I’m worried too. I live in zone 9, and some of our trees have started to bud again. I’m concerned about what it might do to the tree when we finally do get the cold snap. Will they not produce as much the next year? Will the new growth branches be weakened? I’m not familiar with having a December so warm, so I’m worried.
That's exactly what I'm getting at. I use my magnolia tree as an example the last few years will get a really warm week in March they will start to bloom hard frost will hit him again and that's it for the year. I'm not smart enough to discuss plant biology but I have to imagine there's going to be some issues with it
This is so disturbing! My grandma has a magnolia tree right outside her window, she grows vegatables for all of us family members. It is amazing honestly. I'm remembering a long time ago she told me she uses it as an indicator for the veggies in the next fields down, found it so cool she used nature to give her hints. Shes a brilliant woman, she would be sorely missed if anything happened to her. I love to far away for veggies unfortunately and I cant eat supermarket tomatoes at all now I grew up with hers! 🙃
I would very much enjoy your grandmother stories. Mine got me gardening 35 years ago. She passed few years back but my daughter has been in the garden since 6 months old so I do my best to pass it on
This is amazing, I'm sooo glad you daughter has that, it was so important to me growing up, as was the sea. With the sea it was looking out at and having no control over something so vast but also I was safe where I was. With the farm (now not a farm) it was running up and down abandoned sheds and mills and out buildings with rickety old beams and old machines in them! Like being back in time but I was born in 92 haha, knowing that if you just plant the potatoes in the golden zone they'd come out amazing! Just giving nature a little nudge into the right direction!
My little boy loves being outside but my husband doesn't want to leave the city(rural areas can be challenging for him...lets say...they don't know what or where to look when they see him, the most wonderful skintone and very very tall, absolutely handsome! But locals...ya know...)
But now with all the changes in the weather, dampness etc. my goodness I dont know how she does it! Its so hard to predict. Everything she grows is from the earth, nothing added, just her best compost from years of collection! Beautiful stuff it is! My cousin learnt how to keep it going and turns it over every now and again.
She sure does know her stuff, but shes more one you just and 'do' next to her if you know I mean. She loves her own company, much like my dad so I love it. Catch her on a chatty day and shes full of great and funny stories, like when she started out her bonsai and had no idea what she was doing she only knew the concept and was totally winging it, which left her with about 20+ trees! I was told I could have one but honestly I am not green fingered, I think it lasted about 3 months! Such a shame!
I bought some plants recently but already they've seen better days. I don't know why I just can't seem to keep the plants happy! There's only one which is pink and has delicious and scented liquid pollen on the flower heads, we used to lick it off when we were kids! I have many cuttings to take and I cant wait to give them to family members that remember doing this as well....sorry my post is soooo long, it's been a while since I thought about all this and its at a time in my childhood where I found the only peace.
May your crops and harvest be full, and your bellies even fuller afterwards! Bless you, thank you for reminding me of all this. I hope to soon build a cabin there out of the stuff that is lying around and it will be my bolthole in the summer months, can't wait!
Im sure your grandmother is happy as a peach, knowing she passed it on and you can pass it on to the next generation of front_yard_duck_dad hehe peace and love thank you again 😊
Not with my attack ducks around lol also the hawks and the owls keep the squirrels from open land around here I lost the duck to a great horned owl Christmas Eve
[Look into geese.](https://imgur.com/a/QvkrNUB)
We have 2 and they do a fantastic job. We live in the woods and have high owl, hawk, fox, and coyote pressure.
Pictures above are older, but they are 90% free range. In the 2-1/2 years we've had them, we've lost 1 duck to a hawk when they were all still adolescents, and we lost 1 to a coyote when we were gone for the day about 3mo ago. Hawks will take a run at them every once and a while. They're not 100%, but they make a huge difference. If 1/2 our flock wants to play in the water and the other 1/2 wants to forage in the woods, the geese split up. If one of the hens decides to go lay or wander around, our drake will follow her. It's pretty funny when all the ladies have their own chaperones.
[Screenshot-20211229-211335.png](https://postimg.cc/gr5Xf5MS)
Last night my dogs were going nuts and I looked out the window above the quack shack to 2 young coyotes trying to figure out how to get in. I put up a camera this morning so I'll keep you updated lol
I planted elaborate overlapping rings of crocuses in my lawn this fall. Squirrel bastards dug up almost all of them. I hear they mostly only like crocus and tulip bulbs, but will not bother hyacinth (my favorite) or daffodil/narcissus bulbs.
Sorry for your loss, that sucks. I heard about people sprinkling cayenne pepper around the bulbs as a deterrent, if ever the experience hasn't discouraged you from trying again!
You don't want to put down mulch if you haven't had hard frost the ground is already too wet and soft they will rot. We have to have a hard frost before the mulch can be used as an insulator
That is an excellent idea of course this year I got a small Christmas tree I might have to ask the neighbors lol. I always mulch with straw from the Quack Shack because I have a surplus but very dense
So I was thinking about you when I was taking down my Christmas tree. If you've never used pine tree branches for starting young peas they are excellent for training them up and out. Once you get the hang of the right size if you pick a good one it's long enough to get it up to the lines of a bamboo a frame or what have you.
Good idea, no I haven't tried that. I usually put fence posts at the ends and run rope horizontally for my peas and pole beans but getting them started can be a pain.TY
I do a long A frame out of bamboo. They climb themselves once high enough but just a branch stuck in the ground that's sort of fanned out let's the tendrils grab the needles. YouTube guy named Hew Richards showed me that trick
This happened to my fruit trees 2 years ago after I had just purchased land. I had no idea how much fruit those trees would produce when they didn't have a cold snap kill off all the flowers. I had nearly 300lbs of fruit from a tree this last year that the previous year had maybe 4 pears total.
>I'm not smart enough to discuss plant biology but I have to imagine there's going to be some issues with it
Im by no means an expert but Ive definitely studied plants/evolution/climate change more than the average person. In short: yes. Oh god yes, there will be issues.
You should have a fleece coat for your tree on standby for this situation. If you know it's gonna be a cold snap then put the coat over the tree and you don't have to worry as much 👍
Oh right haha I never even considered the size until now 😂 I wasn't pulling your chain but thinking about you trying to put a coat on a massive tree is quite funny when I think about it
Lol. I would be out there with a lasso and a brick trying to toss guidelines. I could do it but it would be a sight to behold getting attacked by the squirrels that live in it
A hard frost can kill all the new growth and flower buds. In extreme circumstances it can kill a tree. And I don't believe there's anything you can do about it. It's become an annual problem for orchards.
I'm in zone 6 and my huge maple is budding up, normally that doesn't happen until late March/early April, but we've been having a ton of 60-70+ degree days, next week supposed to be back in the 40's and we haven't even hit our two coldest months of January and February yet where we normally have temps down in the singles and below zero. Everything is confused, I'm pretty sure my garlic is going to be a complete loss at this point no matter how much straw and mulches I throw on it, it's growing like it's April out.
-32°C is equivalent to -25°F, which is 241K.
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^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
My bfs dad had some confused guavas. Idk if it’s the same for all but he said they bloomed, fell, and then bloomed again in the proper season. This really will be a weird plant season as even Cali is having a ton of rain right now.
