Tips to help keep gardeners, gardens more comfortable in triple-digit weather
A shade cloth (or burlap or a lace tablecloth) hung on a tomato cage can protect developing fruit from sunburn during a heat emergency. Kathy Morrison
Are you ready for 109 degrees?
That’s the forecasted high for Sacramento on Saturday, says the National Weather Service. And that won’t be the only super-hot day. The Sacramento region will be under “Excessive Heat Watch” from 11 a.m. Friday through 8 p.m. Monday.
“Widespread MAJOR Heat Risk will impact our area this weekend,” tweeted the NWS Sacramento office on Tuesday. “This heat will be dangerous to anyone without proper hydration and cooling. Reconsider outdoor plans and if you must go outside, take frequent breaks in the shade and drink plenty of water.”
According to the NWS, the Sacramento region can expect “dangerously hot conditions with daytime high temperatures 98 to 113 with overnight lows in the upper 60s to low 80s possible.”
The heat watch includes a wide area: “Sacramento Valley, Northern San Joaquin Valley, Motherlode, Northeast Foothills, Burney Basin, Coastal Range, Delta, Shasta County Mountains, and portions of the West Slope Northern Sierra Nevada and Lassen/Western Plumas Counties for elevations below 4,500 feet.”
So even retreating up into the Sierra won’t bring much relief.
While people (and pets) can retreat indoors, our plants aren’t so lucky. Before Friday, make a point to deep water perennials, shrubs and trees.
Move potted plants into partial shade if possible. Containerized gardens may need daily watering during this heat wave.
Don’t let tomatoes, squash, peppers and other developing fruit dry out completely; that can lead to blossom end rot and other problems.
Here are more hot weather survival tips for gardeners and gardens:
* Stay hydrated! That applies to both you and your garden. Water early in the day – before 8 a.m. if possible – to cut down on evaporation.
* Cycle and soak. Water needs a chance to soak in, especially if you have clay soil. Otherwise, it will run off (and down the drain) instead of reaching roots. Run your irrigation for a short period. Wait an hour or two. Then, run your system again. The water from the second cycle will reach deeper than the first.
* Mulch, mulch, mulch! A layer of 3 inches of straw, wood chips, dried leaves or other organic material will keep soil and roots cooler while conserving moisture.
* Shade any sensitive plants and developing fruit on tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and squash. Your harvest can get sunburned. Protect from intense afternoon rays with temporary shade such as burlap draped over trellises.
* Wilting can be normal. Some big-leafed plants such as squash may seem to wilt every hot afternoon; that’s OK. They recover overnight. It’s when they’re still wilted in the morning that it’s a problem.
* Check the soil before you water. It may look dry on top, but still have enough moisture in the root zone 6 inches below the surface. Plants can suffer from too much water (especially in containers) as well as not enough.
Heat is often on the minds behind Sacramento Digs Gardening. Here are links to several past columns with heat-related advice:
-- Get Ready for Hot Days Ahead
-- Mulch is Good, and More Mulch is Better
-- 5 Hacks for Shading Your Precious Vegetables
-- Hot Tomato! How to Help Your Vines During High Heat
-- Speaking for the Trees: Don't Forget Them in This Heat
-- For Best Roses in Heat, Watch Water and Mites
And if you’re too late:
-- Rescuing a Heat-Stressed Plant
Finally, for the gardener:
--- Too Hot to Think? Follow These Tips
– Debbie Arrington and Kathy Morrison
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Food in My Back Yard Series
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of May 11
Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)
* Plant dahlia tubers.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.
* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.
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