A Tropical Heat Wave

Well, a little sub-tropical heat wave, anyway. We’ve had almost 3 weeks of fog-less days, unusual weather for this time of year in San Francisco. For the past few days, it’s stayed in the 80’s or 90’s F (27-37C.) That’s warm for us, since the fog bank usually starts to air-condition the coast in spring. Typically, the marine effect provides comfortable temperatures and humidity for both humans and orchids. You can pick your temperature by choosing your distance from the cold northern Pacific Ocean to the west. On the coast, it’s pure fog bank, but go inland a few miles, and it warms up. Head further inland 30 miles (48 km,) and it’s scorching hot. We live about 4 miles (6.4 km) from the ocean, so we get the fog’s benefit, but see much more sun than folks right on the coast.

With this mini-heat wave, I’ve spent the past few days doing lots of watering and misting. Besides the heat, it’s been really dry and windy, so it’s been a struggle to maintain high humidity. No matter how often I mist, I’m a poor substitute for a good moist fog bank. I probably should have some automatic watering system put in, but at this point it’s all by hand. The entire garden needed water, but cool growers like Masdevallias and Odontoglossums quickly wilt in the heat, so I had to mist them frequently. Finally today the fog has arrived back on the coast, and it’s cooling down. Time to enjoy my break…

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One Comment on “A Tropical Heat Wave”

  1. nancy Says:

    we’ve had lots of hot days here too, but my orchids are in a small greenhouse attached to the house, and the misters take care of it. we had some bean seedlings outside that got scorched