Heat Waves: 8 Ways To Protect Your Plants

Heat Waves Are No Joke. Nothing takes down a plant faster than heat and drought. With climate throwing us a curveball every year, on top of all the other things that make gardening challenging, we need help....we need a reprieve!

In today's video, I've got 8 strategies to help your garden and your plants this summer so that they can endure whatever the weather throws at them. Excessive heat and lack of moisture are big ones, but with these 8 tricks we can continue to grow healthy, happy plants, and STILL end up with great harvests!

2022 is the Year of the Garden! We deserve it after the last little while, and growing our own food and self sufficiency is just the reward we need to get back on track!

For more information on all your gardening questions, check out my other videos!:

If you're just starting out gardening in 2022, please check out my Amazon Affiliate links below to get the right tools for the job! It doesn't cost you a cent, but this channel receives a small incentive for any items purchase through Amazon. Happy Gardening!

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#garden #gardening #heatwaves

[TheRipeTomatoFarms]

If you're just starting out gardening in 2022, please check out my Amazon Affiliate links below to get the right tools for the job! It doesn't cost you a cent, but this channel receives a small incentive for any items purchase through Amazon. Happy Gardening!

pH/Water/Light Meter


Composting Tumbler!


Handy 12-piece Garden Tool Set!:


Hand Pruners:


Watering Can:


Spray Gun:


Gardening Gloves:

[rickthelian]

Watering in the evening while the sun is going down giving the plants a chance to get hydrated for the coming day or recovery from the heat.
Mulching helps or placing bottles of water directly in the soil or in plastic pegs that water deep down.

[suegiesige]

Thanks for the timely advice and not relying on drip irrigation...many of us cannot justify the expense.

[Newyosemitehomestead]

My kids are loving plant patrol. If they see anything wilting from their windows, they can go out and check the soil to see if it's dry and they can water. Thus far we only lost a few plants. My kids are watching this now for tips.

[doodlesthegoose]

Last summer wasn't the first time we've seen that kind of heat in the PNW. I remember well a summer in Seattle when I was a kid that was evenly brutally hot. We don't have global warming. We have geoengineering causing most of the issues we see including contamination of our ground water with aluminum, barium and strontium (the few contaminants in my spring water that cannot keep out surface water contamination). We had snow in April. THAT has not happened in my lifetime. All that said, thanks for the tips. They are very much appreciated.

[SuperWhatapain]

Thank you so much. I keep moving mine under the shade. Northeast Florida

[avermontlife]

We are avid gardeners and yet no expert or book has ever defined what watering deeply actually means. Does it mean 30 seconds per plant, one minute per bed? It has never been clear, and I worry I'm wasting water by overdoing it. All of your advice is a good reminder for experienced gardeners as well as new ones. We mulch constantly, and definitely only save seed for varieties that survive well as the weather continues to punish us. Another reason why it's so important to save seed. We must be doing something right, because so far no wilting and we have lettuce still going strong. Thank you for the content and reminder to stay safe.

[OZARKMEL]

Great video, thank you. We live in Tucson, talk about HEAT and zero humidity! Right now we are running in the low 100's with 9% humidity and NO rain in sight. Being a new gardener here it's been a lesson in patience and frustration trying to keep crops alive. Shade cloth, deep mulch and lots of water and organic fertilizer have been our "go to" items. Luckily we can grow year round here with a greenhouse in use during the cold months. The best advice you gave is mulch...it's a miracle to those that have never used it!

[fabianlewislewis]

Your right Jeff it has gotten very hot over the past few days ago

[pillowkitty]

Records being broken this year. Way up in northern Illinois we experienced 105 in June. Anything I had on rollers was moved around the deck chasing after the shade. Thankfully nothing died but it was certainly a shock to the plants going from a rainy spring to intense summer so suddenly. I even tossed a few ice cubes into the tomato pots. Ground cherries on the other hand couldn't get enough of the heat and their growth increased drastically!

[westcoast]

Your garden is looking great 👍 PUMPING. Awesome tips and hilariously accurate description about container gardening in the heat.

[yellowbird]

More and more gardeners are complaining about wilting plants in the sun and heat. Many plants are dying, many are not producing anything, and others just look sad. The sun down here in Florida has been causing all kinds of issues with my potted tomatoes and beans, as well as a new lilac bush I got, bred for 9/10 zone. So I have made great efforts to keep them in the mostly shade, around a tree and in the dappled shade of other trees. They seem to like that. I lost my zucchini plants to the sun and wind. I may replant. And I have at least one horn worm that has decimated a few tomato plants. Can't find them, though. But we may have to look really hard at shade cloths, shade covers and the like for our plants. As inconvenient and often unsightly they are, if we are going to protect the plants, I don't know if we have a choice. I also see drip irrigation in our future, even more so than now. Mulch. And more mulch. We still have time to replant some vegetables or whatever before fall, and we should do that, taking care to utilize whatever shade we have for those plants that can grow in partial shade. It's strange that other bushes/trees don't seem to be affected, although I hear stories from other areas that they are seeing tree damage.

[Thathandytiger]

Thank you for sharing your wit and wisdom. You’re very encouraging. Focusing on the safety of your fellow gardeners like myself was appreciated. So many times, I’ve been known to hop out of bed before breakfast and head straight to the garden. I’ll be sure to heed your warnings.
Happy Gardening!

[sircorkysriley]

on my raised beds I cover them with shade cloth in the super hot of the day . Really helps

[westcoast]

Remay cloth (AKA floating row cover?)works well as shade cover, for hardening off or even as mulch.

[mashafasha]

Great frickn video bud! Last tip SUPER important.

[JustinMentionedIt]

Using that potting soil with a lot of mulch helps a lot by holding a ton of moisture longer… when digging a hole dig it extra deep to refill it with that soil

[OakKnobFarm]

Great video Jeff. I had a little chuckle when you mentioned not working in the sun in the major afternoon heat.... as I sit here watching your video waiting for the temp to drop a little :) Stay cool

[kamikazitsunami]

I try to keep my plants close to the side of the house to limit their time in the sun because I'm doing container gardening. Even with a good watering in early morning and in the dusk time their leaves are still curling up and they look like they are wilting. The fruits like my tomatoes are not maturing. My peppers have tons of peppers but they're still little and my tomatoes are not getting bigger and not fruiting as much as they should. I haven't gotten anything to eat out of my plants. They look so sad and I don't know what to do. 2 days ago I went into the sun to experience what the plants are experiencing during the time that the later afternoon sun hits them. The sun is so bright, it's like a spotlight. I realized I haven't seen the sun that bright ever. It doesn't feel natural. First we had way too much rain and wind like I've never seen before and now we have sweltering hot days. The days that we're supposed to have rain, the rain never came.

[myprtrump]

Very hot in south central Pennsylvania here on the Frederick Maryland state line! Jeff, I lost all my cabbage plants to green worms, used need mixture in early evening, thanks to husband who thinks I’m crazy for trying to have food for what’s happening, he changed his mind after I bought all materials…