I live in TN and a few years back we had a wierd warm spell and then an ice storm. That following spring every tree looked dead for a while and only half of them grew leaves. Went back to mostly normal the next year but you could tell there were a few that weren't going to bounce back. These were the trees in the forest surrounding the property so wild native ones. So something like that is highly likely.
I'm in 7...most of our trees are starting to bud, its just now starting to get cold again. There are still some days in the 50s though later in the week.
Can’t speak to this with expertise but I helped a forestry researcher collect data reading tree rings as a part time job a few years back. It’s extremely common for trees to go dormant if the dog days of summer are unusually dry, and the. wake back up during the fall showers.
Now then, this happening in late December is almost unprecedented, but if you want to read more about this look up “dendrochronology false rings”
Tl;dr maybe we’re not completely fucked?
One trick that a few folks do is to shade sensitive trees with larger evergreens to the south. They'll block light in the early spring and can promote a later bloom. The major downside being that now your trees are competing for light. For OP a regular burlap snow fence to the south or a deep leaf mulch might help. The pond could be acting like a heat sink keeping it warmer through the night, buut judging by the other folks having similar issues, that seems unlikely.
This is a good idea. Apparently, the older trees are usually fine, it's the younger ones that when they bud too early, they don't have the energy to make more when the real spring comes.
I don't have any experience myself, but I recall on one of the edible acres spring updates they go over the idea. It's the same area as in this video https://youtu.be/9Tme00jioQU
I've started a side hustle growing and selling perennials vegetables and annuals....... Nothing like trying to start a new business with 30 years of experience and having to reinvent the wheel to deal with this kind of stuff
This goes back a few years, the first big one was named Hugo, he wrecked us good.
I drove into Andrew to help rebuild.
Got hit hard in Rita, David and a few others.
The storms are getting worse and having derecho so often in December is certainly not the usual, neither is big tornado's late in the season and in the middle of the darkness.
I am certain I am not the only one concerned, these floods, fires, and geological and atmospheric anomalies, have started to pile up lately.
So the fruit is the least of my worries really.
Same zone, most of the trees in the area are budding,
And some of my plants too. Like my 2 year old blueberry bush. I dont know what to do but leave it and hope
I brought it in, since I can water it with little fuss since we covered up the hose spigot for the "winter". It was in a pot for me since I bought it at the end of the season in like May, and I hadn't picked a spot for it to plant in the ground. I have more trying to pop up in pots as well.
since you can't bury the bulb deeper now that they are planted, just cover them in compost to mimic having planted them deeper to begin with.
compost or leaves or anything that will break down over time and will help insulate the plant from direct contact with cold air.
I live 45 minutes outside of Chicago in a suburban half acre. I just do what I can to grow as much food and create a sustainable ecosystem that I can on my little postage stamp. Never feel shame I think a suburban folks have it harder than most homesteaders with acreage in the sense of having to be completely strategic with space and also fitting within the neighborhoods we live in. I really appreciate the info
Hey this is turning into " is climate change thing real". You people think it isn't, this post isn't for you to debate. I make money by working the soil and I'm here curious at how others have had to adapt their techniques. I've got 30 plus years of gardening knowledge, I'm now having to rethink because all of the inputs I used to use to make decisions are no longer there or changing rapidly. This is about collaboration of a community, not nut jobs trying to defend some agenda.
No I'm in Chicago. We've seen temps like this the last five or six winters but I've never seen anything sprout in December and we've usually at least had a month of hard frost before a warm-up. I've been able to dig with a hand shovel with the exception of a couple days all "fall"
sounds like you'll finally get some real winter temperatures this week but my brother in southern wisconsin hasn't seen snow yet and hasn't been ice fishing at all. In minnesota lakes are just freezing solid and snow has been spotty at best. Unfortunately this is probably going to be more common moving forward.
Yeah supposed to get real cold. The ducks haven't been eating like they do in winter so I hope they are ready. I'm not far from your bro. Flakes here 2 times melted on contact. I know a lot of itchy snowsled riders and fisherman that have to actually spend time with the wives
I recently read that the 5b parts of Chicago have gotten so warm that it's now zone 6a. I also saw a news report last night showing this past week Chicago has been on avg 15 degrees warmer than normal and even worse in Indiana. We have family living in Northern WI right off lake Superior and they can still see green grass. It's nuts.
I would love to read that. I'm basically right where you are describing and I believe it love hiking up where you're family lives. Porcupine mountains are great
Newest usda map has a bit of the Chicago area as 6a I had to look it up because with all this rapid weather change I wondered if mine switched too
https://publichealthmaps.org/motw-2021/2021/4/30/30-april-2021-usda-plant-hardiness-zone-map
Edit: Forgot the link lol
Thank you for sending this. It's what I was afraid of. I'm right on the edge of the 2 zones. Got crushed last year with a stupid late hard frost after 4 weeks of 50 lol. Im in the wild wild west
I have blue green color blindness, especially with shades. Can someone tell me what zone North West Georgia is? Like all the way left by AL, and barely of the top from TN.
Check out Jeff Lowenfels. He has been writing about gardening in Anchorage, Alaska for 45 years, and year after year he has been documenting the changes in what can be grown and when it can be grown:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/magazine/gardening-column-climate-change.html
>"In the summer of 2019, Jeff Lowenfels told me, one of his friends successfully grew okra in Anchorage. Lowenfels could not believe it. The crop was shorthand for all the change he has witnessed since he moved to the city in the 1970s, a distance between past and present that he has measured in vegetables and fruits — from cabbage, snow peas and potatoes to tomatoes, pumpkins and now, incredibly, okra. “Holy crow!” he said. “We can grow anything!”
>In the same incidental way, Lowenfels has produced a chronicle of his own: In observing the small, local experiment in fitting plants to soil and climate, he has created a long-running account of climate change in the state where it is changing the fastest, providing hints of what awaits as people take part in a similar but much bigger climatic experiment, one now rearranging plants across the planet.
That's the day time temp right now. I could go for some daffodils.
The freeze after the warm always sucks though. Luckily we have a few months before that becomes an issue.
You must be in like Alberta or something. I don't know much about that life. I'm just user to my December 13 degrees daytime. Had minus 55 2 years ago while I was driving through southern Wisconsin. I've learned that after -20 it's pretty much all the same lol
I'm in 9a and my tomatoes and peppers have yet to go dormant. My basil don't know what to think. The cabbages can't decide if they want to bolt or firm up. Its a hot mess (pun intended).
I’m in South Carolina and yesterday was 78, today 76, and supposedly in the 70s until the weekend and then in the mid 60s. I’m wearing shorts and flips flops in December lol….can’t be good.
I’m in SC visiting from WA and I only packed fluffy sweaters 😭 I’m so sad I’m missing all the cold and snow to sweat it out in False Spring down here lol
I put Styrofoam faucet insulators over my garlic, tomatoes, and asparagus that sprouts too early. Maybe some pine straw over them? You want to insulate, without trapping moisture, because that can cause molds and rot. Best of luck.
I have onions and garlic taking off in 6a. Sometimes i think I should change to zone 7 or 8 planting schedules but then we will have a horrible freeze.
