{"id":1245663,"date":"2023-07-23T11:38:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T16:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1245663"},"modified":"2023-07-25T03:56:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T08:56:38","slug":"east-texas-farmers-facing-challenges-in-summer-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1245663","title":{"rendered":"East Texas farmers facing challenges in summer heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"TYLER \u00e2\u20ac\u201c After trying to catch up from 2022\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer drought, East Texas farmers are praying for a better crop season this year, according to our news partners at KETK. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It all depends on the weather, whether you have a good season or a bad season but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been good so far, now how long it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to last, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said farmer Dennis Floyd. “The okra seems to be doing really good right now, the tomatoes seem to be doing really well, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting very good corn,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Allison Lott, owner of HWY 80 Produce.<\/p>\n

So far this year East Texas has seen rain through June and as the end of July approaches we are just starting to see areas with drought.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have more than enough water, but now after a few days, then you need more cause when you get them 90 to 100 degrees weather, it dries, I mean it dries up quick,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Floyd.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why knowing when and how much to water your plants is key to having them survive until harvest.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of people water three or four times a week, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just barely putting out enough to protect the foliage, so we want to soak the entire root zone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Greg Grant, County Extension Agent-Horticulture, Smith County, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.<\/p>\n

Some vegetables like okra, tomatoes and sweet potatoes don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need as much water so they handle the heat better than other vegetables.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So a little bit of drought stress is fine. Now, brown plants, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not fine, so you got to learn when to water, if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dry, you got to irrigate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Grant.<\/p>\n

There are some ways to help your crops out if you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to keep an eye on them all the time.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you put three or four inches of an organic mulch on top of the ground, it keeps the ground cooler, it keeps the moisture in, and it also keeps the weeds out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Grant.<\/p>\n

Experts added that getting an irrigation system or using sprinklers can also keep your plants alive this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TYLER \u00e2\u20ac\u201c After trying to catch up from 2022\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer drought, East Texas farmers are praying for a better crop season this year, according to our news partners at KETK. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It all depends on the weather, whether you have a good season or a bad season but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been good so far, now how long … Continue reading East Texas farmers facing challenges in summer heat<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1245667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2022\/08\/farmland-175x99.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"East Texas farmers facing challenges in summer heat","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 07:19:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2022\/08\/farmland-175x99.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"East Texas farmers facing challenges in summer heat","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1245663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1245763,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245663\/revisions\/1245763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1245667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1245663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1245663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1245663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}