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Sequim, WA

OK I'm serious, we're having an unprecedented heat wave in the Northwest and I want to know if the pumkins can get too hot and scald? Should I throw a light sheet over them or will the shiney yellow skin be protection enough. I've had some leaf burn already at the growing tips. Misters are what is normally found in the sky here, but we don't expect to see them again for a while. I've been watering 3 times a day to keep soil damp in the patch. I'm going away for the weekend and switching to the soaker hoses around the base of the plants for a couple of days and along the mains and I'm hoping thats enough.

7/30/2009 9:51:08 PM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Protect the fruit from the sun too. Use misters or sprinklers to cool the plant during the heat of your day (after temp goes over 85 until it drops down again, or 2 hours before dark, whatever comes first). Most use several minutes on at a stretch, then some time off, to help cool the plant.

7/30/2009 11:50:05 PM

Pocatello ([email protected])

A few things... first of all, I used to live in Seattle, and when it's above 90 there, it's unbearable. But here, a 90 degree day is very normal, and not uncomfortable at all.

If you shade the fruit, I don't think it will know the difference. But you MUST shade the fruit. Don't allow the shade fabric to rest directly on top of the fruit, especially a tarp! It will burn the skin. Shade that fruit... I can't imagine the vines having trouble in your moist climate, but if you can put a shade, such as a lawn chair, over your vine tips, that might help.

7/31/2009 4:54:41 PM