Friday, July 29, 2011

Aftermath of the Heat

This photo that I showed you earlier in the week had my bolting lettuce in it. It was filled with heat resistant lettuce. But I guess no lettuce can stand 103F. Even what wasn't bolting was bitter. So I pulled it all out and dumped it into the compost pile. It was a sad loss of three to four pounds of lettuce. What I want to know is how the farms keep producing lettuce all summer long. I had a batch of lettuce that was in the coolest part of the garden in almost full shade. It bolted too.

But the compost pile is really filling up. As you can see I pulled some of the borage too. I might turn it in a couple of weeks.

I didn't have any lettuce replacements ready to put in its place. So I direct sowed some Red Sails, Little Gem, Deer Tongue, and Tom Thumb.

I had slightly too large replacements for my boc choy. I should have pulled it a week ago before the heat, but once the heat hit I didn't want to pull it. I figured I'd let it have a few days of relative coolness to recover. But it all got pulled and its replacements seem happy enough. If a tad big when transplanting. At least Asian greens can still be enjoyed after the heat. They do get more mustardy, but they are still very tasty. I sent most of them over to my townhouse mates along with a big pile of cukes. I kept a couple for myself.

15 comments:

  1. I feel your pain....mine looks like napalm was dropped on it. :(

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  2. Eight weeks into the season and half my beds are already empty. I have NO decent sized starts to put in those spots. I'll be direct seeding and hoping for a LATE frost--hopefully well into September. I'm sorry you lost so much lettuce. Your heat has really been bad this year. Good luck with their replacements.
    :)

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  3. My guess is that "the farms that keep producing (lettuce) all summer long" are able to do so simply because they are in costal central California. In Salinas, the average high temperature varies from mid-sixties to mid-seventies. Basically, it just never gets hot there.

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  4. EG, Mine at least mostly looks nice, but it has had such problems. Then again your heat was much worse than mine was. My heat was probably a normal summer to you.

    Sue, Yeah I'm really hoping that my lettuce and carrots make it. The carrots really could use longer, but I gave them what I could.

    Helen, Actually I'm talking about the farmers here. Kimball Farms is in Eastern Mass and they had nice huge heads of lettuce at the farmers market. I wonder if they have misters or something that keeps them cool during the day.

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  5. Sorry to hear about your lettuce. I think mine may be reaching that point as well. crazy summer!

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  6. I hate when that happens because summer is salad season, and it would be nice to have homegrown lettuce. It seems we only eat it in the spring and fall.

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  7. I wonder what varieties of lettuce the farms are growing, perhaps they are more tolerant of the heat? It is so frustrating to invest so much time and work in a crop and then have something like the weather ruin it.

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  8. HI Daphne,

    I had some success here in Melbourne (where our summer temps can go over 100C) by using 75% shade cloth on a chickenwire frame over the lettuces.
    http://funkbunnysgarden.blogspot.com/2009/12/38c-day-survivors-and-casulties.html


    Good luck with you second planting!

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  9. It is really a busy month for you Daphne. Your soil look so rich and healthy. I have to work more with our soil here.

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  10. How sad. :-( But the compost heap is amazing!

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  11. I'm having an awful time getting my fall crops started even the ones I'm starting inside. I really think that I'm going to purchase some fall broccoli and cauliflower plants. I haven't done that in years!

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  12. Mrs Pickles. I keep hoping for a return to normal, but I'm not sure what that is.

    The Sage Butterfly, In a normal year I'd have lettuce every month but August. I'll still make salads in August, but they are chopped salads not lettuce salads.

    micheele, mine are supposed to be some really heat tolerant lettuces. Red Sails, Anuenue, Manoa, Jericho. I knew I should have picked them before the heat wave, but I cleared out half the bed. I really didn't need more lettuce.

    Funkbunny, I keep thinking about buying shade cloth for my summer lettuce. It is SO expensive. But it is probably the only thing that would work.

    Diana, The soil is fabulous. It is nice starting with good soil. In the past I've always had to build it up. This time I just have to keep it there.

    Robin, I've never seen them for sale around here. I only see that kind of thing in the spring. But never fall starts.

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  13. daphne, do you seed bok choy for fall? when?

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  14. donna, I don't know if I'm going to or just direct sow it this year. I've been seeding soil blocks about once a month for constant bok choy, but I'm getting really tired of the blocks. I want a break, so I'll just stick seed in the garden when there is a space.

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  15. Oh man, all that lettuce going into the compost. Sad indeed!

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