I can confirm the “just f. try – you never know” theory.
I might be the northernmost grower here on this entire forum. My perpetual daylight in summer and available water (lots of rain) simply skew things in unpredictable ways. Everything grows a lot faster due to the available light. That it’s quite cold here here is another thing. That I grow in a frost pocket that is locally at least 1 if not 2 zones colder than my real zone would otherwise be is yet another layer that adds complexity.
Yet, I find often that the sheer fact that Plants photosynthesize here 24/7 for two, almost three months straight very often makes up for the fact that the cold weather slows them down. Barring papaya, avocado and watermelons, I can, will try, or have tried quite a lot of things here. So far corn and tepary beans were a total failure. Both started when my season ended with a hard frost.
Else… Yeah everyone, and I’m talking to you, genebanks too, send me stuff and I will grow them on 66N!
This is off-topic, but it’s funny how little latitude means around the world. I’m almost a full 20 degrees(!) south of you (at 46.66 north) but still colder. (Well, your frost pocket might change that, but the climate data for the town near me shows it being a few degrees cooler year-round than Luleå.
Yes, I’d say my frost pocket, sadly, weighs in heavily! I’m surrounded by much better locations. But, it’s a given. Not much I can do about it.
But this is what I see when comparing yours and mine.
This garbage link heavily overestimates my summer lows. They are 5-6-max max 10C consistently. Yes, even in July I have no more than 10C nights where I grow. There is no month or even a week in my area with 13C average lows. LOL
Conclusion: all these sites are just , or nearly as doubtful & at best, approximate as the Meier-Briggs personality test (just because someone really triggered me with that today)
That’s just the winter lows because of the continental climate, but summers also get the advantage of continental climate. At least the locations around your area I could find had full month of hot weather on top of my average summer and my summers are quite significantly warmer than at @polarca. She’s got quite cool summers even compared to her latitude. Like in Alaska at 66 latitude continental climate summers are in many places as warm as they are for me at 61 latitude. Winters here on the other hand are warmer than in continental climates at 61 latitude and even well below depending on altitude.
Haha, what a climate discussion! I have, after a lengthy search, found the location that matches my climate in the active growing season best, so far. It’s called Russian Mission Airport — temps at that place would also reflect my local variations (frost pocket).
Anchorage was slightly warmer so I couldn’t go with that! And Fairbanks much warmer between June and August
Anyway this is exactly the reasoning I use with genebanks, just so that we get back to the topic. Simply, there is no or very little history of testing crops at such conditions. The almost 24-hour daylight during growing season makes it worth to try.
PS. we thought you perhaps froze, Jesse. Nice to have you back!
I was just comparing Cloquet, Minnesota - Wikipedia against Luleå - Wikipedia – I don’t really have enough invested to try and check if their data are reasonable, but I assumed in two developed nations that they’d be broadly correct (for at least one spot at the nearby airport or government center or whatever).
That looks like a handy tool even if it’s not usuful in finding seeds. I have probably spent too much time looking at weather statistics of far away places around the world. It is interesting in what kinda places people have lived for who knows how long, like the islands between Alaska and Russia.
It’s a bit slow season for growing other than snow and ice so I have concentrated on other things. I’ll be more active once spring comes.
Those are probably accurate, but the difference is huge in terms of growing season. The summer lows are pretty similar to Northern Europe, but day highs are hotter on average and season continues longer because of stronger sun. Cloquet, Minnesota would comparable to Northern Central Europe during summer (although Cloquat has less frost free days because of the continental climate) and Northern Europe during winter.
This year I visited some friends that live around 55.3N, I’m located around 51.5N. I can confirm that everything grows much faster with longer days. I estimate that their garden was around 2 weeks ahead of mine in early August. I think the longer days makes for warmer nights as well which would certainly speed up growth.
I’m not sure it helps that much as sun also gets weaker. Temperatures up north depend much more on what kinda weather it is. If the warm air comes from the south (or the east in my case) long days do help to keep the temperatures high consistently, but if it comes from more northernly direction sun can’t fight it more than keep june to august mostly frost free. Some clear sunny days it might just barely get to 15C (59F) with frosts in some places. Your friends case I would suspect more likely reason is elevation or good microclimate compared to yours. Those make a huge difference especially when you are further north. Or it might be simply that years weather was more favourable at your friends place. I remember one swede, who lives way south of me, complaining about how bad last summer was. Since it wasn’t too bad here I was curious how it’s been there because many people complain even if it’s not been that cold, but in her case it really had been unusually cool. On average it would be quite a bit warmer there, but last year it was the other way around and then some.
Here you can see the comparison to me at 61N. What makes a difference in my case is proximity to sea, but because of the more northern location suns effect temperatures start to go down earlier. Didsbury is also over 1000m up in elevation where as I’m around 100m.
I’m spending a couple weeks doing an art residency on Porphyry island in June, and as a little side project I will tackle planting the demonstration garden at the lighthouse residence.
I was on Porphyry Island in late July last year. Ignore the weather it claims in that link. Little strip of volcanic rock in the world’s deepest freshwater lake behaves much more boreal than the closest mainland. Nights regularly around 10C or just under, even in midsummer. Spring berries appear 3 weeks later than in nearby Thunder Bay. I’ve been told to expect overnight frosts when I return in late June this year.
I’ll be reading up on your experiences as you have probably the closest climate on this forum to what I’ll be dealing with (although Porphyry Island doesnt get quite as much summer sun) - very different from where I usually live - some 500km south
That sounds like a really cool trip! My daughter was going* to be a teen artist in residency at Isle Royale just to the south of Porphyry in summer of 2020, but the pandemic shut everything down and then she wasn’t a teen. (She graduated from Uni yesterday, in fact.)
*There are three per year and she was the first waitlist pick if one of the three selectees couldn’t make it…so she probably wasn’t really going to, but one can dream.
Sounds like a phenomenal plan to me. Right on! Most definitely working on building some cold tolerance with the stock I’m working with here. Inspired by the help I was given in regards to my selection criteria. Thank you friend! Really is insightful to think of where they could up next. Helps put things into perspective. I want to give them a chance to develop all the skills they need for whatever comes their way! Wonderful and beautiful topic to ponder on…All the vast diverse landscapes and ecosystems. Wow!
Ordinarily I would never mess with frost cloths and such but I figured that would be the way I could kind of ease them in. Soil temp was still not frozen so… awesome!
I put a handful down here and there in April. More pics and post to come once the true leaves come in but I definitely have lift off!
The Porphyry Island residency program is really cool.
They are usually short, 1 week residencies, 8 artists each year. I went for a regular residency last year and left with lots of unfinished business. I’m a botanical artist /natural science illustrator and the biodiversity there had me dazzled. So…I begged the director of the lighthouse association that runs the residency to bring me back for a longer stay this year.*
If your daughter still does art stuff even part time I’d definitely recommend applying for next year. It’s not a paid gig, but they only charge a very small fee (~$250USD) for the week to cover food and return boat trip to the island from Thunder Bay. Very comfortable accomodations and delicious meals all cooked by the director’s husband are underadvertised perks. As it is a small program run by a tiny non-arts-focused nonprofit in Canada, they dont get a huge number of applicants.
*Actually, first I tried to extend my stay last year. I almost got my way…until I let it slip that I’d be missing my 10 yr wedding anniversary to spend more time doodling lichen. A sudden scheduling hiccup occured, and I was gently nudged home with the promise of a longer residency just for me this year
— temps at that place would also reflect my local variations (frost pocket).
