I guess you could say this wasn't cool. It wasn't cool at all.

Stoney, I am sure you will sail through this fine.
You are right, the number one advantage of large pot, IMO, is in hot climate to keep the roots cooler. Number 2 is where you have a long season. Number 3 the convenience of less watering frequency.
But from what I know, night temperature cool off in SoCal. That is a plus.

I gave mine a deep watering today so they are ready. Usually they do wilt from the sun but pop right back as it gets cool.

Bring on the heat.

90's are fine, high 90's aren't for too long.

For me, It was 95 today and 99 tomorrow, then back to low 90's and high 80's. So, I'll give my in-grounds their NEEDED deep soak tomorrow morn; black pots are shielded with plywood and watered.

For you folks who are going to see high 90's for more than a few days, i highly suggest some shade during midday and definitely mulch to regulate those soil temps.

Kevin

I gave mine a drink today too, it's been in the high 70s and low 80s this week (weird weather) last week it was 109. I haven't watered since Friday and I get to work and a thunder storm rolls through high wind and barely any rain. My girlfriend said my corns knocked down. Im really worried about my peppers and tomatoes now.
Randal

Wow, it rained here last night and the high was 64. I'd be happy to take 10 of your degrees and add to ours. Offer good for today only.

100 today, expecting 104 tomorrow. Everything was watered well this morning and sheets were hung for shade. A few more delicate plants were moved to the porch.

I'll check them tomorrow morning and throughout the afternoon (an advantage of working from home.)

Yeah Kevin..soaked all my in-grounds this morning :-)

Stoney

I do it automatically with a drip system. 15 minutes morning and evening. Very little drooping in pots or in-ground. They're like kids, they need a schedule...

We got soaked last night - very little breakage thank goodness. But Hinkelhatz are the only ones setting pods (except for the overwintered serrano that's out on my porch right now). I *may* have some pods forming on the mini-sweets. But rest are just starting to flower, got some drop in yesterday's heat and last night's rain. Aji Limon doesn't look like it's doing anything at all.

I am in the same general area (PNW) as Orekoc is. We have been getting rain and real cool weather in the last 48 hours or so. Our high was like 67F yesterday. Overnight low down to 53F. The same story today. Hopefully it should dry up by tomorrow.

It is amazing as how we are challenged by opposite weather and climate conditions and try to cope with them.

I'm in Ramona north east of downtown San Diego gonna get hot almost lost 1 today

It's just shy of 100F here today, and was in the 90F's yesterday....

I didn't water yesterday - and I forgot to water this morning. Whoops! Just checked my plants and they were wilted hard! Bound to lose some of those flowers now....but the plants are okay, and that's what matters.

Josh

Very humid today and about 94.
Plants seem to be doing fine.
Usual lower leaf drop but that's it.

Stoney

Will moving my peppers off my cement to my lawn help in keeping the roots cooler this weekend. Accuweather say 89 but feels like 97 at home right now cant imagine what my plants look like right now. Gotta wait til after work, think I'm going to move them to the lawn and put my shade tarp out, but my shade tarp blocks like 60% of the sun through will that be ok for a while. It suppose to be hotter tomorrow too.

Yup, just fine.
Temporary shade is fine even 60%.

Stoney

Holy crap had my son text me a pic of a couple of my plants and they are not happy.

One more....

Water those plants! ;-)

I've actually added some drip-trays to my plants this season, primarily to conserve water in this "drought" Summer. I wouldn't normally recommend sitting containers in drip-trays because it's good to flush out excess salts....however, a flush every few waterings seems to work fine. In the interim, it sure buys some extra time between waterings. I use shallow drip-trays, and I don't fill them all the way. I consider it a good compromise.

Josh

Yup, distressed. Water ASAP. All my container plants get a thorough soaking till I see water dripping from bottom. I even water at night during these super hot days.

Stoney

Had the same problem Stoney. Major distressed plants. I gave them some water and they all came back. I moved them to a partly shaded area, but still it happens. I probably will give them another watering in the morning.

Hot 95 and dry heat. Should be hotter in coming days.
Unfortunately, I don't have the work situation (laid off) to worry about so I can watch these through the day while I'm looking for work too.

Even in this extreme heat, I can still go 5 days or so between waterings in my #10's and #15s. Of course, I only got REAL hot for a couple days. Today is just plain crappy -- 90 and humid and mostly cloudy, even rained for about 10 mins this morn.

I've dealt with the 5 gals in the past and there's a huge difference in what a plant can take later in the summer with just a bit larger container. They're fine early on, but when the root systems get bigger and the temps get up, they wilt TOO easily, imo.

Oh... and you folks who have your pots on bare ground or concrete, lift them! Or, like mentioned already, move them to grass The radiant heat is just too much for the container soil.

Kevin

This post was edited by woohooman on Fri, Jul 25, 14 at 19:29

My big plant is in a large (10? gal) black plastic pot. It doesn't show heat stress, but runs through water at a fearsome rate.

It hit 100 today and the plant wanted water. Stuck my hand down in the soil and was shocked at how hot the dirt was. So today I cut the bottom out of a large black garbage bag and set the pot into the now-bottomless garbage bag in a large tray, then tightened the cinch around the top of the bag to hold t up. Yes the black will heat up, but since it is not connected to the pot it will keep the pot cool.

We'll see how it goes.

Dennis

Yeah Kevin, I saw those cells over you. Humid here too. Might get T-storms tomorrow.
I second getting them off direct cement. Mine are on 2x4's.

Ronny, I'm sorry to hear that. Hope work turns up soon man.

