardener, Cook, Putter-By, SF fan.