Key Points
Grow heat-tolerant vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and melons, and select heat-resistant cultivars for sensitive crops.
Use compost, mulch, and deep watering to retain soil moisture, cool roots, and prevent plant stress during extreme heat.
Water in the early morning or evening. Avoid fertilizing, pruning, or transplanting during heat waves, and use shade cloth.
Tomatoes, peppers, and many other vegetables thrive in hot summer weather. But when temperatures climb above 85°F, or there’s an extended period of dry heat, veggies can wilt away or drop their flowers or premature fruit, diminishing or, in the worst case, destroying the harvest.
Whether you’re growing vegetables in a garden or in containers, here’s how to help your plants survive a heat wave and produce a successful harvest even during high heat.
1. Grow Heat-Tolerant Crops
Some vegetables are just better suited to hot weather than others. Plants like lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, and brassicas are likely to bolt in summer, no matter how well you take care of them. For this reason, it’s usually best to grow cold-tolerant crops in spring and autumn only and to fill your garden with heat-tolerant veggies during the summer. This includes nightshades like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, as well as sweet potatoes, okra, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons, which are all less likely to struggle in hot weather.
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To grow heat-sensitive plants in summer, succession plant your seeds so your beds remain productive even when the first crops of plants start to bolt. You can also purchase heat-resistant cultivars of some crops, such as ‘Red Fire’ and ‘Jericho’ lettuce varieties, which aren’t as prone to bolting. Beans stop flowering when daytime temperatures exceed 85°F, so select heat-resistant bean varieties like ‘Rattlesnake’ pole beans and ‘Jade’ green beans. If you live in a climate with hot summers, heat-resistant tomatoes such as ‘Heat-Master’ or ‘Solar Fire’ are recommended.
2. Wait to Plant
Even if you’re only growing heat-tolerant plants, it’s best to avoid planting seeds or transplanting seedlings during the highest heat of summer. Not only will young plants need more water and attention at this time, but some seeds may not even germinate if temperatures climb too high.
3. Know the Problem Signs
Most veggies can handle some hot weather with minimal damage. But if your plants drop leaves, flowers, or premature fruit, or develop wilted leaves and drooping stems, it can indicate they’re struggling in the heat or need more water. Other signs of plant stress include blossom end rot, bitter or bolted plants, and hollowed-out fruit like cucumbers.
4. Add Compost
Before planting any crop, take the time to mix compost into your garden or potting mix. This will add extra nutrients for growing plants, but also help soil hold onto moisture better and prevent some water loss during hot weather.
5. Apply Mulch
Aside from compost, applying a 2- to 4-inch layer of natural mulch over your garden helps to lock in soil moisture levels and keep plant roots a little cooler in summer. You can use any natural mulch for the job, but light-colored mulches like straw reflect the sun better and further reduce the risk that plant roots will overheat.
Tips
Pull up any weeds that appear, as they grow even more vigorously in summer and may compete with veggies for space and water.
6. Water the Correct Way
Watering vegetable plants correctly is essential for preventing water and heat stress, but you don’t want to overdo it. For best results, feel the soil before watering and only water your garden when the top 1 to 2 inches of soil feel dry. During extreme heat, you may need to water container plants multiple times a day.
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Slow deep watering is better in any season, but it’s particularly important during hot weather. To maximize water absorption, use a drip irrigation system or direct your hose straight to the plants’ roots and avoid getting water on plant leaves and fruit. Early morning or early evening is the best time to water veggie plants, while watering during the peak of the day increases the amount of water that’s lost to evaporation and may require you to water more often.
7. Let Plants Breathe
If you’re growing plants under row covers, in grow tunnels, or cold frames, make sure to open these coverings up during hot weather. If you don’t, coverings can create a “greenhouse effect” and cause plants to overheat and wilt even more dramatically.
8. Avoid Fertilizing
It’s important to withhold all fertilizer during extreme heat, as plants stop absorbing fertilizer effectively as temperatures climb. Continuing to fertilize plants during heat waves makes plants more vulnerable to issues like fertilizer burn.
9. Don’t Prune
Just like fertilizer, pruning vegetables during hot weather can increase the risk of plant stress. Wait until the temperatures cool off to prune plants like tomatoes.
10. Move Vermicomposters
If you have an outdoor worm composting bin or vermicomposter to create worm castings for your garden, make sure to move it into a shady spot before temperatures get too hot. Composting worms are temperature sensitive and may not survive heat waves if their bins warm up too much.
11. Harvest Often
Harvesting regularly is important throughout the growing season, but it’s particularly helpful during extreme heat. Picking ripe fruit off plants like tomatoes helps plants conserve energy and reduces water loss, too. In addition, pests are often more active during high heat, and harvesting veggies regularly can protect your crop from damage.
12. Install Shade Cloth
Stretching shade cloth over gardens and plant pots before heat waves strike can also provide some much-needed shade to struggling plants and help reduce water loss. Shade cloth that blocks about 30% of the UV light works for most plants, but heat-sensitive crops like lettuce may do better under shade cloth with a 50% to 70% shade cloth. Just make sure to remove the shade cloth once the heat wave has passed.
Tip
If you are living in a climate that regularly experiences extreme heat, it’s often best to locate your vegetable garden in a spot that receives some shade in the afternoon.
13. Provide for Wildlife
Birds and other wildlife are more likely to nibble holes in juicy tomatoes and other growing fruit during hot weather as they search for easy sources of moisture. To avoid this, install a bird bath near your garden to supply fresh water to thirsty birds that may otherwise feed on your produce. You can also hang up hummingbird feeders or allow your hose to dribble onto a patch of bare earth to create a simple “puddling pool” for butterflies.
14. Stay Safe
Plants need protection during extremely hot weather, and so do humans. Make sure to keep yourself safe during high heat by staying hydrated and wearing sunscreen, light colors, and a wide-brimmed hat. Reduce the risk of heat stress by doing the majority of your gardening work in the morning or the evening when temperatures aren’t as high.
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Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens
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