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Post by philagardener on Jan 31, 2020 20:49:36 GMT -5
Amazingly mild headed into February here - light rain around Philly tonight.
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Post by reed on Feb 1, 2020 6:28:48 GMT -5
Here too, forecasts for all the cities around me show only barely below freezing for next ten days. Tomorrow is predicted 60 F and sunny. Gonna finish up prepping the back garden plots for planting. Lettuce and radishes are coming along in the cold frame, gonna sow some more direct.
I've got a new hobby, adapting some aquarium fish to live outside and was gonna wait till spring to stock some in the little garden pond. Going to town today and will stop by the fish store, if they have the species I want I may go ahead and get a few, assuming they aren't too pricey. A lot of "tropical" aquarium fish are not tropical at all, they've just been bred and sold that way.
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Post by walt on Feb 1, 2020 15:10:40 GMT -5
What species do you have in mind?
Some time ago, I bought some "feeder"goldfish to put in a new aquarium. The plan was to see if the cheap ($0.25) fish would live before putting in more expensive fish. The goldfish are about 6" plus tail fins and I like them very much. But come spring I want to put in a water garden, and the fish should quite happy there. Some other pet store fish, like White Clouds, should do fine with them. But some others would be good.
Albino channel catfish might also look good in the garden pond. But channel cats might eat everything else.
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Post by flowerbug on Feb 1, 2020 23:39:27 GMT -5
if the fish are used to tropical temperatures you can't just plop them into an outdoor pond that is a big difference in temperatures and pH... they need to be adapted.
as for weather, i consider this dismal winter weather. not very cold and not much snow. yuck. the fruit trees are going to have a tough time if this keeps up and they start budding out and flowering way too early.
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Post by reed on Feb 2, 2020 3:48:20 GMT -5
The fish store didn't have what I was looking for. The only ones I would have considered to put through the shock of going in the pond now are Japanese Rice fish and White Cloud minnows. Others I'm considering are Florida Flag fish and Paradise fish. Dojo Loaches and Hillstream loaches might adapt to outdoor life too. I think it's basically the same as with plants, get rid of the inbreeding and select the best offspring but of course they have to successfully breed. I have guppies that are happy in the coldest spot in the house and they breed like crazy, might just put some of them in this spring and see what happens to them next winter.
I would like to have Blue Spotted sunfish and Black Banded sunfish but they are not common in the stores and shipping fish is pretty expensive. They only get about three inches long are native to North America. They are similar to Bluegills but don't get as big, bluegills already breed in my little pond but they have to go cause they would eat anything smaller then them.
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Post by walt on Feb 2, 2020 14:47:14 GMT -5
I used to breed guppies and sold to pet stores in the Wichita. We also bred platties, swords, gouramis, and kribenzies. The guppies, swords, and platties did great outside, in the summer. They were bigger than those inside with near perfect care. But we always sold them before it got cold, keeping the best as breeding stock inside over the winter.
My grandfather had goldfish in his cattle water tank. When he sold his farm, we brought a few and stocked our cattle water tank. The biggest were about a foot long. I'm sure that when I put my goldfish out in the garden pool next spring, they will be fine for years. I will have to protect them from raccoons and blue herons.
My daughter's second word was "Ish" Her third word was shoe (also pronounced Ish.)
We also had one bluegill in the tank. It liked to hang out where the water went into the tank. I'd try to grab it. It would try to bite me. Fun.
Back to weather. Today, Feb.2, I left my coat in the car. Don't need it. Except for about 3 ice storms, this winter has been extremely warm. Normal is about 15 degrees F colder.
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Post by reed on Feb 2, 2020 22:21:30 GMT -5
I have a koi goldfish hybrid that's over ten years old.
I spent several hours prepping the back garden today, chilly this morning when the breeze was blowing, felt downright hot this afternoon, almost 70 F high, 60 still at 10 PM.
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Post by steev on Feb 11, 2020 18:29:57 GMT -5
First day of T-shirt weather.
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Post by reed on Feb 11, 2020 22:16:01 GMT -5
Most of winter here has been t-shirt weather or close to it. Last few days though a little cooler and rainy. Even had almost an inch of snow, not all at once so broom was sufficient to clean the walk. Just had to do it twice.
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Post by flowerbug on Feb 12, 2020 13:53:20 GMT -5
some cold days, still not a normal winter season by far, hope this cold snap will keep the trees from budding out too early. back to mid 30s next week.
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Post by prairiegardens on Feb 13, 2020 22:14:48 GMT -5
nice here but saw a post yesterday that the temperature had dropped to -43C yesterday in Saskatchewan and the weather people said that North Dakota was hitting -60F in places, don't know if that's the actual temp or with wind chill but either way it's damn cold and I am extremely glad to be away from it for the winter.
Only problem is I have far far too much time to drool over seed offerings from hither and yon...
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Post by reed on Feb 15, 2020 6:49:44 GMT -5
Cold found its way down here last couple nights, 12 F this morning and yesterday morning and it didn't break 32 F yesterday. That's cold enough to hurt the things that hadn't even been frozen for the last couple months but it isn't abnormally cold by the old standard.
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Post by flowerbug on Feb 20, 2020 10:32:28 GMT -5
Cold found its way down here last couple nights, 12 F this morning and yesterday morning and it didn't break 32 F yesterday. That's cold enough to hurt the things that hadn't even been frozen for the last couple months but it isn't abnormally cold by the old standard.
yes, it has been cold up here the past few evenings too, will be cold again tonight down to 10F predicted with these clear skies. then it begins to warm up again for the coming weekend and into next week with bits of snow/rain predicted.
this is the most clear/sunny weather we've had since last August.
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Post by steev on Mar 2, 2020 19:39:00 GMT -5
Friday, the Bay Area reached the historic record for dry days in our mid-winter dry spell; nothing predicted until the 10th, or the 7th OTF.
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Post by steev on Mar 16, 2020 19:49:05 GMT -5
For a month or so, there was no snow on the Coast peaks; Sunday there was some and Monday it was >doubled, plus lightly down the the farm's level; might have snowed OTF in the wee smalls, but melted quickly. For a week starting next Saturday there's only expected to be one day without at least showers; Oakland isn't supposed to get even one day wholly dry.
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