Southern Hemisphere growing season 23/24

[Tyrone]

Well, it’s time for a new thread. Calendar spring is here now and it also appears that the real spring is too. Yesterday on Sep 1 we had a 24C day then some small rumblings and a thunderstorm which dropped about 5mm of rain. We are now at the point in time where the weather is gradually on the improve and the weeds are growing like mental. Hopefully a great growing season awaits and the palms flourish. 

[tropicbreeze]

Still with the cold nights, but days are warmer. Saw the first clouds for quite a while (instead of clouds of smoke), only <5% but they make a nice contrast to the blue of the sky. September's a 'rain-is-possible' month, though not looking like it at the moment. So fingers crossed, but not holding my breath.

[Phil Petersen]

Thanks for starting a new thread @Tyrone. Might get to a 20deg high later this week. Things will start to get moving. Umming and ahhing around whether I should plant out some 75l rhopies this spring or wait another year till there is more shade and wind support from trees in the planned planting area.  I guess I can always put up shade cloth to avoid getting too scorched 🤠

[Tyrone]

Well after some really wintery weather early in the week, strong winds, hail, mid teens maximums, we are back to Spring again with maximums in the mid twenties, and no rain for a few days. Back to cleaning up the garden and giving a bit of fertiliser to things. Spring is a great time of year. 

[Tyrone]

Acanthophoenix rubra opening up a new leaf at the beginning of spring.

[cbmnz]

Just got back from a short ski break in Queenstown and Wanaka, the one area of NZ with seemingly no palms. Trachycarpus fortunei should make it there, but did not see any.  Cordyline Austrlias were common in gardens.

[Phil Petersen]

Planted out a chathams nikau today. Went ok but wouldn't want to be planting out any larger grade by myself as it would possibly be too physical for me to get it in the ground. 

[PalmCode]

The last 3 days here have been great and sunny under the high pressure  and Its was a cloudy 17c day today . There is a big rain band sliding down the northern west coast at the moment. looking like im going to miss the bulk of it, but we'll see. Hope no one gets flooding.

Palms in the Garden are looking healthy. 

Edited September 23, 2023 by PalmCode

[cbmnz]

Had 4 days in a row above 20C with two over 23 but bananas still a bit slow to get going again. 

After winter, with lowest being -2.1C clear that Rhopies, even R .Baueri are a bit hardier than Archontophoenix. Minor bronzing that have trimmed a bit , pushing new growth now.

Avocado not bothered at all.

[tropicbreeze]

This is the last week of the (calendar) dry season (our winter). The (calendar) wet season starts 1 October. Unfortunately no one's reminded the weather gods. Long range forecast is for a hot dry start to the wet season. The sun's getting a real bite to it, UV index reaching 11.

With no new growth out bush the animals keep coming into my garden stripping all the plants. Any palm fronds they reach, or pull down, are now completely stripped. They're eating plants they wouldn't normally eat down to the ground. They're even digging holes in the ground going after roots that still hold some moisture.

[PalmCode]

Well my A. Purpuria made its first winter in ground just fine. Pushing up the next spear now. 

I was worried, a lot of rain and probably below average sunshine hours this past 9 months. All the Kentias made it through as well. No root rot.

[Tyrone]

It got to 31C here yesterday which is probably some sort of record for September. It’s going to be a hot dry summer I reckon. 

[tropicbreeze]

Didn't get to the predicted maximum today. Only reached 38.9, forecast was for 39.

"The little engine that couldn't...." 😎

[Tyrone]

Well the weather over most of southern Australia has been dominated by high pressure for about a week, the result being blue skies and no rain. I may be able to get some weed spraying done too which will be awesome. However next week winter will try and hit out again with mid teens and rain over here for a bit. Overall though the trend is for drying out and higher temps. 

[Phil Petersen]

Three more chathams nikau planted into the garden Sunday. Great to free up some space in my small shade house. Weather was nice Sunday - over 21deg C before clouding over. Had some snow on the local hills on Saturday though. Spring 😅

[Tyrone]

Well it blew a gale yesterday and overnight as a vigorous cold front approached. Got around 15mm of rain in about 2hrs. Today we are expecting thunderstorms, small hail and a top of 15C. 

[cbmnz]

They say lightning does not strike twice in the same place, but have 0 forecast for tonight.  No indications of a repeat of last October's 100 year cold event for the month, but are going to cover some tender buds just in case.  The palms will be fine.

[Phil Petersen]

Crazy wind came though here yesterday, some gusts were well over 140kph and the 10min average was over that for some time. Palms got knocked around but no damage that I could see.   

Life in the roaring 40s during El nino🤞

[Tyrone]

13 hours ago, cbmnz said:

They say lightning does not strike twice in the same place, but have 0 forecast for tonight.  No indications of a repeat of last October's 100 year cold event for the month, but are going to cover some tender buds just in case.  The palms will be fine.

Frost in October. That’d make me cry. 
We’ve got schizo spring weather here. Last Wed was 31C yesterday was 14C with gales and hail. Back to 30C on Sunday, then high teens for the next week. 

[cbmnz]

15 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Frost in October. That’d make me cry. 
We’ve got schizo spring weather here. Last Wed was 31C yesterday was 14C with gales and hail. Back to 30C on Sunday, then high teens for the next week. 

