Heat Wave Almost Killed My Plants

BajaMitch · June 26, 2016

In Orange County, Southern California last week we had a record breaking heat wave that had two consecutive days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (104 F, 107 F). Nearly killed two of 19 tomato plants in buckets and devastated about 85% of all flowers. Not sure, but my guess is that this will cut production down for the season by 50%, I think, and that is only if damage control at this point is successful. Crying shame. Spent a year studying and months preparing for 16 separate experiments. The Cherokee Purple had at least 6 trusses of flowers - all died.

I was in Baja California from June 6 to the 23rd and had all the plants on a well tuned drip watering system. In my absence, my good neighbor called me in Baja to tell me that my plants were biting the dust but that he would do his best to mitigate the problem. Luckily he is a tomato growing guy who really knows his stuff. He put up several umbrellas to shade the plants, put stake supports where needed to uplift sagging plants (several stems broke) and watered them as needed.

Any body else in So Cal experience devastation from the heat wave, if so, what did you do to fix things?

June 26, 2016	#1
BajaMitch Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: California Posts: 84	Heat Wave Almost Killed My Plants In Orange County, Southern California last week we had a record breaking heat wave that had two consecutive days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (104 F, 107 F). Nearly killed two of 19 tomato plants in buckets and devastated about 85% of all flowers. Not sure, but my guess is that this will cut production down for the season by 50%, I think, and that is only if damage control at this point is successful. Crying shame. Spent a year studying and months preparing for 16 separate experiments. The Cherokee Purple had at least 6 trusses of flowers - all died. I was in Baja California from June 6 to the 23rd and had all the plants on a well tuned drip watering system. In my absence, my good neighbor called me in Baja to tell me that my plants were biting the dust but that he would do his best to mitigate the problem. Luckily he is a tomato growing guy who really knows his stuff. He put up several umbrellas to shade the plants, put stake supports where needed to uplift sagging plants (several stems broke) and watered them as needed. Any body else in So Cal experience devastation from the heat wave, if so, what did you do to fix things?