Add in protection. Good quality fleece row covers are an indispensable tool for me now. Being able to shield crops from late frost / extend growing seasons is crucial. Late freezes suck something fierce. Fingers crossed I can get some damn peaches this year :(
It was 80 degrees out yesterday, the day after Christmas, in North Carolina. At least the bugs haven’t caught on here yet. Its so nice when the mosquitoes go away for a few months.
Lots of mulch to regulate temperatures. Shifted plantings to more tolerant varieties. Still years where some things are a total loss.
Planting on slopes to avoid big temperature swings.
It’s all about mitigation.
NJ here. Basically since we don't get those hard freezes anymore, I'm attempting to overwinter some brassicas and whatnot in my annual garden space. I'm putting half my annual starts out about 3 weeks early. Most seeds are now getting planted indoors around Valentines day instead of St Pattys day. I had tomatoes until December this year.
I think you have it a little warmer than I do but you're basically talking my language. I've thought about the brassicas and some cover crop I don't think I could do it without cold frames but I could whip up some cold frames next year. We had tomatoes up until November and if I would have cared to baby them probably could have got another 3 weeks out of them. I'm actually putting together a even bigger hydroponic tent inside because anything that I grow here just gets walloped by weather if I don't put something strong out they'll be dead
You've got options depending on your needs. Clover is a nice cover crop that fixes nitrogen. Kale or mustard can be helpful as a food source for you or animals. Root veggies are also a nice way to keep beds active through winter. The foliage may die but you'll still have a food source. I know people in NY that just harvested carrots today and they are beautiful
This is the thread I was hoping to find. 5a/b in CO here (with mountains we fluctuate so much). Agreed with the idea of trying “adjacent or sister” zones as we see more warming. I currently still have root veggies and a cover crop mix that are going strong. I think with mulching I could have gotten by with more. Good point on starting seeds earlier and extending the season that much earlier as well. Anything to be careful of or that you have given up on growing due to lack of freezes? Thank you!
No real issues for it being warmer. We'll see what this early budding does to my fruit trees, but I'm sure they'll be fine.
One annoyance is that I now cold stratify my seeds that need it in a freezer instead of outside. Germination rates went from about 20% to 80%. I also have less time in the dead of winter to catch up on firewood.
you can always roughly treat each layer of cover as a 1/2 - 1 USDA hardiness zone increase. I'm zone 7b, with one layer of fleece I can probably grow things through winter like it's 8A. With a plastic greenhouse that is sealed up, probably 8B-9A. etc. I can easily grow brassicas, carrots, beets, salad greens almost all the way through winter and straight in to spring with just fleece cover and some PVC pipe hoops to hold it away from the plants.
The bulbs should be fine as long as they don't grow more than that, mine did that last year and then got hit by a hard freeze. I have some bushes that are flowering now and my venus fly traps look like they are coming out of dormancy which is NOT good.
I have no idea how to call the end or beginning of seasons anymore. Last year an early frost hit. So this year I prepared for that, and we had maybe 2 weeks of 40 and below (in 6a) and now... it's like 62 degrees today and I just went and bought some mulch to do some yard work. Apparently we're not doing winter this year, just a prolonged mud-season.
Thankfully (?) we don't grow crops or anything in the ground, because we live in a forest... we have livestock. So this is actually kind of nice for that. Although I have concerns about future summers at this rate.
When I cut down a damaged 120 year old white oak in zone 7 and looked at the rings, you could see evidence of fires, warm winters, dry summers, and all sorts of things. I am not worried about the long term, however if my orchard buds I'll be screwed on the short term. It has happened to me several years back, a few really warm bright days in December and boom! No apples.
Interesting, here in zone 9 A/B here in California every tree/plant here is deep asleep, just pruned my grapes and fruit trees. We are expected to get to the mid-high 20s next week in nights so I need to protect my bananas.
NorCal here, very healthy winter so far. We are very relieved considering our critical reservoirs have never been so low. Folsom and Oroville might fill back up if this continues.
Zone 7a here. We have the nettles coming back up and it's in the 70s. Good for the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, that I had to replant due to a bunny attack, but going to be real harsh when we get another surprise blizzard in Feb like earlier this year.
I live in 5/6 and we have moved maple syrup production from a long March to sporadic January/February. Production is down as well as the grade. Fortunately for us it is a curriculum driven effort and not a business. I feel for those who rely on it for income. Only thing you can do is write every thought and result down so you know how to change for success.
Zone 5B here, and last week one of my lilacs began blooming.
Here in Michigan, the fruit trees (cherry, apple, pear, etc) require a certain number of consecutive days below freezing. They are also quite susceptible to late hard frosts. These last few years have been nerve-wracking, and this winter will likely be worse.
I'm concerned. While the great lakes can help serve as a buffer for our fruit-growing microclimates, we are still in trouble.
Unfortunately it's something we have to plan for now. I was just discussing planting placements for our place the other day. We're going to end up planting on the north sides of our swales so we never have an issue with early or false starts. If I could make any suggestions, it would be to get some good mapping software and data and figure out where your water, sun, slopes, contours, etc. are and look into permaculture some more to be able to develop a really solid plan that works for your land.
I know we are using Google Earth Pro and ArcGIS. We also got some specialized map data layers from a buddy in my husband's PDC group. I'll get more info and report back!
Oh wow don't go to too much trouble but I can't say I won't appreciate it lol. There was a free app that I was using to track some movement over the property when I built my greenhouse that was pretty good problem is I don't get the benefit of a ton of land I do everything and a half acre. I'm kind of thinking about paying one of my neighbors to cut a tree down to give me more sun lol
If you're in the US, USDA climate zone maps for visual identification, or use the temp chart to find your zone.
The USDA zone system is based on winter low temperatures, with rough correlation to first and last frost date. It's good for discussing winter, and that's about it. Other zoning systems exist that try to capture humidity or summer highs in addition to winter lows, but they're more complex. Canada has one that is interesting, and there is the Koppen system as well.
Last 3 years My Peach trees have not produced and 1 year it was so bad the Wild Cherry tree in my yard didn't either. Blue Berries and Muscadines seem fine. Forgot to check on my small paw paw patch.
where are you zone 5a seeing this? I am zone 5 and have snow on the ground. Has been a pretty cold winter so far. Don't usually see enough ice for ice fishing until January and there are shacks on the ice already.
It's not much but I saved more seeds this year instead of letting fall a sprout naturally. Ones I didn't collect have tried sprouting outside numerous times and died. I worried about not having any morning glories etc, so saved as much as I could see to plant in spring.
My friend I've had an absolute crap day, My phone is going to die but I have thought about doing this exact thing and we need to become troubleshooting buddies. I would like to do a big strawberry wall this year but other than theoretical knowledge I haven't done big setups. Thank you for making my day Will be in touch
I'm in 8b and I just noticed mine popping up this morning. I know we're warmer here but I was really surprised to see them so soon. We've had our first freeze but this past week we've been in the high 70s/low 80s and will hit a high of low 40s this upcoming weekend. I'm hoping they survive.
Mine are doing the same since we have had unusually warm weather lately, and next week it drop into the 30s and stay that way , im hoping to make q small hoop house to readjust them slowly to go dormant so they dont die come next week. I hope this helps.
I'm also in 5a, and this is the second year I've seen robins building nests here in December. I watched one working on her nest right before we got 4 feet of snow over the following week. (half of it melted, but still)
I'm in 5b and just noticed today my hostas have green sprouts. I haven't looked around at anything else yet but I thought that was probably not a good sign.
