Southern Hemisphere Growing Season 21/22

[greysrigging]

Its been a particularly brutal few days in the Top End with tempr of 34-35c and DP's up around the 25-27c  mark.  About as bad as it gets...
11.30am

1.30pm


But local storm lovers its 'convection, convection, convection".....the engine room of our storms.

Edited March 22, 2022 by greysrigging
addition to post.

[sandgroper]

Great photos mate!

[Tyrone]

Ex tropical cyclone Charlotte will come down to meet us this weekend. I’ve got to finish concreting my drains in after work. Nothing like a bit of pressure to get a job completed. 

[greysrigging]

Shades of 'Alby' in 1978 
http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/alby.shtml
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-04/a-look-at-cyclone-alby-40-years-on/9614592

Edited March 25, 2022 by greysrigging
addition to post.

[sandgroper]

It's getting darker outside, don't think the rain will be too far away.

[UK_Palms]

2 hours ago, sandgroper said:

It's getting darker outside, don't think the rain will be too far away.

Send some of that rain our way, please! I know you guys have been blistering hot in Perth over the past few months, but have you also had normal or above normal rainfall too? Or is it like a tinderbox where you are?

[Tyrone]

8 hours ago, greysrigging said:

Shades of 'Alby' in 1978 
http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/alby.shtml
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-04/a-look-at-cyclone-alby-40-years-on/9614592

I remember Alby. It was the day it rained thick red mud. 

[Tyrone]

I hope this is wrong but windy.com has my area getting 164mm of rain in the next 10 days. Will 2021 repeat itself again?

[sandgroper]

12 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Send some of that rain our way, please! I know you guys have been blistering hot in Perth over the past few months, but have you also had normal or above normal rainfall too? Or is it like a tinderbox where you are?

It's always warm and dry over the warmer months here, rain is uncommon so appreciated when it arrives. Autumn is the normal season when we can get a bit of rain but not normally from a cyclonic system this late.

[sandgroper]

1 hour ago, Tyrone said:

I hope this is wrong but windy.com has my area getting 164mm of rain in the next 10 days. Will 2021 repeat itself again?

I have a mate heading to Albany this morning for a wedding this afternoon, it's an outdoor wedding so I hope it's not too wet down your way today. We've had a bit overnight but not as much as I was hoping for, fingers crossed that we get a bit more today.

[Tyrone]

30 minutes ago, sandgroper said:

I have a mate heading to Albany this morning for a wedding this afternoon, it's an outdoor wedding so I hope it's not too wet down your way today. We've had a bit overnight but not as much as I was hoping for, fingers crossed that we get a bit more today.

Outdoor weddings in Albany are always a risky thing.

We’ve had 2mm of rain so far, it’s just started coming down now with quite a bit more to come throughout the day.  I hope the wedding your friend is going too applies a backup plan. 

I got up before 6 and finished my concreting just as the rain started up. The drains are already working. Luckily we finished the cosmetic stuff on the driveway last night and this mornings work was just a few minor structural things that will be buried anyway. Not much dry weather forecast for a good while. A dry weekend would be good. 

Heres a pic taken a few minutes ago. 

[Tyrone]

 

[sandgroper]

Crikey, might be a wet wedding! I hope they have some contingency plans in place.

[Tyrone]

8 hours ago, sandgroper said:

Crikey, might be a wet wedding! I hope they have some contingency plans in place.

Been raining all day. Wet wet wet here. 

[greysrigging]

Well, I'm calling it....not gunna be any rain in the next hour here at home. So here are the March figures.

Airport - 176.2mm

Leanyer - 153.8mm

Leanyer Heights - 148.9mm

 

Running totals 01/01/22 - 31/03/22.

Airport - 921.4mm

Leanyer - 1019.6mm

Leanyer Heights - 1053.9mm

 

Running totals 01/10/21 - 31/03/22

Airport - 1448.0mm

Leanyer - 1592.5mm

Leanyer Heights - 1590.5mm

 

All in all an ordinary position as we head towards the end of the Wet Season, same as happened last season.

