Heat Protection for Your Plants

I know much of the U.S. has been dealing with extremely hot temperatures lately. Here in the Inland Northwest, the temperatures are heading into the low 100’s this week. What’s a gardener to do? Provide your plants with some heat protection.

This morning, while it was still cool, Bill and I headed out to our vegetable garden for that very purpose. We placed some shade cloth over our tomato plants, added some additional grass mulch on the surface of the raised beds, and increased the length of time our drip irrigation system runs.

As you can see by the photo above, the shade cloth is mostly suspended over the tomato beds. Research has shown that if you tightly surround your plants with it, the temperatures will be even higher and impede air movement. By suspending the shade cloth, we’ll block some of the intensity of the sunlight as well as the heat. And there will be air flow as well.

I’m frequently asked how long our drip irrigation system runs. At this point, Bill has increased it to 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the late afternoon. But everyone’s watering time will vary, primarily based on the type of soil they have.

If your soil is really sandy, water is going to run right through it. If your soil is mostly clay, water doesn’t drain well through it. So you’ll want to experiment with the amount of time you water. Be sure to poke your finger into the soil, up to your second knuckle, and see what it feels like. It should be lightly moist. Not bone dry and not sopping wet either.

Take a good close look at your plants, too. Do they look wilty? Give them more water, for the most part. Always check your soil first because deciding if you need to water more or less.