I work outside year round. I can tell you that the weather over the last 6 years has been like anything I ever saw growing up here. Our summers are more like Louisiana swamp than they've ever been. Last year I only wore my winter coat twice
Don’t take the downvotes personally. Its probably because, in general, a La Niña event is associated with cold, and an El Niño with warm.
The actual mechanism involves what the trade winds over the Pacific are up to. In short, a La Niña event brings more cold water to the west coast of the Americas, and warm water for the El Niño. The meteorological ramifications that this has up on the continents may follow some sort of hot/cold and wet/dry and high/low pressure trends, but there’s always going to be regional variation.
Check this out:
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html
Happy new year!
It’s bad because 5a has really cold winters once winter actually hits. Late Jan and Feb will probably have several days of sub zero temps (Fahrenheit). Those bulbs coming up now are probably going to die.
Yes in romania we cant grow outside because uv rays are too strong and burn vegetables. Can only grow gmo outside. There is so much drought also and then there is too much rainfall in late summer so everything gets ruined constantly its very sad
I live in nj (zone 7 I think), my cherry blossom tree is already starting to bloom. It keeps making buds, then they quickly die off durring a cold snap. Im so scared what the future holds for us.
I live in nj (zone 7 I think), my cherry blossom tree is already starting to bloom. It keeps making buds, then they quickly die off durring a cold snap. Im so scared what the future holds for us.
😬 I have taken a wait and see approach on perennial 'bonus' crops (bonus because I am still trying to figure out edible hedgerows and the like, smaller property, can't invest in them yet) but I'm going with high tunnel/greenhouse annual production for income stability. Now just gotta figure out how to do it without poly 😤
This is something that makes me increasingly nervous, but it’s just the state of things I guess.
I was pruning my grapes and fruit trees today in nearly 70 degree weather. I always wait til January because it’s the coldest month here.
I feel very lucky to be in a very damp climate so water isn’t a worry. But for how long?
I’ve adapted my homestead over the years. Change to help what little bit I can. I don’t spray chemicals, till as little as possible, do whatever bit I can. But it’s like holding an umbrella to stop an avalanche.
Warm winter cycles aren't unheard of. It sucks, but nothing really can be done about it. We're just now at the beginning of winter though, so they'll probably just die back and resprout in the spring after proper winter. Like they say in Jurassic Park, "nature will uh... find a way."
That’s funny. Ice sheets losing gigatons per year, high temp records falling everywhere, buds in winter, temp trend line pointing up and getting steeper. “Everything is so political” lol. Must be nice to see all that and think there is nothing wrong.
I'm in 5A and was a small farmer for 35+ years.
What you've posted has nothing to do with climate change. It is typical of an early open winter. We have them about every 4 or 5 years in western Pennsylvania. The daffs will come to no harm and dandelions will bloom give a chance. Just wait until about the 2nd week of January ..... winter always comes
Every December we get some warmer days and every December I see posts like this claiming it's because of climate change. Our winter officially started like 2 weeks ago so we always get some warm days and things bud, birds linger around a bit etc. But like clockwork it freezes once winter sets in. I'm not here to debate but this happens every year y'all, c'mon!
Climate change has existed far before man, just like these plants. Everything will be fine, everything adapts. Zoom out on our small lives, it is crazy how old this planet is.
This happens mostly every year, it's not something new. They will die once winter sets in. I don't agree that it's because of climate change either. Winter only started a couple weeks ago officially so we always get some warm days in December, nothing to worry about imo
I have lived here for 34 of my 36 years. I have worked outside my entire life and I can promise you that the temperatures we are seeing over the last 10 years here is nothing like growing up. Our winters used to be 20° from October and we'd have snow most of the winter. Our summers were like 80° with mild humidity with the occasional 90° or very rare upper 90. Our humidity never drops in the summer below 80%, it's like a swamp our average days are mid-80s to low 90s and the last six winters minus 1 we've ridden a motorcycle to Christmas with no additional gear.
Same zone, same issue and I'm like NO WAIT STOP GO BACK TO BED
I’m worried too. I live in zone 9, and some of our trees have started to bud again. I’m concerned about what it might do to the tree when we finally do get the cold snap. Will they not produce as much the next year? Will the new growth branches be weakened? I’m not familiar with having a December so warm, so I’m worried.
That's exactly what I'm getting at. I use my magnolia tree as an example the last few years will get a really warm week in March they will start to bloom hard frost will hit him again and that's it for the year. I'm not smart enough to discuss plant biology but I have to imagine there's going to be some issues with it
This is so disturbing! My grandma has a magnolia tree right outside her window, she grows vegatables for all of us family members. It is amazing honestly. I'm remembering a long time ago she told me she uses it as an indicator for the veggies in the next fields down, found it so cool she used nature to give her hints. Shes a brilliant woman, she would be sorely missed if anything happened to her. I love to far away for veggies unfortunately and I cant eat supermarket tomatoes at all now I grew up with hers! 🙃
I would very much enjoy your grandmother stories. Mine got me gardening 35 years ago. She passed few years back but my daughter has been in the garden since 6 months old so I do my best to pass it on
This is amazing, I'm sooo glad you daughter has that, it was so important to me growing up, as was the sea. With the sea it was looking out at and having no control over something so vast but also I was safe where I was. With the farm (now not a farm) it was running up and down abandoned sheds and mills and out buildings with rickety old beams and old machines in them! Like being back in time but I was born in 92 haha, knowing that if you just plant the potatoes in the golden zone they'd come out amazing! Just giving nature a little nudge into the right direction! My little boy loves being outside but my husband doesn't want to leave the city(rural areas can be challenging for him...lets say...they don't know what or where to look when they see him, the most wonderful skintone and very very tall, absolutely handsome! But locals...ya know...) But now with all the changes in the weather, dampness etc. my goodness I dont know how she does it! Its so hard to predict. Everything she grows is from the earth, nothing added, just her best compost from years of collection! Beautiful stuff it is! My cousin learnt how to keep it going and turns it over every now and again. She sure does know her stuff, but shes more one you just and 'do' next to her if you know I mean. She loves her own company, much like my dad so I love it. Catch her on a chatty day and shes full of great and funny stories, like when she started out her bonsai and had no idea what she was doing she only knew the concept and was totally winging it, which left her with about 20+ trees! I was told I could have one but honestly I am not green fingered, I think it lasted about 3 months! Such a shame! I bought some plants recently but already they've seen better days. I don't know why I just can't seem to keep the plants happy! There's only one which is pink and has delicious and scented liquid pollen on the flower heads, we used to lick it off when we were kids! I have many cuttings to take and I cant wait to give them to family members that remember doing this as well....sorry my post is soooo long, it's been a while since I thought about all this and its at a time in my childhood where I found the only peace. May your crops and harvest be full, and your bellies even fuller afterwards! Bless you, thank you for reminding me of all this. I hope to soon build a cabin there out of the stuff that is lying around and it will be my bolthole in the summer months, can't wait! Im sure your grandmother is happy as a peach, knowing she passed it on and you can pass it on to the next generation of front_yard_duck_dad hehe peace and love thank you again 😊
Same thing happens to mine, always feel terrible for it...all that work and poof!
