I've been giving the tomatoes a good soaking once a week, about as much as I can risk with my well. The drought is persisting here. I had hopes that TS Barry would skim past us and leave maybe an inch of rain. It's passing east of us but at least some of my Georgia neighbors are getting a good soaking.
Farmerdill, I see that the Augusta area is being blessed with heavy rain, how wonderful, I'm sure your crops are shouting for joy! Maybe we will get a little as the tail of it circles around on it's way north.
Dry, my tomato leaves are withering.
Not too heavy but steady for hours. Approaches 3 inches. Now off to church to give thanks.
Amen!
Hope things turn around for you soon, Roseone.
Thanks Zeppy!
Hey Roseone,
Same for me. We had a light sprinkling Friday night but not enough to measure in the rain gauge. I have county water so I've been able to keep most of my veggies alive but a lot of them are stunted and hurting for water. The tomato plants are big but the leaves are curly and they're just now setting fruit. The first sweet corn I planted has silks just starting to brown but the ears are very small. Only thing doing well right now is squash. I'm picking more of that than I want. Seems nothing can phase it much.
On the plus side, most of my weeds have died from lack of water....
Jeff
Hi Jeff, well things look pretty bad for you over there too. My weeds aren't sprouting either, so that's a good thing. We had a very light misty shower this afternoon but it's all evaporated. I will water the maters in the morning and hope for the best. How many tomatoes does one person need, anyway?
I was hoping to sell tomatos at the farmers market here so I'm still hoping I get lots. Plus I'm learning to freeze and can stuff so I'm hoping the tomatos make it. I spent this afternoon slicing, blanching and freezing squash so I'm actually hoping they slow down some.
I've been surprised how well the tomatos and peppers have done during this. I dig down like 6 inches into the soil in the bed and it is like dust before I water and they're still making fruit. Some of them died to the ground during the freeze and have been growing since then so I guess they are survivors.
On the weather thread someone said we may catch some of the back end of Barry so I'll hope for that. Mean time, I'll move the hoses again tomorrow...
Good luck!
rose...you should water more often than once per week with your heat. Remember do not water in the heat of the day.
:) Kathy
Roseone has a well, so she has to conserve the water.
Thanks to all concerned. Still no rain but I have been watering a bit more often, usually in the morning, and mulched with more wheat straw. They actually don't look too bad now except for one plant. I WILL have tomatoes. :-)
Rose, Are you on a water restriction in GA? I know some of our counties here in KY are. We have a well, as well (no pun intended)...and are watering as I type. Have to or we won't have any income. It's times like this I am glad I have a well.
Kathy
I think all of the counties here in GA have watering restrictions of some level of severity. Some folks can only water 1 day a week. Large fines and having your water turned off if you don't comply. They're even publicly asking people to turn in their neighbors...
Luckily they thought to exempt watering plants grown for food and umm golf courses.
I think Rose is on a well though and worried about it running dry. That has been happening to some people here too.
The thing that has been driving me crazy is the deer. They can't find enough greenery to eat in the woods so they're getting much bolder and less choosy about what they eat. Yesterday I had a young deer come up to my back patio about 20 feet from where I was sleeping and eat a bunch of my potted plants. Ate like 50 tomato seedlings which they normally don't touch. Also ate the leaves off a Banana tree and an Avocado tree and some strawberry plants. In our Flower garden, they ate all of the lillies, glads, etc.
About the only thing they still won't touch is Garlic/Onions and Blueberries.
Yes, there are watering restrictions in Georgia. In my particular county, watering is allowed one day a week, within the city limits, not sure about countywide. I am at the edge of the county line and I'm fairly sure my well is not on any restrictions but my own. I am just concerned about running it dry and all the complications that can go with that. I also have a small rental on my place that uses the well. Thankfully, he uses very little and doesn't even have a washing machine or dishwasher in there, by choice. I have a county water connection joining my system at the road but it's disconnected now since I prefer natural water that's free. But it's good to know I can hook up and have county water if necessary with very little trouble.
This weather is unreal. We had an irrigation pump that cracked two years ago. We needed it last year, but couldn't see our way to get it fixed. The company we bought it from moved from the states back to Australia and we can't find the parts now..........so we had to buy a new irrigation pump! It was either that or fold up our business! It arrived at the store yesterday and we will pick it up tomorrow.....so it will rain tomorrow for sure! $1400 later....
