A few posts ago I described my battle with blossom end rot.
While I do think that watering was the major issue, as newer fruits set since I
began being more meticulous with watering seem to be rot free, I have begun to
wonder if the combination of heat and wind has also played a role.
Like most of the country, the Buffalo region has been very hot and very dry
so far this summer. While we can battle the lack of water by irrigating daily,
the heat and wind has taken its toll on the garden.
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| The okra LOVES the heat (look at all those pods)! |
Being that we are upstairs, it is generally quite a bit
windier than ground level. It’s amazing the difference 13-15 feet can make.
We’re a bit higher than many second floors, as the first floor of most homes
here in the city is a few feet above actual ground level. While this makes
living upstairs even more fun than normal for those of us who enjoy the privacy
and cool factor of having a view, it’s amazing how much difference it makes in
terms of wind. On the ground, you have walls, cars, bushes, etc. acting as
windbreaks. Upstairs there is very little in the way of windbreak, and the wind
currents are funneled pretty effectively down the streets and against the
fronts of the houses. In addition, it is a solid 10-15 degrees warmer upstairs,
given the heat radiating off of the porch floor (which although carpeted is
still a black tarred roof), road, sidewalks, and buildings. Finally, we get the
most intense sun, as we face west on this side of the road.
Check out this video of the wind on Monday! (big gust at :20)
Combine the intense afternoon sun with the high temperatures
and low humidity on the porch due to the heat and constant wind, and you have a
fairly effective dehydrator. For example, the winds Monday were brutal, with
gusts up to 40 mph and sustained winds in the 20-30 mph range. The temperature
measured on top of the soil in one of the containers on the porch in the hot sun
was 106 degrees (with a high of 109). 106 degrees, paired with hot sun and
intense wind will dry out pretty much any plant. On hotter days I’ve measured
temperatures as high as 126 degrees, even with significant wind! This might be
great for making jerky, but tomatoes in particular do not seem to appreciate
it. I will say that okra and eggplant seem to love the intense heat, and if
anything are thriving in it. Still, tomatoes are the centerpiece of many home
gardens, so this presents a challenge.
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| It's hot out there! |
Battling the hot sun and dry weather is challenging, but add
in the almost daily stiff breeze with the fairly common days of strong winds and
it becomes daunting to battle dehydration and the resulting end rot issues. My
solution yesterday was to bring every plant inside and fill our apartment with
tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, and squash. It was a drastic measure, but
after watching the plants get thrashed around and having several branches snap
off I had to act. The final straw for me was watching a full-size heirloom tomato
in a 7 gallon pot, which had just been watered and had 4 bricks set in the dirt
for weight, get knocked over with ease. This caused it to drop 2 beautiful
looking large tomatoes, so I was taking no more chances. Every plant except the
largest tomatoes, which are staked and tied to the porch railing for support,
came inside to ride out the wind storm.
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| Tomatoes in the living room |
I am happy to say that losses were mitigated. The jellybean
cherry tomato plant dropped about 30 green tomatoes (not that I counted them as
I gathered them from all over the living room floor or anything) when it got
knocked over again—this time inside the apartment by a wind gust coming in
through the open window. But it is loaded with blossoms and ripening fruit, so
although I am not happy about it I am not too upset. The black krim also
dropped a fairly large tomato, but it was one of the remaining fruits from the
first set, and predictably had blossom end rot, so no big loss there either.
The moral of the story is not to overlook the damaging and
dehydrating effects that wind can have on your garden. I have to water every
single day, partly due to the sun and heat, but also in large measure due to
the daily stiff breeze that fans the plants and dries them right out. Plants
can lose a lot of water through their leaves due to evaporation, and this
effect is sped up exponentially when it is windy. I picked up the bell peppers
in their 7 gallon pots to move them and they felt like they weighed almost
nothing, which means they were bone dry already. I had watered them very deeply
just that afternoon. Beware of the wind! You’ll need to water much more than
you think if it gets windy.
On another note, I am putting together a harvest tally
chart, which will be featured on the link right below the header of the blog. It’s
amazing how much we’ve already enjoyed so far, and the main harvests are still
to come! Look for that page to go live in the next few days. It is one of the
main reasons I started this blog, since it is hard to find that type of
information in a convenient and easy to use form anywhere.
Until next time, happy gardening!
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