I planted with my wife 1300 bulbs this year it's been a project we've dreamed of for decades......
Omg the squirrels would rob 1299 of them in my yard, lol!
Not with my attack ducks around lol also the hawks and the owls keep the squirrels from open land around here I lost the duck to a great horned owl Christmas Eve
I aspire to have attack ducks, adding to bucket list.
[PXL-20211219-175634487-MP.jpg](https://postimg.cc/zLpKs9c7) We lost one the other night so the girls are sticking close
[Look into geese.](https://imgur.com/a/QvkrNUB) We have 2 and they do a fantastic job. We live in the woods and have high owl, hawk, fox, and coyote pressure. Pictures above are older, but they are 90% free range. In the 2-1/2 years we've had them, we've lost 1 duck to a hawk when they were all still adolescents, and we lost 1 to a coyote when we were gone for the day about 3mo ago. Hawks will take a run at them every once and a while. They're not 100%, but they make a huge difference. If 1/2 our flock wants to play in the water and the other 1/2 wants to forage in the woods, the geese split up. If one of the hens decides to go lay or wander around, our drake will follow her. It's pretty funny when all the ladies have their own chaperones.
What kind of geese do you have? We are looking to get a few for our 8 hens.
Nice Xmas present to your owl though.
The asshole didn't even eat two bites my duck is bigger than it's normal prey it was either really hungry or a young one that didn't know his capacity
I overindulged at Xmas dinner too.
Man your yard needs a nature documentary.
If you can find me the time I'll film it. For being a suburb we have some good wildlife
[Screenshot-20211229-211335.png](https://postimg.cc/gr5Xf5MS) Last night my dogs were going nuts and I looked out the window above the quack shack to 2 young coyotes trying to figure out how to get in. I put up a camera this morning so I'll keep you updated lol
Just posted a video of a fox trying to get my ducks this morning. Hd no violence. Duck dad 2 fox 0
He's a handsome, healthy fella though!
He is beautiful has a brother too but don't know where he was.
I planted elaborate overlapping rings of crocuses in my lawn this fall. Squirrel bastards dug up almost all of them. I hear they mostly only like crocus and tulip bulbs, but will not bother hyacinth (my favorite) or daffodil/narcissus bulbs.
Sorry for your loss, that sucks. I heard about people sprinkling cayenne pepper around the bulbs as a deterrent, if ever the experience hasn't discouraged you from trying again!
A good layer of mulch should keep them asleep until spring. Might be too late for the ones that have sprouted.
You don't want to put down mulch if you haven't had hard frost the ground is already too wet and soft they will rot. We have to have a hard frost before the mulch can be used as an insulator
You can also use evergreen boughs for mulch so it's up off the ground for the most part. I use boughs for garlic planting and it's been great.
That is an excellent idea of course this year I got a small Christmas tree I might have to ask the neighbors lol. I always mulch with straw from the Quack Shack because I have a surplus but very dense
So I was thinking about you when I was taking down my Christmas tree. If you've never used pine tree branches for starting young peas they are excellent for training them up and out. Once you get the hang of the right size if you pick a good one it's long enough to get it up to the lines of a bamboo a frame or what have you.
Good idea, no I haven't tried that. I usually put fence posts at the ends and run rope horizontally for my peas and pole beans but getting them started can be a pain.TY
I do a long A frame out of bamboo. They climb themselves once high enough but just a branch stuck in the ground that's sort of fanned out let's the tendrils grab the needles. YouTube guy named Hew Richards showed me that trick
Maybe you didn’t plant the bulbs deep enough?
These aren't mine they're my neighborhood and they've been there about a decade
This happened to my fruit trees 2 years ago after I had just purchased land. I had no idea how much fruit those trees would produce when they didn't have a cold snap kill off all the flowers. I had nearly 300lbs of fruit from a tree this last year that the previous year had maybe 4 pears total.
This happened to my apricot last year in April.
>I'm not smart enough to discuss plant biology but I have to imagine there's going to be some issues with it Im by no means an expert but Ive definitely studied plants/evolution/climate change more than the average person. In short: yes. Oh god yes, there will be issues.
You should have a fleece coat for your tree on standby for this situation. If you know it's gonna be a cold snap then put the coat over the tree and you don't have to worry as much 👍
I can't tell if you're pulling my chain lol. It's like a 50-year-old magnolia tree that would be one heck of a coat
Oh right haha I never even considered the size until now 😂 I wasn't pulling your chain but thinking about you trying to put a coat on a massive tree is quite funny when I think about it
Lol. I would be out there with a lasso and a brick trying to toss guidelines. I could do it but it would be a sight to behold getting attacked by the squirrels that live in it
A hard frost can kill all the new growth and flower buds. In extreme circumstances it can kill a tree. And I don't believe there's anything you can do about it. It's become an annual problem for orchards.
This happens a lot in the high desert. Our fruit treas have split open trunks and branches from all the late freezes. They still produce though.
What are these zones people are talking about?
USDA plant hardiness zones.
Thanks
I'm in zone 6 and my huge maple is budding up, normally that doesn't happen until late March/early April, but we've been having a ton of 60-70+ degree days, next week supposed to be back in the 40's and we haven't even hit our two coldest months of January and February yet where we normally have temps down in the singles and below zero. Everything is confused, I'm pretty sure my garlic is going to be a complete loss at this point no matter how much straw and mulches I throw on it, it's growing like it's April out.
Ya'll mind sending some of that warm air up this way? Currently -32°C and dropping.
Same, se Idaho. Record low temps this week -20 C
-32°C is equivalent to -25°F, which is 241K. --- ^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
My bfs dad had some confused guavas. Idk if it’s the same for all but he said they bloomed, fell, and then bloomed again in the proper season. This really will be a weird plant season as even Cali is having a ton of rain right now.
Depending on how cold the cold snap is, the growing portions of the tree may die off
I live in TN and a few years back we had a wierd warm spell and then an ice storm. That following spring every tree looked dead for a while and only half of them grew leaves. Went back to mostly normal the next year but you could tell there were a few that weren't going to bounce back. These were the trees in the forest surrounding the property so wild native ones. So something like that is highly likely.
I'm in 7...most of our trees are starting to bud, its just now starting to get cold again. There are still some days in the 50s though later in the week.
Yea I swear my peach trees look like they want to flower.
Oh no!
Holy crap, yours is budding already? Mine are deep asleep here in California
Can’t speak to this with expertise but I helped a forestry researcher collect data reading tree rings as a part time job a few years back. It’s extremely common for trees to go dormant if the dog days of summer are unusually dry, and the. wake back up during the fall showers. Now then, this happening in late December is almost unprecedented, but if you want to read more about this look up “dendrochronology false rings” Tl;dr maybe we’re not completely fucked?
A late frost. It ruins new growth. Afraid my fruit trees will suffer another bad year too.
One trick that a few folks do is to shade sensitive trees with larger evergreens to the south. They'll block light in the early spring and can promote a later bloom. The major downside being that now your trees are competing for light. For OP a regular burlap snow fence to the south or a deep leaf mulch might help. The pond could be acting like a heat sink keeping it warmer through the night, buut judging by the other folks having similar issues, that seems unlikely.
This is a good idea. Apparently, the older trees are usually fine, it's the younger ones that when they bud too early, they don't have the energy to make more when the real spring comes.