We are so dry, but we have an artesian well, almost 500 feet deep. Only once did we almost run it dry and when I noticed little black chunks coming through my faucet, I stopped all water use....hubby had to utilize the woods if you know what I mean! 2 days and then it rained.
Don't want to go through that again.
I used to live in a place where all winter long, our water froze. So we would go to town with our many milk jugs, fill with water and friends and then be very conservative. I'd flush the toilet with our dishwater, save every drop for something.........water plants with rinse water, etc. I tried not to do cooking that required water, but if I did, I'd use the water for something else. Perhaps save my potato water for soup, etc. I got very creative.
IT WAS NOT FUN. I'm sorry that you are having to be so conservative. I'm praying for rain for all of us. Blessings, Kathy
Quite a story Kathy, good luck and blessings to you....and your crops! Rose
I live in downtown Atlanta. Watering once a week, Sunday Midnight - 10 am kinda cramps the church going style. I can hardly stay away as I have to water two large city lots. However, vegetable pots are exempt in the State unless your county has over ridden state laws (so write officials if that happens. We have a right to eat local, home grown food!)
We don't have a well. I just installed 6 rain barrels. Now, I know rain barrels are only good if it rains, but we did have a pop up storm on Monday and I got 180 gallons of water out of maybe 15 minutes total of rain. Not bad.
I put 6 layers of newspaper under 3-4" of wheat straw after watering well. Seems to be working for tomatoes in large black plastic tree pots. I water deeply 2x per week this way. Not bad.
Doesn't keep me from prayin' for more - more gentle rains that is. I shudder to think, with the ground so hardened over what might happen in a really huge rain storm.
GGG
Hi MM, Rose and GGG,
I'm sorry if my post was kind of negative. Going out day after day and trying to keep stuff alive has been wearing on me lately. It's been a hard year to start as a vegetable farmer in NW Georgia with the early April freeze and drought since then.
MM, I'm sorry to hear about the pump. I hate buying things with moving parts because I know that these days they don't last too long. And company's aren't so good about standing behind they're products these days.
Rose, I'm taking much the same approach as you. I water as much as I think I can each day. I've planted a lot though and I'm not experienced enough to know what each plant needs. They're all yellowing or wilting so I assume I'm not helping any of them enough. I'm hoping next year will be better , but it's hard to watch this year's plants die off.
GGG, Where did you get your rain barrels? I need to do that too altho I only have one permanent structure close to the garden.
Jeff
Jeff, didn't seem like your post was negative at all. You are only reporting what's going on. This is certainly a rough year to start out as a vegetable farmer. The last drought I remember as being this bad was sometime in the mid-70's, but my memory isn't all that great. We're all just doing the best we can and it's nice to be able to share with other gardeners what's going on.
Jeff, I made the rain barrels.
I came up with an idea for small farmers with larger garden areas (not too large) - and I think we are going to try it at our church and submit the idea to Georgia Organics.
Frequently we need a shaded area in the summer for hot weather lettuces or afternoon shade of tomatoes. So I thought of building a simple structure, slanted roof, four "legs" and maybe 8' long by 3-4' wide. Perhaps 8' tall, and top it with courrogated plastic. Lay a gutter across the length of the back, and then downspout off one side. Underneath you could store some rain barrels and have some shadier garden area if needed. It should collect fair rain in a storm.
When we tear this home down and build a walled vegetable garden on the spot, we will have to put up such a structure to collect our water.
Something to consider. It is inexpensive - more of effort to errect, but could save money. Hoist those barrels up fairly high by building a riser and you could get some good gravity going to put in soaker hoses too.
Look in Farmers & Consumers for any barrels in your area. I got them in Mableton at Advanced Drum who recycle food grade drums. Mine were $18 for the basic drum.
GGG
Well, I just went and picked up our new irrigation pump (an expensive rain dance)...I knew it would rain. JUST BECAUSE we bought a pump, but I thought it would at least wait until I got home with the pump...ha, ha..it is pouring out now. Praise The Lord.
:) Kathy
Congratulations! We had a sprinkle and a promise of more later, if we're lucky.
.3 inch here. Much better than nothing. I've got my fingers crossed for more.
Jeff
It,s on it's way, if we can believe the radar.
I think we ended up with .5 to .75 inches of rain. But the plants are happy for a few and we can now manual feed them from the pond.
:) Kathy
Praying for rain for everyone that needs it.
Seems like we got about a third of an inch, have no way of measuring. It seemed like a lot at the time and I'm grateful for every drop.