Stoney

Hang in there guys. It's been upper 90's to 103 here for at least the last month, but as long as you get the occasional cool front, preferably with some rain, your flowers will set some pods.

I've got two month old mini sweet plants (bagged store peppers) that set pods from a couple rainy days last week. They're predicting another wet/cool front next week that I expect well set the new flowers on the poblano plants I picked last week.

You Can keep producing new pods as long as you get the occasional cool front and protect your plants from the midday sun/heat.

Watered my babies when I got home,moved them off the concrete, mulched them up and rigged up a shade for the pots as well. What do you think.they look nice and happy now. Compared to those earlier pics lol. Should be ok now. Used framework pieces that I use when I build my haunted house for halloween. Just bought some shade cloth and mulch on the way home from work.
Rey....

Awesome setup!
I don't think you'll have any more problems ;-)

Stoney

Thanks Stoney! At least now some of the grass will be watered now lol. I've been sacrificing the lawn for my garden...

That's fantastic work! I imagine you'll get a lot more out of each watering.

I see yellow leaves....fertilizer time ;-)

Josh

Lol Josh, Ya I know I gave them a dose of mg and cal mag today as well. Hopefully they green up in a couple days.
Rey....

LOL. Not exactly how I would've done it, but that'll work!

Rey: What else are you feeding them? I actually see a bit of fert burn. One way to prevent this is to make sure the soil is moist PRIOR to feeding. So, water thoroughly, wait an hour or so, then feed.

Good job though. Your plants will reward you!

Kevin

After 2 days of cool temps and rain, out weather is just getting to low 80s here. We all face different challenges. But cooler weather is not as bad as scorching hot weather like you guys have in TX and CA. I trimmed of a little more lower leaf branches yesterday to allow better air movement to dry the beds and the foliage.

When temps are that high (near triple digits) even in the shade the soil (roots) will get hot. The Only way to cool them off is by watering more. Hopefully you have well drained potting soil in them. Here 5-1-1 type soil or anything with lots of perlite can be appreciated.
I would avoid using BLACK pots if I were growing in your climate. I would wrap pots with WHITE trash bags, to reflect and radiate the heat away. We know why desert men in Arabia wear white clothes and turbine. Guess why they do it !

Seysonn: I disagree I grow in black pots, temps have been in the 80's-90's since April with a a couple doses of Santa Anas, and my plants are thriving. Want pics?

You just have to be creative a bit. Sure, white trash bags might work, but it would be a PITA. And aeration would be diminished also. A little shade cloth, well placed plywood, lifting the pots off the ground, mulch, etc is about all one needs. More water will only make things worse. The roots need COOLING and overwatering isn't the best way of doing this if the medium is already saturated.

Texas, on the other hand, is a whole other animal --- it doesn't seem to cool down there, even at night. I don't know how they do it there. Maybe, like mecdave said, a cool front comes by now and then for the plants to keep producing.

Kevin

Where I am, the humidity stays high enough so that it's still over ninety degrees well into late night. Usually it cools off to high seventies or low eighties. Doesn't seem to affect flower set on peppers, only tomatoes. I drip twice a day, and the plants don't droop.

I'm about 100 miles from TomT and a bit higher elevation. Less humidity so the nighttime temps get down to the low 70's, and usually a couple degrees hotter during the day.

I have tabasco and serranos in black pots, uncovered with anything except some mulch. They get midday thru evening tree shade, and are lined up east to west to help shade themselves. They're doing great.

All my plants are doing great this year. It's a Miracle (Grow Moisture Control)! I've used gritty mix in the past with lackluster results. I believe moisture retention (or near constant attention like Tom's drip plants get) is more important than anything in this heat.

well, I'm definitely not going to complain. This time in 2012 we'd had around 30 days of 100+ temps and around 45 days of 95+, so far this year we have had 2 - 100 degree days. Yeah, a lot of humidity, but it's still better than some of the past years.

I too have mine in black pots, some in the ground. They usually get almost full sun too. in 2012 I put a few pots on the east side of my asparagus but that was the extent of any shading I've ever done. never had issues, although this year I am watching what looks like bacterial spot decimating my plants... oh well... there's always next year.

Pam

Kevin,
I use mg every other week, cal mag when they look like they need it and On the non mg weeks I give fish/kelp emulsion and super thrive vitamin sup. I know I do get the bottom leaves wet when watering so maybe burn from that or do you mean burn from direct feeding and not prewatering. I never watered before feeding jus fed at same time. Will do the water thing then feed for now on. Thanks for the tips.
Rey.....

oh.. ok. Could be just the bottom ones.

Every other week? Is that full dose or half? It's better to give half every week than the label instructions of FULL every TWO, especially now when they'll be getting watered more frequently and the ferts get leeched.

It's up to you, but you just might want to save your fish and kelp ferts. Not saying they don't do ANYTHING, but in small containers it's very difficult to maintain a microherd and allow organic ferts to do their thing.

Plants look healthy for the most part, so keep doing what you're doing.

Kevin

I alternate Tomato Tone organic and MG Tomato fertilizer (liquid) every week. I also spray down the plants, in ground and pots, every morning to allow the Tomato Tone to melt into the ground. I also use some Epsom salts about once every two weeks to stop BER, which can be a problem here, both with peppers and tomatoes. The in-ground plants are set up with spray drips that dampen about 18" in diameter around the plant to include the drip line where the dry fertilizer is placed. I think water is the key. They're thirsty little devils...

Last night I foliar sprayed my plants with a mix of epsom salts and cal-mag..kind of a mixture I made up.
Plants are huge, deep green, and pods all over.
They must really like it.
Every other week.

Stoney

The trash bag helps quite a bit. White would have been better but I didn't have one.

Dennis