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The USDA's gardening zones have shifted. (Interactive app and map) (2024)

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Re: The USDA's gardening zones have shifted. (Interactive app and map) (2024)

#11

Post by LorenPechtel »

nmbrskeptix wrote: post #3

This is weird. This represents a change over a mere ten year period. My zone hasn't changed (still 6b), but USDA states the lowest T has gone up 5F (-10,-5) to (-5,0). Last winter we had -10F for a week. This winter we had -20F for a week. What I find strange is that the interval from the last assessment is small, only 10 years. And yet in two of those we broke records in the opposite direction of that reported. Note…

The plant zones are not about average, but about worst case. Will your plant survive the coldest night? It is a good general guide for what you can grow locally. You check the zones the plant is rated for and if relevant chilling hours. It's not perfect but it's a very good starting point.

Re: The USDA's gardening zones have shifted. (Interactive app and map) (2024)

#12

Post by LorenPechtel »

trhway wrote: post #10
nmbrskeptix wrote: post #3

This is weird. This represents a change over a mere ten year period. My zone hasn't changed (still 6b), but USDA states the lowest T has gone up 5F (-10,-5) to (-5,0). Last winter we had -10F for a week. This winter we had -20F for a week. What I find strange is that the interval from the last assessment is small, only 10 years. And yet in two of those we broke records in the opposite direction of that reported. Note…

>This represents a change over a mere ten year period. For our, city dwellers, perception changes over 10 years may be unnoticeable, while over longer periods - that is how about 4 decades look in my hometown in Russia (one though need to be at least 50 years old to feel the changes happening over 40 years :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18948971 Where is, naturally, even a 1/4th of such changes is noticeable…

Not noticeable??

2016, the day after election day. I took a picture out the front door, there was a "dead" (leaves dead, roots will come back next year) yam plant in it--completely normal, they were always dead by November. Next time we elected him there were still some green leaves into January. Last winter they did not winter kill at all.

And this year we did the Fletcher Canyon hike 6 weeks early. Should have needed snowshoes, in reality microspikes were desirable for the last few feet. Even last year you would have been laughed at for suggesting it in March, this year there was one woman in the group wearing not much more than a bikini. And most of the high summits have been reported clear weeks ago.

Re: The USDA's gardening zones have shifted. (Interactive app and map) (2024)

#13

Post by whycome »

comrade1234 wrote: post #7

I have property in NW WI and I planted 5 paw paw trees. I had heard that there's a paw paw in Madison so I had hope. I bought them from a tree farm in MI that said they had discovered a cold-resistant paw paw. One of them survived over five years now! It's still really small but I think it'll make it. Even if it grows up there's two problems - the summer may not be long enough for it to produce fruit. And two, they r…

Seems like you can be matchmaker (and fertilizer) for those tennis club trees

Re: The USDA's gardening zones have shifted. (Interactive app and map) (2024)

#14

Post by nmbrskeptix »

LorenPechtel wrote: post #11
nmbrskeptix wrote: post #3

This is weird. This represents a change over a mere ten year period. My zone hasn't changed (still 6b), but USDA states the lowest T has gone up 5F (-10,-5) to (-5,0). Last winter we had -10F for a week. This winter we had -20F for a week. What I find strange is that the interval from the last assessment is small, only 10 years. And yet in two of those we broke records in the opposite direction of that reported. Note…

The plant zones are not about average, but about worst case. Will your plant survive the coldest night? It is a good general guide for what you can grow locally. You check the zones the plant is rated for and if relevant chilling hours. It's not perfect but it's a very good starting point.

Right, coldest expected. My figs have died three years in a row because we keep getting worst case 5b instead of 6b

Re: The USDA's gardening zones have shifted. (Interactive app and map) (2024)

#15

Post by LorenPechtel »

nmbrskeptix wrote: post #14
LorenPechtel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plant zones are not about average, but about worst case. Will your plant survive the coldest night? It is a good general guide for what you can grow locally. You check the zones the plant is rated for and if relevant chilling hours. It's not perfect but it's a very good starting point.

Right, coldest expected. My figs have died three years in a row because we keep getting worst case 5b instead of 6b

I got the reverse. Some yams (she likes the leaves) that would be killed back by the first frost, return sometime in April. This winter there were two frosts that did damage but no full winter kill--the surviving stems produced new leaves.
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