Extreme Heat Impacting Some NYS Crops

This summer's extreme heat may prove to be a difficulty for some New York crops. Cornell University Professor of Horticulture Steve Reiners said some plants may stop growing.“Once we start seeing temperatures into the upper 80s and, close to 90 and above, what we see, our plants start to shut down, they start to go into survival mode," Reiners said. "And if they're in survival mode, that means they're not growing. They're not producing the sugars and the flavors and everything that we expect. so that's going to have an impact that has an impact on yield."He said the best way to combat the heat is to have a good irrigation system and plan on using around a half gallon of water per square foot of your garden."Water, water, water, put a lot of irrigation, and this is whether you're a farmer or whether you're a gardener," Reiners said. "If you think you've watered enough, water again this time of year."Reiners added the true impact from a heatwave may not be noticeable for a few weeks.Despite warmer temperatures creeping up in the summer months, Reiners said the frost season has remained largely the same and that combination could be killer."Although we're seeing it get warmer, it's not necessarily resulting in, a major change in our frost dates, neither the spring or the fall. So we can still get that late frost or an early frost that can certainly kill the crops as well," Reiners said. "So it's sort of the worst of both worlds. when we have that happening."