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Post by reed on Sept 29, 2017 14:16:22 GMT -5
I'd hold off on too much praise for climate change. A few years ago my grape vines were loaded with pea sized green grapes when it decided to go down to 15 F for a couple nights. 2/3 of the vines flat died. the 15 F wasn't out of the (old) norm, the prior weeks with lows in 50s or 60s was.
Spring foliage being burned off by freezing is an obvious factor here in the dying off of the trees. It also makes gardening a challenge, plant the first time it hits 90 F and risk a freeze two weeks later or wait till the old safe planting time and be almost certain to get caught by intense heat and droughts.
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Post by richardw on Sept 30, 2017 14:16:08 GMT -5
November can be the tricky month for frost here, late spring when normally the pumpkins tomatoes etc get planted out, we may well be getting less spring frosts than say 20 years ago but it only takes one good polar blast to produce a -5C or 25F frost once the skies clear, once every two of three years it seems to happen.
Talking of frost, a light frost this morning with -0.2degC
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Post by steev on Oct 1, 2017 19:21:53 GMT -5
Clearly turning to Fall, not a minute too soon; leaves are coloring on the farm; poison oak is gloriously red.
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Post by RpR on Oct 1, 2017 20:48:03 GMT -5
Sixties to low seventies day, forties to fifties at night.
Potatoes are all up but I am letting the squash go for now.
Have some chiles still out which are doing well but tomatoes got hit by some disease so they are almost all gone.
One bush by a volunteer mint seems to be resisting better.
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Post by William on Oct 2, 2017 22:04:13 GMT -5
First really hard frost is going to hit next three nights. This is the end of my tomatoes!
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Post by RpR on Oct 2, 2017 23:59:35 GMT -5
If you want them to ripen on the vine, you can do as I did in young vibrant fifties.
This only works if they have cages or some support.
Easy and simple , get them wet, then cover with one or two blankets or sheets. Comforters work very well.
Cover with said sheets , blankets. Tarps work best here. Best to put stakes in the ground so cover is a bit higher and put lit charcoal or wood embers under the cover.
I did this a few times with plants in rows, one was over 12 feet long, been awhile so no sure how long it was but I put two charcoal grills under the cover with coming very hard frost.
Leave small gaps on the ends or middle if really long.
Saved all the plants.
The simply covering with blankets, again comforters or insulated bed sheets work best, I did for well over a decade and never lost a plant but I first made the plant and ground wet.
I even some times just threw some cover over the chiles, no support, usually next to the tomatoes and they survived also.
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Post by steev on Oct 3, 2017 2:06:29 GMT -5
What happened to the idea of just pulling the plants and hanging them in shelter to ripen fruit?
Not related to tomatoes, but I remember Italian in-laws cutting stems of grapes and sticking the stems in water-filled tubes in the cellar; fresh table-grapes for Christmas! We didn't used to get our winter grapes from Chile; one might suppose we could still do that, if we wanted to; prolly still work.
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Post by toomanyirons on Oct 3, 2017 11:10:14 GMT -5
The rain gauge is maxxed out at 5 inches in around 18 hours. Water standing in the meadow and meadow vegetable garden. Basement sumps pumping. Storms rolled through over and over all yesterday especially during the evening and overnight. Not good, way too much rain. Forecast is 100 percent chance of rain today, 80 percent chance for both Thursday and Friday. Really going to cause some serious harvest problems for the farmers now. Going to need some unseasonably warm weather for things to dry out enough for me to get garlic crop planted this fall.
