-3°c here for next three nights. So many new tender shoots are going to be hit. And now snow is just starting to fall.
Snow ? ... Oh no, no snow ! The petals fallen from the cherry tree. It means the fruit have begun to form, I still hope to have cherries...
Just watched the 1.00pm BBC news then the weather came on and the presenter said lots of snowy weather today in the North, non more so than the West Yorkshire area which had the heaviest covering really ??? Glad i moved 20 + trees yesterday into my workshop.:)
Global cooling? Last year I planted potatoes on April 10 (meaning, that the soil temperature was above +8ºC then). This year on the same field we have 15...20 cm thick snow cover still left from the winter, and the ground is still frozen. I did not manage to collect maple sap yesterday, because it was in a form of an ice cube, that did not pass the bottle opening.
Hi Sulev, that is interesting, we seem to have no patterns to rely on anymore. It makes any form of gardening so very difficult to plan.
@Sulev I hope the mention of global cooling was a joke. Nobody with open eyes and a knowledge of nature could seriously suggest that global warming is not happening. Temporary cooling events mainly fit within normal variation between years, any outside of this are resultant of climate instability due to the increased carbon in the atmosphere.
Yes, I should have more faith in people. Apologies for doubting you. Maybe the irony is not always apparent when jokes cross cultures. Still cold here tonight, a mixture of snow, hail and sunshine earlier today.
Unfortunately, nobody knows, when the Global Warming™ will be replaced by the Global Cooling™. Some signs are already there - in my country instead of the Global Warming™ mostly the Climate Change™ is used nowadays.
In my country there is a very real danger in the long term that global warming will cause the prevailing currents in the North Atlantic to change course, thereby inducing a cooling of our island. Climate change can have strange effects even if the global trend is to warming. Hail and sleet here now, after strong sunshine earlier.
Quite true. In the Antarctic, the temperature is over 40° C than usual at this time of the year. It should be -55°C on a French base, it's now -11°C.
Just heard on the radio that last night was the coldest fro a month of April since 1947. Fortunately, it was a rather mild frost here, from +0.1 in the most protected place to -3.5 in the coldest...
I don't know where this "alternative truth™" is used, and who believes in that twisted way™ of presenting things, and for what purpose. Global warming is a scientific fact, you may call it whatever you like, but it's a fact. Even the floods in the relatively cool temperatures we had last year in Northern Europe was a consequence of global warming. The heat "bell" that was further south hit cooler temperatures from the north, hence producing rain, which cooled down the temperatures. While it was burning hell further south - but you apparently don't care. I won't explain it further, it's no use for those who think it's just an epiphenomenon. No, our planet is burning. Yes, there's climate change going on at a very fast rate, it's called global warming, but some are denying it, calling it a different name. "Special climate operation" ? <LOL>
I've been reading a few articles online about the terms 'greenhouse effect', 'global warming' and 'climate change' which are more or less synonymous. 'Climate change' is incorporated in the name of the ultimate authority on the subject, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. There has been some pushback about the name 'global warming' because it sounds catastrophic while 'climate change' is less scary as it sounds more controllable and less emotional. On the other hand, many people say many we should instead be saying 'climate crisis' or 'climate emergency'. Climate Change, Global Warming, The Greenhouse Effect, Which Is It?
These terms have the advantage of being politically correct, but yes, there's a "climate crisis". Denying it, or trying to make it innocuous by using a form of "newspeak" like "climate change", as if there was an alternative, is... Well, as we say here, it's "noyer le poisson".
I thought about replying to the recent messages, but then I saw this article and decided to post it. Financial Times: The speed of a tree: how plants migrate to outpace climate change. Get more with Google | Financial Times Plants are adapting to climate change as they always have done over the centuries. It is just we humans who cannot adapt. It is time we did, because climate change is not going away, so adapt we must. Financial Times: The speed of a tree: how plants migrate to outpace climate change. Get more with Google | Financial Times
As I wrot earlier, It is a fact, that in science the truth and facts often change. For instance, if Pluto is a planet or not. Predicting a temperature 50 or 100 years ahead is much more sophisticated matter than deciding if a cosmic object is a planet or not. Lots of science money are spent for preventing catastrophes, so prophesying black scenarios has grown into large scale industry. The current Anti Cold Operation™ got serious draw back at least here, in Estonia. My potato planting dates (meaning, the ground was warmed up above +8ºC): 2018 April 16 2019 April 4 2020 April 18 2021 April 11 2022, today, on April 5, my potato field looks like on the photo below, the ground is still frozen, the winter snow hasn't completely thawed yet - ca 15 cm layer of snow remained + today additional 5 cm of fresh snow came - no chance, that the ground will warm up before May: About the so called Climate Change™, nobody really knows which scenario will follow, the red, the yellow, the green or the blue. I put sinusoidal trend line onto the graph, derived from the article I linked before, so it's clearly visible, that there are warmer peaks at regular interval, ca 100 000 years. Ca 100 000 years is by coincidence half of the period, that Sun travels around the center of our Galaxy.
At what temperature do I need to cover up my maples that have broken bud? My area will reach 31F of about -1C for about 2 hours before the sun rises tomorrow. Will I need to cover my maples for just a couple of hours?
Thats too close for comfort, if there is even a small chance of a frost my small maples are covered. The large ones have to fend for themselves, but even then I mist last thing at night, then at 2am and then again at 5 or 6am. Over the top some will say, but it does work.
Such a good study Sulev. Looking at the time line, next year will be quite an eye opener to see when you can plant your potatoes. Over here in Southern England, the Spring frosts are getting worse each year. And the trouble is they seem to follow a warm spell in March. So everything is starting to leaf out. As you say, it is becoming difficult to follow a particular scenario. If rne scientists can't agree, what hope for us gardeners !!
In well over 20 years of growing Japanese maples I have never once had a problem with spring frosts causing damage, and have never once covered up a maple that has broken bud. Where I live we regularly (nearly every year) have frosts which spoil the magnolia and camellia blooms but these same frosts never cause an issue with the maples. Obviously if a frost is extremely severe it will cause damage, but a few degrees below freezing for a few hours is par for the course, and one of the scenarios a sensible tree has been prepping all winter for. The maple trees' internal liquid system is a sugar solution that is effectively a form of anti-freeze that will not freeze at -1C or even a few degrees lower. If -1C in early spring causes shoots to die on Japanese (or similar) maples then there is an underlying problem. Some reasons that -1C (or -2 or -3) might cause damage to spring shoots: - The shoots are infected with pseudonomas bacteria (known to use ice nucleation as an infection strategy). - The maples have been fed nitrogen fertilizer before the frost. - The maples have been removed from a protected environment such as a greenhouse. Basically -1C for two hours is nothing to worry about for a healthy tree in natural growing conditions.
I live in the same town as @maf and it’s pretty flat here so it’s reasonable to assume our ground conditions are reasonably comparable. All of my trees circa 120 or so are in pots with trees of various sizes from 3.5m down to 30cm. My garden is in a dip and there’s a park with large trees immediately adjacent, so I guess this helps provide some added protection..so I guess there are still environmental factors to consider when 2 people live in the same area. Getting to the point.. I don’t bother wrapping or covering my trees unless several days of sustained sub zero temperatures are predicted. Last year was quite bad in April as there were several 3 to 4 day runs with night/early morning temperatures several degrees below zero, maybe down as low as -4c or so. This occurred after pretty much everything had leafed out.. I was not going to take my chances with the above..so I wrapped as much as I could..but the odd zero or -1 here and there I will take my chances.
