Reaction to Hurricane Dennis

Driving north on I-65 this afternoon I witnessed a number of small convoys of utility trucks with buckets heading south. I saw three groups of maybe 5-8 trucks driving. The names on the trucks did not look like a utility company. I am guessing they are expecting quite a bit of damage to be repaired in Alabama and Florida. As for our area, we hope that it will bring some much needed rain.

This weekend, I got a chance to inspect the watermelon plants. The plants that have good water supplies are thriving while the ones in drier areas are very small plants with 3-4 leaves. I am guessing there are about 5-10 fruit forming on my most mature plants. Since they are icebox melons, the fruit is somewhat small. See picture I posted earlier. Also the one grape plant of the five that did not get damaged by an early spring frost is producing grapes (picture posted earlier).

I am thinking the potatoes might be getting ready because the plants appear to be dying. Maybe it is the heat but last year the bugs killed the plants and after they looked dead I dug up the potatoes. About 10 pounds were produced from about 5 lbs of seed potatoes. I also collected about 5 lbs of green potatoes and stored them last year. They are this year's crop so it will be interesting to see what I find when I dig them up. The bugs were fought off this year with an organic bug repeller and it worked pretty good. It did not seem to kill the bugs but they seemed to quit eating once it hit them.