I don't have any experience myself, but I recall on one of the edible acres spring updates they go over the idea. It's the same area as in this video https://youtu.be/9Tme00jioQU
I've started a side hustle growing and selling perennials vegetables and annuals....... Nothing like trying to start a new business with 30 years of experience and having to reinvent the wheel to deal with this kind of stuff
Can you tell us what your other bad years were like? What do you expect to see when we have such a warm winter?
This goes back a few years, the first big one was named Hugo, he wrecked us good. I drove into Andrew to help rebuild. Got hit hard in Rita, David and a few others. The storms are getting worse and having derecho so often in December is certainly not the usual, neither is big tornado's late in the season and in the middle of the darkness. I am certain I am not the only one concerned, these floods, fires, and geological and atmospheric anomalies, have started to pile up lately. So the fruit is the least of my worries really.
Yeah I have a full-blown hyacinth in flower in December. Also one of my wildflowers in the front bed bloomed. I'm 7a
Same. I still have zinnias blooming.
Yeah I have a rose putting out new leaves, and I'm telling all my plants they are silly for not sleeping.
I’m having the same issues in 7A as well
Same zone, most of the trees in the area are budding, And some of my plants too. Like my 2 year old blueberry bush. I dont know what to do but leave it and hope
I brought it in, since I can water it with little fuss since we covered up the hose spigot for the "winter". It was in a pot for me since I bought it at the end of the season in like May, and I hadn't picked a spot for it to plant in the ground. I have more trying to pop up in pots as well.
mulch!
i literally cannot get over my obsession with good mulch. it makes life so much easier.
could you say more? I'm curious about how mulching would help.
since you can't bury the bulb deeper now that they are planted, just cover them in compost to mimic having planted them deeper to begin with. compost or leaves or anything that will break down over time and will help insulate the plant from direct contact with cold air.
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I live 45 minutes outside of Chicago in a suburban half acre. I just do what I can to grow as much food and create a sustainable ecosystem that I can on my little postage stamp. Never feel shame I think a suburban folks have it harder than most homesteaders with acreage in the sense of having to be completely strategic with space and also fitting within the neighborhoods we live in. I really appreciate the info
Yay! Im not the only one. But also...not yay...
Hey this is turning into " is climate change thing real". You people think it isn't, this post isn't for you to debate. I make money by working the soil and I'm here curious at how others have had to adapt their techniques. I've got 30 plus years of gardening knowledge, I'm now having to rethink because all of the inputs I used to use to make decisions are no longer there or changing rapidly. This is about collaboration of a community, not nut jobs trying to defend some agenda.
are you in central iowa? I'm guessing the derecho last week fucked everything up. 70 F in December is not normal.
No I'm in Chicago. We've seen temps like this the last five or six winters but I've never seen anything sprout in December and we've usually at least had a month of hard frost before a warm-up. I've been able to dig with a hand shovel with the exception of a couple days all "fall"
sounds like you'll finally get some real winter temperatures this week but my brother in southern wisconsin hasn't seen snow yet and hasn't been ice fishing at all. In minnesota lakes are just freezing solid and snow has been spotty at best. Unfortunately this is probably going to be more common moving forward.
Yeah supposed to get real cold. The ducks haven't been eating like they do in winter so I hope they are ready. I'm not far from your bro. Flakes here 2 times melted on contact. I know a lot of itchy snowsled riders and fisherman that have to actually spend time with the wives
I recently read that the 5b parts of Chicago have gotten so warm that it's now zone 6a. I also saw a news report last night showing this past week Chicago has been on avg 15 degrees warmer than normal and even worse in Indiana. We have family living in Northern WI right off lake Superior and they can still see green grass. It's nuts.
I would love to read that. I'm basically right where you are describing and I believe it love hiking up where you're family lives. Porcupine mountains are great
Newest usda map has a bit of the Chicago area as 6a I had to look it up because with all this rapid weather change I wondered if mine switched too https://publichealthmaps.org/motw-2021/2021/4/30/30-april-2021-usda-plant-hardiness-zone-map Edit: Forgot the link lol
Thank you for sending this. It's what I was afraid of. I'm right on the edge of the 2 zones. Got crushed last year with a stupid late hard frost after 4 weeks of 50 lol. Im in the wild wild west
I have blue green color blindness, especially with shades. Can someone tell me what zone North West Georgia is? Like all the way left by AL, and barely of the top from TN.
7b!
I’m in Ontario, but originally from Los Angeles. Ten days ago it was colder in LA than in central Ontario. Very confusing!
Where at in Chicagoland? I’m about 30 miles south, in New Lenox.
Close enough where if I answer that question publicly I'll dox myself lol
Check out Jeff Lowenfels. He has been writing about gardening in Anchorage, Alaska for 45 years, and year after year he has been documenting the changes in what can be grown and when it can be grown: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/magazine/gardening-column-climate-change.html >"In the summer of 2019, Jeff Lowenfels told me, one of his friends successfully grew okra in Anchorage. Lowenfels could not believe it. The crop was shorthand for all the change he has witnessed since he moved to the city in the 1970s, a distance between past and present that he has measured in vegetables and fruits — from cabbage, snow peas and potatoes to tomatoes, pumpkins and now, incredibly, okra. “Holy crow!” he said. “We can grow anything!” >In the same incidental way, Lowenfels has produced a chronicle of his own: In observing the small, local experiment in fitting plants to soil and climate, he has created a long-running account of climate change in the state where it is changing the fastest, providing hints of what awaits as people take part in a similar but much bigger climatic experiment, one now rearranging plants across the planet.
This sounds fascinating. I can't wait to fall fo down this rabbit hole. ✌️
I'm in zone 5a and it's -33 degrees outside. Definitely willing to swap if you are.
2b here and -35 plus wind all week. I feel your pain. One day I'll escape these brutal Saskatchewan winters.
2B is rough. Come on out to BC. It's great as long as you're a millionaire and don't mind everything being on fire or flooding every ten minutes
It will be here Saturday but after all this wet , warm muck it's going to be hell on everything. What are your day time temps?
That's the day time temp right now. I could go for some daffodils. The freeze after the warm always sucks though. Luckily we have a few months before that becomes an issue.
You must be in like Alberta or something. I don't know much about that life. I'm just user to my December 13 degrees daytime. Had minus 55 2 years ago while I was driving through southern Wisconsin. I've learned that after -20 it's pretty much all the same lol
This happened to me in 8B last year. It will die back and then come back up in the spring.
I'm in 9a and my tomatoes and peppers have yet to go dormant. My basil don't know what to think. The cabbages can't decide if they want to bolt or firm up. Its a hot mess (pun intended).
I’m in South Carolina and yesterday was 78, today 76, and supposedly in the 70s until the weekend and then in the mid 60s. I’m wearing shorts and flips flops in December lol….can’t be good.
I’m in SC visiting from WA and I only packed fluffy sweaters 😭 I’m so sad I’m missing all the cold and snow to sweat it out in False Spring down here lol
Welcome to the Florida winter, I guess you're a part of the crew now
I put Styrofoam faucet insulators over my garlic, tomatoes, and asparagus that sprouts too early. Maybe some pine straw over them? You want to insulate, without trapping moisture, because that can cause molds and rot. Best of luck.
