Today is the first day in August that the temperature here won’t be close to or above 100. It’s not unusual for us to have a week or ten-day long stretch of triple digits at Terra Firma, as we average about three full weeks of 100 degree weather every year. Our “preferred” timing for these hot spells is mid-June through mid-August, as most of the crops we grow during that period actually enjoy hot weather — as long as it doesn’t get too hot.
All of the crops we grow in the summer prefer hot and dry weather to cool and damp. Temperatures between 95 and 100 degrees make for big, healthy tomatoes, melons and other plants while also providing ideal ripening conditions for the fruit. The heat combined with low humidity also keeps fungal diseases in check, although it does increase insect populations. Once it gets over 105, the crops begin to suffer a bit and it’s hard to keep them hydrated. We start to have issues with sunburning and aborted fruit due to poor pollination. Luckily during this hot spell we only had a day or two above 105.
The biggest concern during heatwaves here is keeping people safe. Until August 1st, we really hadn’t had much hot weather. While that made for great working conditions for our crew, it also meant that no one was truly acclimated to heat. We modified our work schedule, sending everyone home before it hit 100 degrees each day and adding a half day of work on Saturday. This is challenging, since increasing temperatures actually cause the fruits and vegetables to accelerate ripening. There’s more to harvest each day, but less time. We have to triage our work priorities during these periods, trying to postpone “less urgent” tasks. Yet the workload for other tasks, such as irrigation, also increases.
During this particular heatwave, the task that we postponed was planting. August is the start of our Fall planting season as crops like Celery, Cabbage, Kale and Broccoli need to go in the ground in order to have them ready for harvest in October and November. But none of those crops likes hot weather much, and transplanting them on the hottest days of summer is simply a bad idea. Even if we start at first light, finish by 9 a.m. and get the sprinklers running immediately. Last year we planted cabbage in early August on a cool morning only to have the temperature unexpectedly shoot up to 100 by noon and top out over 105. Despite keeping them continuously wet, almost half the plants died within a few days. We’ve had the same happen with Celery.
But while kicking the can on these plantings was an easy decision to make, it definitely complicates things. Our fall planting window is comparatively short and tightly scheduled, and we have to maintain certain intervals between plantings to ensure that crops don’t all mature at the same time. And if we delay too long, the plants simply get too big to plant anymore.
Happily, the heatwave ended yesterday and the rest of the month looks like it will be perfect weather — perhaps even a little too cool for the summer crops. It’s fairly common for us to have a spate of cooler weather in August — I call it Fauxaugust or Faux Fall, depending on which point in the month it occurs. It lulls us into thinking that summer heat is finished for the season, but that is rarely the case. Hot weather often returns with a vengeance. I would say that something about this year “feels” different, but that probably is true every time this happens.
We started planting yesterday– 10 days late — and we’ll have an extra packed schedule from now until mid October when the days get too short. I’m anticipating a very wet winter with the off-the-charts El Nino that is currently developing, so we’re taking care to avoid fields with a tendency for flooding during heavy rains or those that are not easy to access when during wet weather. On the other hand, it’s unlikely we’ll have to worry much about freezing temperatures, so it’s possible that the winter vegetables will actually grow faster than normal and make up for the lost time.
Thanks,