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Netherlands

I bought 4 beach umbrellas to protect the new leaves at the tips of the main vines. On four of my plants all new growth got fried the past few days. In my part of Holland we have had 34°C for several days, just cooling off to 26 today. Now I have leafless parts to three of the plants.
The 621 Zuhlke had no problems with the heat but especially the other three outside had problems. There were also some problems in the greenhouse but I hung up cloth to prevent that.

7/6/2006 11:13:04 AM

Flintshire. North Wales Uk

Hi Brad, leaf burn here in the UK also its on the very dark new leaves forming about 3ft back from the growing tips.
Heatwave ending in the UK with massive thunderstorms, hail my biggest worry with no plants under cover and all doing much better than my expectations. Fingers crossed. Best wishes to all growers. John

7/6/2006 1:59:41 PM

Austria

Same here. (Almost) worst case, the tip of my "highest hope plant", the 1173 Macari got toasted. First time this ever happened to me. Didn`t think it could. Plant was watered well. Umbrella solution is now being used here too, too late unfortunately.

7/6/2006 3:20:39 PM

Itzetown City

We also have had some very hot days, but no heat streß here, except the 982 Rodinis. But I fixed that by using a very fine sprayer in the greatest heat at noon. I guess umbrellas are not so good, I think they cause more heat under the cloth. Hans-Werner

7/6/2006 3:33:34 PM

Belgium

my 1446 has many burnt leaves and the tip of the main vine is toast.

7/6/2006 3:44:21 PM

Buren Ameland,West Frisian Islands, Netherlands

Brad,
4 vine top leaves burnt a bit along the leave-rim inside the greenhouse, as soon as I discovered, I put umbrella's over it and it had good result. Also I hung some cloth over parts of the greenhouse and extra watering by hand.
Ofcourse we got 'only' 30 degrees max here and continuesly some seawind. :-)
The main vine has no burning, it broke last week, :D:D:D, but the new shoots beyond the pumpkin (5-6kg today) are going fine.
Today a nice cool day 20 degrees so far.

John, it seems our climate is not too bad at all; send some thunderstorms this way, it is too dry here. ;-) Good luck, hail is rare.

Anyway, France or Italy, Grow them big!
NL will do well this year, take care, LOL.
Ragards, Theo.

7/7/2006 3:56:57 AM

Netherlands

Hans-Werner, I don't think heat is the real problem as AGs can take lots of it. New leaves just can't take the sunlight. Under my cloth (1.5 metres above the plant) temperatures were about 5°C lower than without the cloth. I didn't check for a temperature under the umbrellas. I do know that none of the leaves under the umbrellas got fried while the ones just outside of it did.

7/7/2006 3:57:27 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Brad has a good point. After an extended period of clouds, the bright sun causes problems for young leaves. Heat is another side effect of the increased solar activity but probably not the *cause*. Think sunburned skin.

7/7/2006 7:55:20 AM