It has been oddly sunny and hot here in PA for the past couple weeks. Usually you have to go to the Great Lakes to match our level of persistent overcast, but lately we have been getting cooked. My tomatoes and peppers are pushing out fruits like their lives depend on it, and my cucumbers are trellising several inches a day.
Today we hit 93*F with humidity ranging as high as 88% in the AM and bottoming out at 44%. Most of the day was spent around 90*F with humidity in the 50%'s. Not comfortable by any means, but not quite a soupy mess. The banana has responded tremendously and for being potted for not even 5 full days has already pushed out a new leaf.
Even more impressive is the way the CIDP has responded. CIDP's grow in much cooler, drier climates, but it has been eating up this heat and humidity. It pushed out an entire new frond from the spear this week.
Perhaps the most impressive of all is my Brandy Boy tomato is leading the charge for earliest producer, kicking the pants off of the Early Slicer and 4 other mostly heirloom varieties.
For those who are unaware, the Brandy Boy is a hybridized version of the classic Pink Brandywine tomato by Burpee. It is a potato leaf hybrid that very closely resembles the Pink Brandywine but corrects the all-time favorite heirloom tomato's notoriously poor yield, slow maturity and terrible disease resistance. So far (knock on wood), it is proving to do all three as advertised. It is loaded with gigantic fruits (the biggest of all), looks incredible and is the closest to maturity. I can't wait to see how it tastes. If that holds up, I'll be growing these every year.