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The Tucson Gardener |
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In the Garden Calendar
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How Hot Is It? The unusual cool temperatures of spring will be gone and temperatures will climb toward the century mark. Many of us will restrict our gardening to early morning and late evening. As the perspiration beads on our foreheads and trickles down our sides we're often curious to know just how hot it really is. With a modest investment your curiosity can be easily satisfied. All you have to do is purchase one of the many battery operated thermometers now available on-line, at the big box stores and many other retail establishments. Depending how much you want to spend ($20 for a simple thermometer to hundreds of dollars for a sophisticated weather monitor) you can get a simple battery operated digital thermometer or you can get more features than you think possible. Some will tell you the time, temperature, recorded high and lows, humidity and barometer reading. Some act as base stations where you can add separate transmitters so you can monitor the temperature at several locations. I have one transmitter sitting in a potted plant on my back porch with the base station sitting on the dining room table about 25 feet away. Although the package claimed a 100-foot transmission distance 25 feet was the maximum I could reach before the intermittent signal vanished into uselessness. The manufacturer claimed "range may vary based on the amount of interference present."
A 300-foot transmission distance was claimed by a unit I purchased at a chain electronic store. Both the base unit and the optional remote units didn't work at all and I had to return everything. That particular model was then discontinued by the retailer. My hope had been to have a base unit sitting on my office desk; another sitting in the greenhouse and a third transmitter sitting in the shade of the back yard ramada near the hammock. The greenhouse thermometer with its alarm system would tell me how cold or hot it was without having to check on the greenhouse to make sure the heating or cooling system was operational. The ramada thermometer would let me know when the current temperature was conducive for an afternoon nap. Unfortunately I never found anything at a reasonable price that could actually transmit the 100-yard distance I needed.
Eventually I purchased a single unit for the greenhouse that had a clock, minimum and maximum temperatures, an external wire sensor which I put under the bench, and a hygrometer so I could track greenhouse humidity. It was interesting to note how much difference there could be in bench top temperature vs. the shaded area under the bench. All of the units, although not perfect, have come a long way from the mercury filled glass tubes and the coiled bimetallic strip dial thermometers. I now have my three electronic thermometers, two rain gauges and access to satellite weather imagery on the internet. Now all I need is a wind gauge and maybe a barometer and I won't have to watch the local weather reports on television. Maybe I'll have to start making my own forecasts and see if I can do as well as the weather people on the six o'clock news. May through June I predict clear, hot, and sunny. July, you can expect higher humidity with the chance of evening thunderstorms. Can't go wrong with a prediction like that. (2005) |
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