Ask Dave Epstein: Can I grow tomatoes in my apartment?

Meteorologist Dave Epstein is our go-to person for pressing weather questions on everything from winter blizzards to summer droughts. He’s also a horticulturist, meaning he’s an expert in anything that grows leaves and flowers. We at GBH's Morning Edition asked you, our audience, for your weather and gardening questions, and Dave graciously answered them on the air. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Have a gardening or weather question for meteorologist Dave Epstein? Tweet him @GrowingWisdom, email us at thewakeup@wgbh.org, or text 617-300-2008.

Dave, what happened to the Bermuda High that dominated our summers my whole life? - Franco Campanello

The Bermuda High, a high-pressure system over the Atlantic Ocean, is still here — and it’s responsible for the hot, dry weather we’ve been seeing this summer, Epstein said.

“Really, the Bermuda High has been on steroids here this summer, and that's one of the reasons why it's been so dry,” he said. “The Bermuda High sits out over the Atlantic. The clockwise circulation brings in warm and humid air from the south. When the Bermuda High is really strong and powerful, it doesn't let thunderstorms really materialize as much. The air continues to sink, and we keep [having] sunny day after day after day.”

Could you please ask Dave if I can plant my late-season snap peas? - Deidre Antes

Now is a great time to do that. “Mine went in, I think, about two weeks ago,” Epstein said. “With peas, you just need a little bit of moisture. They actually don't like a lot of moisture to germinate.”

He recommended keeping the soil slightly moist, and seeds should germinate in three or four days. If everything goes well, they should be ready to harvest by late September or early October. They’ll be smaller than snap peas planted in the spring because there is less sunlight this time of year, Epstein said.

He suggested doing it anyway. “Give it a try. And the greens are edible, so even if you don't get the peas, take the greens, chop them up, put them in a salad or in a stir fry, and they're great.”

Why did my ornamental grass barely come back this year? My neighbor had the same problem. - Anne

First, a lesson about ornamental grasses: they’re not the same genus of plant as you’ll see in lawns — they’re tall grasses that can grow up to 5 or 6 feet high, with beautiful brown florets.

To answer this question, Epstein went back in time to the dead of last winter, when it was very cold and dry, without much snow.

“Because of our winter being really open in January, with not much snow, the cold kind of penetrated down to the root zone of those grasses and basically killed them,” Epstein said. “I lost a lot of my ornamental grasses as well.”

He recommended to wait until spring to replant them.

Can I grow tomatoes in an apartment? - Rachel Armany, Morning Edition associate producer

You can try, Epstein said, but the results likely won’t be as good as they would be outdoors.

“If you had the right lighting, you could probably do it inside. But really, it's an outdoor plant,” Epstein said. “It's really tough because they want that natural kind of air movement. And also you need to pollinate, so you need a pollinator. You'd have to have, you know, bees flying around your house.”

A small outdoor container could work, though. Epstein said he has a few tomato plants in 15-inch containers next to his driveway, and they’ve been growing beautifully.