It's generally nothing to worry about unless you are a commercial blueberry grower. Bottomed out at +0.4C, some ice on rooftops but no sign that any plant life was affected. This was a "normal" October near frost that are used to from time to time. The big shock was last year when it was 2.5C or so colder that it ever can normally ever get to in October, and the damage that caused.

[Tyrone]

On 10/4/2023 at 3:39 PM, cbmnz said:

It's generally nothing to worry about unless you are a commercial blueberry grower. Bottomed out at +0.4C, some ice on rooftops but no sign that any plant life was affected. This was a "normal" October near frost that are used to from time to time. The big shock was last year when it was 2.5C or so colder that it ever can normally ever get to in October, and the damage that caused.

Your area must be great for growing cherries then. 

[PalmCode]

Looking at 16 c today. Been relatively dry last few days. Heard thunder and saw some dark clouds yesterday but just got a light shower out of it.

 Just cut a bunch of Bananas, I think these are the fatest ones I've grown. Also have lots of flowers on maccadamia tree, could be a good season for them.

[cbmnz]

23 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Your area must be great for growing cherries then. 

They will grow,  but Spring and Summer not reliably dry enough for commercial quality or yield.

[tropicbreeze]

No real change in the weather, still no rain. Although one day we got 0.4 mm and another day 0.6 mm. All it's done is push up the humidity.

[Tyrone]

We’ve had two days in a row of low to mid thirties, which is extraordinary for down here. The stream has basically stopped flowing which is about 6 weeks early. It’s gonna be a hot dry summer here this year. Many things will love that. The challenge will be keeping things watered. 

[tropicbreeze]

The average daily maximum temperature so far for October is 38.2, and average daily minimum is 23.4. They keep telling us the rain is still a long way off. This time last year for the wet season we'd had 10 rain days for a total of 111.2 mm. This year it's 2 rain days for a total of 1 mm.

[cbmnz]

6 days in a row now,  maximums of 22-26C has got things moving. This Rhophie that I've had the most trouble with has put out a nice new frond, maybe this summer can get it to hold more than two fronds and look a bit better. 

[Tyrone]

We had a max of around 23C with 80% RH this morning then the rain came and temp dropped to 16C in about 5 minutes. I’ve lit the fire in the house again. It nearly made 30C yesterday. Back to high twenties by Wednesday . 

[Tyrone]

Only made 16C today with 8mm of rain overnight. The fire is back on again tonight. Then warm mid to high twenties on Wed, Thursday before cool mild weather for the foreseeable future. Next week is rain all week. I thought it was going to be hot and dry from now on, but nobody told the atmosphere that. 

[Phil Petersen]

This Friday looks 'interesting'. "snow to low levels" 😂

Atleast it'll be a break from watering the garden... 

[cbmnz]

4 hours ago, Phil Petersen said:

This Friday looks 'interesting'. "snow to low levels" 😂

Atleast it'll be a break from watering the garden... 

Seems odd that  few cm of snow if it does occur is less of a problem than frost, but it makes more sense when consider snow is 90% trapped air.

Saw this tonight out on a walk, not sure what palm that is supposed to be, probably a generic "palm" in whatever software this was created in

Borderline false advertising as A. Cunninghamiana does well enough in this low 9B , probably the only palm that looks something like this that can realistically be grown.

 

 

[Tyrone]

9 hours ago, Phil Petersen said:

This Friday looks 'interesting'. "snow to low levels" 😂

Atleast it'll be a break from watering the garden... 

I won’t complain about our cold spells. That’s colder than anything we experience in a cold winter. 

[tropicbreeze]

We're coming up to the end of October, the first month of our wet season. The forecast isn't too good. November isn't supposed to be any better.

[Phil Petersen]

The snow to low levels didnt really happen so no cool photos of snowy palms like I was hoping. Did get all the way down to 2.8degC in the early hours though. That is like a mid winter overnight low here so bit of an outlier. Some light snow on the hills, and looks like some bigger falls further inland in the mountains. 

[cbmnz]

Had one cold night from that cold airmass, low was 3.1 this morning. No ice to be seen, so no issue for the garden . Next problem is the remains of tropical cyclone Lola, seems rather early for that. Shouldn't be too much of a problem here but quite a few warnings out for a bit further North.

[Tyrone]

Saturday morning here was 3C. Too cold for the end of October. Then it got to 22C. Schizo spring weather. 

[Tyrone]

The last few days have been cool and dreary. Have had the fire going inside again but that all looks like changing. 22C today and then the maxs and mins keep rising until we peak at 30C on Monday with mins in the mid teens. Grow palms grow. 

[Tyrone]

Going for a semi cloudy 24C today. On Sunday we will come under the influence of a heat trough and get to around 30C with thunderstorms according to the models which will make it feel quite tropical. 😀

[tropicbreeze]

Finally starting to get a wet season type of forecast. Although, it still is only a 'forecast' so I'm not holding my breath, but fingers definitely crossed. Still very early in the month, the average maximum for November is riding at 38.5 (after 38.3 for October). I'm just on the outer edge of the sea breeze zone so that's kept the temperatures down, unlike a bit further inland where it's been hotter. We now have the sun to the south, so it's cooking the plants on the other side. It's going for a nice even grill. 🥵

[Tyrone]

Going for 30C here today. Possible thunderstorms inland but I doubt I will get any here.