Quote:
Originally Posted by elight
I went ahead and looked up all of the extreme minimum annual temperatures from the Wunderground weather station to me for the past 10 years:
2017 - 37
2016 - 33
2015 - 33
2014 - 33
2013 - 33
2012 - 33
2011 - 35
2010 - 35
2009 - 32
2008 - 32
I wouldn't say that's enough change or enough years for a trend, but I give it more stock than the USDA's number which takes into account 40 years of data. I think we all know that things aren't exactly the same as they were in 1976. So this new data shows an average annual extreme minimum temperature of 33.6, putting me squarely in Zone 10a, whereas the USDA still has me in 9b (recently upgraded from 9a).
Also, I'll report that there are two plants unaffected - PBTD (seeds from Tatiana) and a store-bought Lemon Boy (post-hurricane replacement).
Is it safe to re-use container media from these plants, or should it be discarded? I would normally discard anyway after a season, but in this case the potting mix has barely been used.
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I have been growing Berkley Tie Dye Pink and saving seed from them for many years and this year I have several plants out in the garden and all are infected so I wouldn't count on it being resistant. I have never experienced this disease until this season and it only showed late in the season.
As to it getting warmer I am not so sure about that. Last winter was one of the mildest I have ever experienced but I can also remember having a couple of other winters that were about that warm years ago. We also had an extremely hot and dry summer and fall last year leading into what turned out to be not much of a winter. But the winters three and four years ago were extremely cold and killed a lot of satsuma trees around here which had not happened in many years. This past summer was hot but not as hot as usual. After over 40 years of gardening here I am only sure of one thing when it comes to the weather and that is that it is very changeable and unpredictable. When we were in that very long drought spell years ago I could almost always set out my first tomato plants every spring in late February or the first week of March; but lately I have had to wait til at least the second week of March and sometimes as late as April. Since I no longer get out in the swamps fishing due to my health I no longer am able to spot the surest sign I know of to predict the kind of winter coming. I had heard that hornets nests location would tell you a great deal about the winter coming up. If the nest was low to the ground then the winter would be warm and dryer than normal or both. If the nest was way up in the tops of trees then look for a cold and or wet winter. I used to see them out fishing every summer and they seemed pretty reliable so I would start seed accordingly and it was a great help. I wish I knew where the local hornets nests were located now. Of course it could just be some country lore that stuck with me but it sure did seem to be a good predictor for many years in my experience.
Bill