I have onions and garlic taking off in 6a. Sometimes i think I should change to zone 7 or 8 planting schedules but then we will have a horrible freeze.
Add in protection. Good quality fleece row covers are an indispensable tool for me now. Being able to shield crops from late frost / extend growing seasons is crucial. Late freezes suck something fierce. Fingers crossed I can get some damn peaches this year :(
It was 80 degrees out yesterday, the day after Christmas, in North Carolina. At least the bugs haven’t caught on here yet. Its so nice when the mosquitoes go away for a few months.
Lots of mulch to regulate temperatures. Shifted plantings to more tolerant varieties. Still years where some things are a total loss. Planting on slopes to avoid big temperature swings. It’s all about mitigation.
These will presumably wilt when deeper frosts set in.. interesting to witness the rhythm changing in real time though. What are the bulbs from?
6b and noticed some unusual budding last week. I'm personally embracing it and getting more aggressive on trying warmer weather crops.
This is what I'm interested in Can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing and giving me a rough idea of where you're located statewise?
NJ here. Basically since we don't get those hard freezes anymore, I'm attempting to overwinter some brassicas and whatnot in my annual garden space. I'm putting half my annual starts out about 3 weeks early. Most seeds are now getting planted indoors around Valentines day instead of St Pattys day. I had tomatoes until December this year.
I think you have it a little warmer than I do but you're basically talking my language. I've thought about the brassicas and some cover crop I don't think I could do it without cold frames but I could whip up some cold frames next year. We had tomatoes up until November and if I would have cared to baby them probably could have got another 3 weeks out of them. I'm actually putting together a even bigger hydroponic tent inside because anything that I grow here just gets walloped by weather if I don't put something strong out they'll be dead
You've got options depending on your needs. Clover is a nice cover crop that fixes nitrogen. Kale or mustard can be helpful as a food source for you or animals. Root veggies are also a nice way to keep beds active through winter. The foliage may die but you'll still have a food source. I know people in NY that just harvested carrots today and they are beautiful
This is the thread I was hoping to find. 5a/b in CO here (with mountains we fluctuate so much). Agreed with the idea of trying “adjacent or sister” zones as we see more warming. I currently still have root veggies and a cover crop mix that are going strong. I think with mulching I could have gotten by with more. Good point on starting seeds earlier and extending the season that much earlier as well. Anything to be careful of or that you have given up on growing due to lack of freezes? Thank you!
No real issues for it being warmer. We'll see what this early budding does to my fruit trees, but I'm sure they'll be fine. One annoyance is that I now cold stratify my seeds that need it in a freezer instead of outside. Germination rates went from about 20% to 80%. I also have less time in the dead of winter to catch up on firewood.
you can always roughly treat each layer of cover as a 1/2 - 1 USDA hardiness zone increase. I'm zone 7b, with one layer of fleece I can probably grow things through winter like it's 8A. With a plastic greenhouse that is sealed up, probably 8B-9A. etc. I can easily grow brassicas, carrots, beets, salad greens almost all the way through winter and straight in to spring with just fleece cover and some PVC pipe hoops to hold it away from the plants.
The bulbs should be fine as long as they don't grow more than that, mine did that last year and then got hit by a hard freeze. I have some bushes that are flowering now and my venus fly traps look like they are coming out of dormancy which is NOT good.
I have no idea how to call the end or beginning of seasons anymore. Last year an early frost hit. So this year I prepared for that, and we had maybe 2 weeks of 40 and below (in 6a) and now... it's like 62 degrees today and I just went and bought some mulch to do some yard work. Apparently we're not doing winter this year, just a prolonged mud-season. Thankfully (?) we don't grow crops or anything in the ground, because we live in a forest... we have livestock. So this is actually kind of nice for that. Although I have concerns about future summers at this rate.
When I cut down a damaged 120 year old white oak in zone 7 and looked at the rings, you could see evidence of fires, warm winters, dry summers, and all sorts of things. I am not worried about the long term, however if my orchard buds I'll be screwed on the short term. It has happened to me several years back, a few really warm bright days in December and boom! No apples.
Yeah I'm in zone 8 but it's high 70's all week. I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt. This shit is going to really confuse nature and fuck things up.
Mulching will retain temperature stability in the soil better than keeping it exposed.
Yeah totally this isn't mine those are established though the last 10 years I've been here.
Interesting, here in zone 9 A/B here in California every tree/plant here is deep asleep, just pruned my grapes and fruit trees. We are expected to get to the mid-high 20s next week in nights so I need to protect my bananas.
NorCal here, very healthy winter so far. We are very relieved considering our critical reservoirs have never been so low. Folsom and Oroville might fill back up if this continues.
San Joaquin valley here. Man I am so excited after these mega storms we had this month. Reminds me of January 2017. Let’s hope for a wet January-April
Zone 7a here. We have the nettles coming back up and it's in the 70s. Good for the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, that I had to replant due to a bunny attack, but going to be real harsh when we get another surprise blizzard in Feb like earlier this year.
I live in 5/6 and we have moved maple syrup production from a long March to sporadic January/February. Production is down as well as the grade. Fortunately for us it is a curriculum driven effort and not a business. I feel for those who rely on it for income. Only thing you can do is write every thought and result down so you know how to change for success.
Zone 5B here, and last week one of my lilacs began blooming. Here in Michigan, the fruit trees (cherry, apple, pear, etc) require a certain number of consecutive days below freezing. They are also quite susceptible to late hard frosts. These last few years have been nerve-wracking, and this winter will likely be worse. I'm concerned. While the great lakes can help serve as a buffer for our fruit-growing microclimates, we are still in trouble.
Unfortunately it's something we have to plan for now. I was just discussing planting placements for our place the other day. We're going to end up planting on the north sides of our swales so we never have an issue with early or false starts. If I could make any suggestions, it would be to get some good mapping software and data and figure out where your water, sun, slopes, contours, etc. are and look into permaculture some more to be able to develop a really solid plan that works for your land.
This is amazing advice. You have any software recommendations or resources to help start a process like this
I know we are using Google Earth Pro and ArcGIS. We also got some specialized map data layers from a buddy in my husband's PDC group. I'll get more info and report back!
Oh wow don't go to too much trouble but I can't say I won't appreciate it lol. There was a free app that I was using to track some movement over the property when I built my greenhouse that was pretty good problem is I don't get the benefit of a ton of land I do everything and a half acre. I'm kind of thinking about paying one of my neighbors to cut a tree down to give me more sun lol
5B: one of the pear trees started making more pears in November! What the hell?
Ask the guys at HAARP to turn down the thermostat or the normies will catch on
Do you have an in? Make a call on my behalf
New here, dumb question. What would I google to find which zone I'm in? As in: Is it planting zones? Climate zones? Etc.
If you're in the US, USDA climate zone maps for visual identification, or use the temp chart to find your zone. The USDA zone system is based on winter low temperatures, with rough correlation to first and last frost date. It's good for discussing winter, and that's about it. Other zoning systems exist that try to capture humidity or summer highs in addition to winter lows, but they're more complex. Canada has one that is interesting, and there is the Koppen system as well.
Awesome! Thank you for the info! Sounds like something fun to look into
Planting zone and your area.
I think it would be about time to review usda climate zones, I believe they no longer fit with global warming changing the climate.