[Tyrone]

We are under a high pressure zone at present with clear skies. It made it a cold one this morning with a minimum of 5.6C. The days are noticeably shorter too. Not much time to do things after work anymore before it gets dark. 

[sandgroper]

Have noticed the shorter days in Jandakot too, this morning was down to 14c so much colder morning's now. Heading for 29c today but I think it might be close to the end of the warm stuff.

[Tyrone]

We got to 30C today and humid after a 12.5C min. The rain will be here in the morning and we are expecting a few 16-18C rainy days over the weekend. Oh well. 

[cbmnz]

Growing season pretty much over at 38S, now the survival season. I hate that for the next 2.5 months a sudden clearance and lack of wind can mean a surprise overnight frost that was not forecast until the evening before. The A..Alexandrae has managed 3, trying to push 4th new frond after near defoliation last winter. It's really marginal here. The Cunninghamas have put on some good size over this warm summer. I know they will survive likely won't look quite as good as they do now, by August .

[Tyrone]

4 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Growing season pretty much over at 38S, now the survival season. I hate that for the next 2.5 months a sudden clearance and lack of wind can mean a surprise overnight frost that was not forecast until the evening before. The A..Alexandrae has managed 3, trying to push 4th new frond after near defoliation last winter. It's really marginal here. The Cunninghamas have put on some good size over this warm summer. I know they will survive likely won't look quite as good as they do now, by August .

They're looking good.

I know what you mean about a sudden cloud clearance and light winds causing cold temps. I dread those type of conditions from about now until the second week in September. 

I now watch dew points and predicted dew points on windy.com. If dew points get low, combined with no cloud and light winds and a cold pool, then it's a red alert for cold frosty minimums. We get the worst cold if the winter rains are lower than average and there is low air moisture. Luckily, it is not one of those years this year for my area. The rains began weeks ago. There is still plenty of moisture in the air so technically more energy and it takes more to cool it all down. 

[Tyrone]

We've been having some beautiful blue skies and sunny weather down here lately. The initial forecast was not as good. Nights have been cool, with this morning around 5C but the days are up around 20C. We've got a bit of rain most days coming up, but if it goes like this for a while it will be a mild start to winter for us. 

[PalmCode]

Been a fairly warm start to winter here. No frosts yet so the coldest couple months ahead will be interesting. My bananas are still growing nuts. Counted 5 new big bunches of fruit. Thats great because my last lot were really tasty. Real rich flavour.

[Tyrone]

5 hours ago, PalmCode said:

Been a fairly warm start to winter here. No frosts yet so the coldest couple months ahead will be interesting. My bananas are still growing nuts. Counted 5 new big bunches of fruit. Thats great because my last lot were really tasty. Real rich flavour.

Just like the tropics. 

[cbmnz]

17 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Just like the tropics. 

Somewhat jealous as mine look like this after this week. Still I have zero expectation of the top crown surviving a winter, it never happens but the stems have never frozen down and will start pushing out new leaves again  as early as end of August. The A. Alexandrae seems to have performed well so far. Prehaps a hint that it has adapted and hardened after last winter. We'll  see. -1.8 this week is quite a bit lighter than -2.9 that was coldest last winter, so have not been subjected to as harsh a test yet. I'm not sure why the immature frond has a golden tint, but it was like that before any frost occurred.

[PalmCode]

Woke up this morning to find to find that one of my Bananas had  split in half and lying on the ground. Had a big thunderstorm last night with heaps of rain. must had been too much for it. Thats a first for me. Dont think the fruit will be any good now but whatever.

[Tyrone]

7 minutes ago, PalmCode said:

Woke up this morning to find to find that one of my Bananas had  split in half and lying on the ground. Had a big thunderstorm last night with heaps of rain. must had been too much for it. Thats a first for me. Dont think the fruit will be any good now but whatever.

That's a real shame. They were looking good too. I won't show you mine.

Mine haven't fallen over but you can imagine what they look like after that -1.8C on July 4. 

[PalmCode]

2 hours ago, Tyrone said:

That's a real shame. They were looking good too. I won't show you mine.