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Post by toomanyirons on Oct 3, 2017 12:33:29 GMT -5
What happened to the idea of just pulling the plants and hanging them in shelter to ripen fruit?Not related to tomatoes, but I remember Italian in-laws cutting stems of grapes and sticking the stems in water-filled tubes in the cellar; fresh table-grapes for Christmas! We didn't used to get our winter grapes from Chile; one might suppose we could still do that, if we wanted to; prolly still work. You answered your own question... Intercontinental bulk shipments via air transport is the ultimate in arrogance, wastefulness, unsustainability, and high carbon footprints. It will not last. When the global trade network of time sensitive products such as produce and seafood collapses people will go back to having more of a local/regional diet, using the various methods of harvest extension and preservation, and using the abandoned food sources that were relied on in the past. The majority of the people will learn to go without during the re-established off seasons of various fruits and vegetables because they have no clue and lack the ability or option to grow and keep their own stuff. I imagine two future Minnesotans talking nostalgically about the olden days of our current times: "You remember back in the day all the huge produce displays in the grocery stores in February? When we had stuff from all over the world at our fingertips, in the middle of our long winter, much of which would spoil and end up tossed in dumpsters? I wonder what happened..." I live in the center of the North American continent. I have always been personally offended that I can get live ocean lobster at many restaurants and grocery stores. I love lobster but I will never order or purchase them in my state on principle. I would certainly eat them if I were ever off visiting on the coast somewhere. All the effort and incredible waste of resources involved to get those creatures here in a fast, timely manner so we prairie folks can eat 'em. Just one of the many examples of unsustainable, anti-locavore behaviors and attitudes that we will pay for someday. |
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Post by walt on Oct 4, 2017 12:34:44 GMT -5
Rain again this morning. And I planted intermediate wheatgrass yesterday. I think this will get it started.
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Post by reed on Oct 4, 2017 13:00:20 GMT -5
Dry, dry, dry here and warm. I set out a bunch of choi and cabbage, broccoli, sprouts excreta for another try at my winter hardy experiment where I hope they live through and then make a bunch of tasty greens next spring before the cabbage worms arrive. I dug deep trenches and filled them with water, let drain and filled and let drain again. Then I put dry dirt back in and planted and watered as you might normally. Then watered the whole area again with a sprinkler.
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Post by toomanyirons on Oct 6, 2017 13:54:30 GMT -5
Can someone here explain the phenomenon where the intensity of both winter and summer storm systems will degrade when crossing over a river valley in a generally perpendicular direction relative to that valley? It is a very common occurrence here and is happening again today, thankfully bringing reduced rain amounts that I do not need or want anyway. In the summer it is often responsible for localized short term dry spells in the area that can last for weeks at a time because small isolated systems will completely dissipate. Not my imagination, have seen it happen many times every year for as long as I have been watching for it. I am even able to rely on it regarding the scheduling of outdoor projects. I am not the only person who notices this either, many people around here talk about it but nobody knows the science behind it.
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Post by reed on Oct 6, 2017 16:06:43 GMT -5
Very interesting and very applicable to the Ohio Valley. I'm pretty convinced it isn't natural. Few people notice it but some that have theorize that exhaust from the coal fired power plants and the cities along the river causes it some how. I read somewhere in a more scientific source that tiny particulate matter in the air some how binds the water vapor in quantities too small to form drops large enough to fall. Who knows?
I have always been curious about the weather and I remember a long time ago watching it on TV. It wasn't uncommon years ago to see a slash of rain that in the extreme might stretch from Texas to Wisconsin moving east northeast across the continent. That exact same thing still happens but less commonly and when it does the middle of it dies out over the valley. It rains in Indianapolis and Lexington but not here. It is definitely related to our increasingly frequent weeks long droughts.
It is getting more pronounced in recent years with the dry gap expanding in width. And from your report expanding to other areas. The TV weather people still don't seem to have caught on, commonly predicting rain that never comes. Farmers in Indiana are installing those big circular irrigation systems like you see out west.
Our forecast right now is calling for rain tomorrow, I hope so cause we haven't had a drop since hurricane Harvey. Ain't that a hoot, takes a damn hurricane to rain in Indiana.
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Post by steev on Oct 6, 2017 16:11:20 GMT -5
Just spit-balling, but I'm guessing there being higher ground on both sides of the valley, air-pressure diminishes in crossing the valley, resulting in less up-welling and less condensation in higher, colder air.
Alternatively fact-wise, it may all be a hoax, even though many think they've seen it.
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Post by reed on Oct 6, 2017 16:18:28 GMT -5
Just spit-balling, but I'm guessing there being higher ground on both sides of the valley, air-pressure diminishes in crossing the valley, resulting in less up-welling and less condensation in higher, colder air. Alternatively fact-wise, it may all be a hoax, even though many think they've seen it. Definitely not the first, rivers aren't that big, altitude differences not that extreme. I'm going with the hoax explanation, now if you'll excuse my I'm going out to water my cabbage on this 85 degree October evening. |
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