The scurs finally pounded some sense into the Weather Eye. Our days between rainfall events lengthened as of late. Will it continue or will Mother Nature revert to her earlier tactics? Starting on Thursday, sunny with highs in the mid-70’s and lows in the mid-50’s. Cloudy on Friday with highs in the mid-70’s and lows in the low 60’s. Partly sunny on Saturday with a slight chance of forenoon showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Sunday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of daytime showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Mostly sunny on Monday with a slight chance of daytime showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-70’s and lows in the upper 50’s. Tuesday, mostly sunny with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the low 60’s. Partly sunny on Wednesday with a fair chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the low 60’s. On July 15th, we’ve slipped to 15 hours of daylight, 28 minutes less than we had on the summer solstice. On the 24th, our loss of daylight accelerates to 2 minutes per day. The normal high for July 19th is 81 and the normal low is 62. The scurs will need to start stockpiling their lantern kerosene for the long nights ahead.
The Full Moon will arrive on the 21st and goes by several names, the most common of which is the Full Buck Moon. It is so named for the buck deer whose antlers are beginning to grow and are covered with velvet, a protective layer containing blood vessels and nerves, providing protection and nourishment for the antlers to develop. This moon also goes by the Full Hay Moon as much hay is harvested during the month of July. The Ojibwe were more interested in food for themselves and called this The Raspberry Moon. Not to be outdone, the Sioux knew this as the Moon when Wild Cherries are Ripe. At the ranch, we’ve come to know it as the Full AC Moon. Few things have felt better on the recent warm days than getting in out of the warm days, and the mosquitoes.
What’s been unnerving about the weather forecasts this growing season is the frequency of lesser chances of rain later in the forecast that grow into much larger chances as the dates draw closer. Oftentimes the amounts have been far more than anticipated as well, the polar opposite of last year’s growing season. Right now, the NWS Climate Prediction Center is indicating a drier 3 – 4-week outlook along with a warmer than normal prediction starting with the 8 – 14 day timeframe. We saw some of the same predicted earlier only to have our hopes dashed by rainfall events with only brief intervals between them. It’s hard to believe the rainy pattern we’ve been in for the rest of the summer. With a 70% chance of a La Niña pattern favored to emerge in August-October and a 79% of it persisting into the front end of our winter (November-January), a drier pattern becomes more probable.
Crops continue to progress even though few look like a postcard. Rainfall frequency, coverage and amounts slowed over the past week with temperatures warming back to more typical mid-July. Corn tassels are becoming increasingly frequent, although the unevenness of the corn is still very evident. The good news is eventually most of it should get tall enough to cover up some of the holes from the road. The bad news is once tasseled, the root systems on the corn plants have reached their maximum size. The roots aren’t going to be extremely deep either. In addition, all the saturated soil has set them up for increased potential of diseases such as stalk and root rots. The crop will need about an inch of water per week to sustain itself. If the roots are shallow, an occasional rain from here on out won’t hurt if we start getting too dry. There was also a fair amount of nitrogen dropped into some fields. Some moisture to move it down into the root zone might not be the worst thing as long as it doesn’t get carried away.
Soybeans appear to have survived the onslaught better thus far even though there are signs in some fields that all is not well. Iron deficiency chlorosis has been relatively minor this year. This follows since the excessive rainfall has flushed much of the high concentrations of nitrate nitrogen out of the root zone. There are some suspicious looking areas in a few fields that may bear watching, however. When those areas seem to develop iron deficiency symptoms and it doesn’t go away well into the reproductive stages, it’s probably a good time to check out the situation and evaluate the area for soybean cyst nematode. There have been several instances where soybean cyst nematodes have developed resistance to the common sources when used over a long period of time. Changing it up is just a solid IPM practice.
The late garden at the ranch also continues to move along. The water seeping out of the sidehill and running across the lower part of it has gone, leaving some string beans and sweet corn behind. The entire garden became covered with a carpet of purslane while it was wet, so this past weekend was time to deal with that. Cucumber beetles were also an issue, so they were dealt with harshly as well. No new feeding or live specimens made me feel confident that they were controlled. The weeding wasn’t complete without adding some nitrogen to the corn and vine crops. Some rain to move it down into the root zone rather than being positionally unavailable would help. The second planting of string beans really looks spectacular. The late plantings here have developed a reputation for being the tastiest string beans of the season. Very sweet and tender. The sunflowers that held so much promise when they emerged suddenly fell prey to a burgeoning bunny population. Keep it up and they may fall victim to a sniper from the schoolbook depository.
Poppy made it through the hot spell with flying colors. There’s a big dark colored toad living on the north side of the house under the steps. She’s resisted the temptation to grab it when warned not to. She likes to be out with us, especially if there’s gardening going on. She likes to observe what we’re doing as well as dig some holes occasionally. Eventually though she repairs to the porch and lies in the shade, keeping a watchful eye over the activities on the hillside below. After battling the weeds and bugs Sunday for a few hours, I came in wringing wet in need of rehydration. That was Poppy’s cue to find a spot on the floor, stretch out flat on her side and just soak up all that coolness. On a hot Sunday afternoon, her lack of actions spoke louder than words.
See you next week…real good then.