warm weather zones?

Sometime last year... and I'm too lazy to go hunt for it... someone posted a link to a warm weather zone map. To me, it doesn't much matter when the last freeze is because it almost never freezes anyway. But a map of when it's too hot to expect things to grow would help a lot more. Does anyone know the website I'm talking about?

Thanks!

I haven't seen anything exactly like that, namely a calendar that tells you when you can't grow a particular plant. There are several planting calendars out there. Bob Randall's guide gives you recommended and marginal dates for growing a variety of fruits & vegetables. I created a color chart based on the dates in his book for what I consider the most popular fruit & vegetable varieties. I intend to print it out as a large poster.

Travis County Vegetable Planting Calendar -- http://www.settfest.com/files/Vegetable_Planting_Calendar_Chart_for_Travis_County.pdf
Harris County Vegetable Planting Calendar -- http://www.settfest.com/files/Vegetable_Planting_Calendar_for_Harris_County.pdf
Dr. Bob Randall Houston Planting Calendar -- http://www.settfest.com/files/DrBobRandallCalendar.png
Texas A&M Horticulture website -- http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/
TAMU PlantAnswers about Vegetables -- http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/vegetables/veg.html
TAMU Fall Gardening Guide -- http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/fallgarden/fallindex.html

And yes, it's frustrating when 2 calendars for your area disagree. For instance, Bob Randall suggests planting onions 3-4 weeks later and strawberries 2-3 weeks later than I would.


This message was edited Apr 22, 2008 3:52 PM

This is what you're looking for, I think. I'm in the same boat; I want to know what survives the searing heat. Not that many nurseries are labeling for heat zones.
http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm

Feldon - I really like your color coded chart from Dr. Randall's book. I use his book extensively to make planting decisions, and your chart simplifies the turning and flipping of pages I tend to do. I've got mine color coded in the book, but your chart is great!

Thanks. I loved his calendar, but it was maddening to have to flip back and forth to determine all the possible good dates to grow a certain crop. That and I was really bored. :)

Not sure where I could post this, but I spend a lot of time whipping things up in Adobe Illustrator. I've created a variety of seed starting tray maps which can be filled in with the variety names. I much prefer this over individual labels or plant markers. I reserve my plant markers for when I am potting up my plants into 4" pots.

The maps include 6 x 12 (standard 72 cells), 4 x 9 (36 jiffy?), 4 x 12 (48), 7x7 (49), 10 x 17 (170), 12 x 24 (288 plug tray), and even those #1803 triangular cell trays.

http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/seedlingmaps/
Feel free to use for any purpose. Some of them come in several colors. Click the colorful icon to see the preview. Click the other icons (they look like text) to get the printable PDF version.

Aha, they call 86f the temperature of too hot. When plants begin suffering from heat. The map is in average 'heat days'. Hmm, 86. Hmmm. They don't say anything about higher temps.

Feldon - those maps are awesome! I labeled everything this spring, and still got confused. The mini-blind markers flipped out of many of my transplants which are now mystery 'maters...

86? Mola - you get that a lot in VI, on a good day? Well today here in Houston it was at least 86 with the humidity in the 90% range. Ugh. I didn't have time to look more at the map, but I see most of Texas is in the "hot" range. We have trouble growing things like tomatoes not as much for the heat, but the heat combined with sticky humidity. The flowers don't pollinate well - humidity in the am is very high.

My best fruitset is in early April. That's why putting huge plants in well-amended soil as soon as possible is so critical. Inevitably we will have another window of a few days when temperatures are perfect, but who knows if the tomatoes will have flowers open at that time.

This message was edited Apr 22, 2008 11:41 PM

What you get below the Tropic of Cancer- an imaginary line of lattitude around the Earth marking the northernmost noon mark of the sun, and where it starts back south on June 22- you have days that are very equal all year. In the winter here, the days are about 11 hours long, and in the summer, thirteen hours, Early sunsets and very short twilight, fifteen minutes, compared to most of the USA, especially the more northern states.

The daytime temps range from 82 to 96, winter/summer. There is almost always a breeze, tho' some days a bit too much. The humidity is always around 60%, ahhhh. It's much cooler in the higher elevations, as much as five degrees or more. Our mountains top out at about 1,000 feet. I moved from sea level to a very high place, and just about froze, bought a sweatshirt!!!!

Everyone thinks that a frost-free place should be wonderful for all veggies, but the long, "hot" nights prevent many veggies from doing well, or living at all! There is only about a ten degree temp drop at night. Plants don't get to cool off and rest.

Cool weather crops, broccoli, lettuce, bolt for the heavens. Spinach keels over the minute it sprouts, booo. There is Malabar Spinach, a vine with plump tender leaves, but I haven't accustomed myself to the flavor yet. I am starting to like Chard. I have a five gallon bucket of rainbow chard that's acting like a beautiful fountain.

Once I planted tomatoes in April, and by early June had gorgeous plants loaded with bloom. But the flowers would drop off without setting fruit! After trying every trick in the book, I went to the Ag station, and was directed to the old man sitting over there.

Islanders don't say 'male' and 'female' they say 'man' and 'woman'. I explained my problem to the nice fellow who politely and very patiently listened. When I finally ran out of steam, he sort of wilted. Sadly shaking his head gently from side to side, he said, "It's not the woman part of the flower, it's the man. It's just too hot at night, he cannot do what he needs to do."

haha that's funny. Yes I can imagine if your evening temps don't dip below 72 and humidity lingers at 60% then tomatoes are going to be extremely unhappy. Even moreso than they are in Houston! This week our low temps all week will be 68 degrees. I doubt we will get much fruitset.

Have you considered a refrigerated greenhouse? :)

This message was edited Apr 23, 2008 10:35 AM

LOL! Isn't it true! This sticky heat (our normal summer day is temps and humidity both in the 90s) keeps EVERYTHING wilted!

Mola, have you tried goldenberry? I can't recall all the other names for it -- I think Cape Gooseberry is one -- but it grew well for me, though insects got every single berry on the bush. (I'm a generally lazy gardener and more concerned so far with growing than harvesting, though I trust I will get to harvest when the soil is all amended, etc.)

Thank you ALL, especially you, feldon, for the excellent response and input!!! This is going to make a huge difference in my gardening!

Edited to say I have Early Girl tomatoes, about half a dozen getting big but still green. Shaded enough, I get a decent little crop.

This message was edited Apr 23, 2008 10:50 AM

LOL, actually, yes! A refrigerated greenhouse, what a luxury! But I could sell summer/fall tomatoes for $1.50 each. I have wondered how much electricity an airconditioner would need, turning on for ?? two or three hours in the middle of the night. I mostly don't have the capital to get started.

I've considered planting spinach in one of the veggie crisper bins in my fridge, and do a daily take it out in the morning, put it back in the evening. Egads! More to do!

Thanks for the info, everyone!

I've managed to save a few things by tenting shade cloth over them. And since it's hotter (or seems hotter) when there's no wind, I wonder if a fan would be useful?

In my case, more breeze is more evaporation is more easy to wilt.

Didn't think about that.