I've been watering since February.

Plants and trees REALLY needs lots of water now! It's been misting, not raining. This heat snap will do in a lot of plants and trees :_(

I"m glad I got my sprinkling system working! And, it will be nice to be warm. I'm fed up with this awful long cold spring. btw, how long do we have to wait before we are allowed to complain about the heat??

Putting the shade cloth on the greenhouse tomorrow in anticipation of actually getting some sunny days, like two in a row or is that asking tooooo much. This has been the longest spell of crappy weather, it started last September and it hasn't let up yet.

A......

I will never be ready for the heat. I thought I moved away from it when I moved from Central California last year?? =)

I'm wondering if I should leave my plastic tunnels on my tomato and squash and cucumber seedlings that are out there now or if the tunnel would make them get too hot. The plastic might protect them somewhat from UV though? Or maybe not. The sides of the tunnel can be pushed up for more air flow on a hot day but I don't know if that would be enough.

Last year I lost some Heucheras in pots sitting in full sun on my deck. This time I will take any plants in pots and put them in a shady place and water them well.

Hemnancy, how about throwing sheets or cardboard over your plastic tunnels, creating shade?
I was so thrilled to find english telegraph cuke starts at Fred Meyer, planted them out, and covered with glass for one morning to keep them from frost damage, and when I got home from work, they were fried to a crisp. I luckily found more starts at BiMart, and have been using a piece of cardboard or whatever I can find to shade them. They seem to be appreciating this. Now if I can just keep the bugs/slugs off them...

Thanks, salemsunshine. I planted out some annuals yesterday so I'll just keep them watered and hope for the best.

I use the Iron Phosphate kind of slug bait, I don't have to worry about adding poisons to my soil. It has to be reapplied after rain or heavy watering. I put it under my tunnels when I plant things, as newly planted seedlings seem especially attractive to slugs. I'm moving plants on my deck into the shade.

I'm going to find my shorts, a tank top, sandals and sunscreen and enjoy every minute of it.

And I am going to move my heucharas into the shade. (thanks for the reminder!)

If you wish to continue living in western WA you will have to begin wearing shorts whenever it is above 50F. We have our rules, ya know!

Tomato plants in particular love to boil, if you can keep your tunnels watered they may not have to be vented much. Depends on just how hot they become, hopefully you have some way of keeping track of what temperatures they are reaching.

A friend who uses tunnels to grow vegetables in Shoreline has a ventilation system running this year in the one with tomato plants etc. It has a pipe standing up nearly as tall as the tunnel at one end, with a fan that circulates air between the upper inside of the tunnel (where it is the hottest) and the space underneath the plants.

Well, I decided to remove the tunnels while the heat lasts, and I even left them off at night. I also watered during the day and watered the annuals I just planted out too. The Ceanothus Victoria I planted a week or so ago has many leaves yellowing, I don't know what that means.:-( I watered with a little fish emulsion fertilizer so I hope that helps. I'm soaking pole beans to plant out this afternoon and also need to locate my Nasturtium seeds as a volunteer is already getting pretty big and I should have planted them earlier. Some of the Clarkia, CA poppy, etc are starting to appear.

It means there was enough root disturbance for it to affect the top - or the plant is too wet or too dry. Fertilizing distressed plants is only useful when a nutrient deficiency is the problem - and the fertilizer product used has a formulation that will address that particular deficiency.