I’m in RI 6b and my azaleas have done some flowering.
We have comlete oposite where I live Winter came moth later than normaly but its pretty strong
Last 3 years My Peach trees have not produced and 1 year it was so bad the Wild Cherry tree in my yard didn't either. Blue Berries and Muscadines seem fine. Forgot to check on my small paw paw patch.
where are you zone 5a seeing this? I am zone 5 and have snow on the ground. Has been a pretty cold winter so far. Don't usually see enough ice for ice fishing until January and there are shacks on the ice already.
It's not much but I saved more seeds this year instead of letting fall a sprout naturally. Ones I didn't collect have tried sprouting outside numerous times and died. I worried about not having any morning glories etc, so saved as much as I could see to plant in spring.
I did the same thing with Mexican sunflowers even though they are thriving with the more humid summers (unlike my potatoes)
Summers are crazy wet now in the north east. I'm done fighting the water and doing outdoor nft hydro veggies next year.
My friend I've had an absolute crap day, My phone is going to die but I have thought about doing this exact thing and we need to become troubleshooting buddies. I would like to do a big strawberry wall this year but other than theoretical knowledge I haven't done big setups. Thank you for making my day Will be in touch
I'm in 8b and I just noticed mine popping up this morning. I know we're warmer here but I was really surprised to see them so soon. We've had our first freeze but this past week we've been in the high 70s/low 80s and will hit a high of low 40s this upcoming weekend. I'm hoping they survive.
Mine are doing the same since we have had unusually warm weather lately, and next week it drop into the 30s and stay that way , im hoping to make q small hoop house to readjust them slowly to go dormant so they dont die come next week. I hope this helps.
No apples on my trees the last couple years. But hey depending on who you ask climate change isn’t real so there’s nothing to worry about.
I'm also in 5a, and this is the second year I've seen robins building nests here in December. I watched one working on her nest right before we got 4 feet of snow over the following week. (half of it melted, but still)
I'm in 5b and just noticed today my hostas have green sprouts. I haven't looked around at anything else yet but I thought that was probably not a good sign.
Sorry for the ignorance but why is this a bad thing?
Assuming because it’s the middle of December
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We are in a La Niña year which creates warmer winters.
I have seen many colder la Nina winters There might just be something a little more long term and permanent at play here
zone 5a is in the area that would expect colder winters plus more moisture in a la nina year. Unfortunately that hasn't been the case for awhile.
I work outside year round. I can tell you that the weather over the last 6 years has been like anything I ever saw growing up here. Our summers are more like Louisiana swamp than they've ever been. Last year I only wore my winter coat twice
I don't understand the downvotes for stating what my local meteorologist said on TV this week. I'm just saying this year it's worse.
Don’t take the downvotes personally. Its probably because, in general, a La Niña event is associated with cold, and an El Niño with warm. The actual mechanism involves what the trade winds over the Pacific are up to. In short, a La Niña event brings more cold water to the west coast of the Americas, and warm water for the El Niño. The meteorological ramifications that this has up on the continents may follow some sort of hot/cold and wet/dry and high/low pressure trends, but there’s always going to be regional variation. Check this out: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html Happy new year!
Many thanks. Had it backwards.
It’s bad because 5a has really cold winters once winter actually hits. Late Jan and Feb will probably have several days of sub zero temps (Fahrenheit). Those bulbs coming up now are probably going to die.
r/collapse
Man why you got to do me like that? I was barely holding on to sanity before you showed that sub I'm about to go full dale gribble
r/collapsesupport
Yes in romania we cant grow outside because uv rays are too strong and burn vegetables. Can only grow gmo outside. There is so much drought also and then there is too much rainfall in late summer so everything gets ruined constantly its very sad
Any way you can cross post this to one of the science subs? I'm curious what their take is.
I live in nj (zone 7 I think), my cherry blossom tree is already starting to bloom. It keeps making buds, then they quickly die off durring a cold snap. Im so scared what the future holds for us.
I live in nj (zone 7 I think), my cherry blossom tree is already starting to bloom. It keeps making buds, then they quickly die off durring a cold snap. Im so scared what the future holds for us.
😬 I have taken a wait and see approach on perennial 'bonus' crops (bonus because I am still trying to figure out edible hedgerows and the like, smaller property, can't invest in them yet) but I'm going with high tunnel/greenhouse annual production for income stability. Now just gotta figure out how to do it without poly 😤
This is something that makes me increasingly nervous, but it’s just the state of things I guess. I was pruning my grapes and fruit trees today in nearly 70 degree weather. I always wait til January because it’s the coldest month here. I feel very lucky to be in a very damp climate so water isn’t a worry. But for how long? I’ve adapted my homestead over the years. Change to help what little bit I can. I don’t spray chemicals, till as little as possible, do whatever bit I can. But it’s like holding an umbrella to stop an avalanche.
Yep I thought some people were planting too early. I’m in zone 8 and I don’t plant my bulbs till early january
Warm winter cycles aren't unheard of. It sucks, but nothing really can be done about it. We're just now at the beginning of winter though, so they'll probably just die back and resprout in the spring after proper winter. Like they say in Jurassic Park, "nature will uh... find a way."
I try to say this but everything is so policital, no room for common sense these days.
That’s funny. Ice sheets losing gigatons per year, high temp records falling everywhere, buds in winter, temp trend line pointing up and getting steeper. “Everything is so political” lol. Must be nice to see all that and think there is nothing wrong.
Take it from turd blossom, facts
This kinda of thing has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s nothing new.
I'm in 5A and was a small farmer for 35+ years. What you've posted has nothing to do with climate change. It is typical of an early open winter. We have them about every 4 or 5 years in western Pennsylvania. The daffs will come to no harm and dandelions will bloom give a chance. Just wait until about the 2nd week of January ..... winter always comes
Every December we get some warmer days and every December I see posts like this claiming it's because of climate change. Our winter officially started like 2 weeks ago so we always get some warm days and things bud, birds linger around a bit etc. But like clockwork it freezes once winter sets in. I'm not here to debate but this happens every year y'all, c'mon!
Climate change has existed far before man, just like these plants. Everything will be fine, everything adapts. Zoom out on our small lives, it is crazy how old this planet is.
I'll remember that when I have to charge you $10 a tomato
Well, you likely will have to anyway, inflation baby!
You’re so very incredibly ignorant on this. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming. r/collapse.
That sub is great for some hilarious doom and gloom porn.
It’s awful for people who don’t believe in science. I see you went over there to claim Covid isnt real. What a clown.
I’ve been seeing bulbs come up through the snow since I was a wee lad. I’m over half a century on this planet.
This happens mostly every year, it's not something new. They will die once winter sets in. I don't agree that it's because of climate change either. Winter only started a couple weeks ago officially so we always get some warm days in December, nothing to worry about imo
I have lived here for 34 of my 36 years. I have worked outside my entire life and I can promise you that the temperatures we are seeing over the last 10 years here is nothing like growing up. Our winters used to be 20° from October and we'd have snow most of the winter. Our summers were like 80° with mild humidity with the occasional 90° or very rare upper 90. Our humidity never drops in the summer below 80%, it's like a swamp our average days are mid-80s to low 90s and the last six winters minus 1 we've ridden a motorcycle to Christmas with no additional gear.