Mine haven't fallen over but you can imagine what they look like after that -1.8C on July 4. 

Oh true,  they wouldnt like -1.8 but they should fire back up again soon, hopefully. Were there any ones fruiting?   Bananas can be tricky ones, luckily i havnt had any frosts this year but  nature can find  a way to make up for it in another sense.

[cbmnz]

Drat, had got this close to the end of winter without any significant frost, just one very quick dip to -1.8  around the solstice  that burned banana but had no effect on anything else. It would have been interesting to see  what the A. Alexandre would do with 2 full years of uninterrupted growth. I'm pretty optimistic that worst case is this forecast will be on the spot. It's getting late in winter and the increased sun elevation will put some heat into the house structure during each day.    

 

[cbmnz]

2 hours ago, PalmCode said:

Oh true,  they wouldnt like -1.8 but they should fire back up again soon, hopefully. Were there any ones fruiting?   Bananas can be tricky ones, luckily i havnt had any frosts this year but  nature can find  a way to make up for it in another sense.

This past spring a place down the road had 100% defoliation of their large grove by multiple dips to -3C but as early as late September one of the bare trunks popped out the flower stalk which turned into a large bunch of fruit, by November the grove had a good crown again was hard to tell it had ever been damaged.  Pity about your loaded stem, wonder if there was a big gust of wind or  it was weight of all the rain, I see some areas near Puhoi got 90mm in a short time and the metservice had no watches or warnings in effect, quite a miss by them. You could try ripening the fruit indoors if they are fully formed.

[PalmCode]

1 hour ago, cbmnz said:

This past spring a place down the road had 100% defoliation of their large grove by multiple dips to -3C but as early as late September one of the bare trunks popped out the flower stalk which turned into a large bunch of fruit, by November the grove had a good crown again was hard to tell it had ever been damaged.  Pity about your loaded stem, wonder if there was a big gust of wind or  it was weight of all the rain, I see some areas near Puhoi got 90mm in a short time and the metservice had no watches or warnings in effect, quite a miss by them. You could try ripening the fruit indoors if they are fully formed.

Thats a positive story how they can recover so fast and set good fruit after -3c frosts, hopefully you'll get the same success with yours as well... I'll wrap those ones up in news paper and leave them in side but im not holding out much hope for them, ..Yeah, im in that puhoi area and it was a lot of rain in a short time, rivers flooding. on top of moderate rain the day before.  

[Tyrone]

16 hours ago, PalmCode said:

Oh true,  they wouldnt like -1.8 but they should fire back up again soon, hopefully. Were there any ones fruiting?   Bananas can be tricky ones, luckily i havnt had any frosts this year but  nature can find  a way to make up for it in another sense.

One was fruiting and the flower continues to open while the rest of it looks torched. Not far away I had a fire going and industrial fans but I wasn’t blowing any warm air over the bananas so they succumbed to the cold. The Abyssinian banana closer to the fire looks much better, as well as my Ravenela madagascariensis which didn’t even spot up. In reality it may have dropped to neg 1.5C where the banana is.

I’m envious of your no frost winter environment there in Auckland. Is that common to get no frost where you are? 

[Tyrone]

14 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Drat, had got this close to the end of winter without any significant frost, just one very quick dip to -1.8  around the solstice  that burned banana but had no effect on anything else. It would have been interesting to see  what the A. Alexandre would do with 2 full years of uninterrupted growth. I'm pretty optimistic that worst case is this forecast will be on the spot. It's getting late in winter and the increased sun elevation will put some heat into the house structure during each day.    

 

Damn. That forecast would have me selling up, because it would turn out 2-4C colder in reality. Hang in there. Throw some frost cloth over anything tender and small enough to protect. Or light a fire near your tender stuff in a portable fire pit and blow some warm air over your tender stuff with a fan. That actually works. 

[PalmCode]

3 hours ago, Tyrone said:

One was fruiting and the flower continues to open while the rest of it looks torched. Not far away I had a fire going and industrial fans but I wasn’t blowing any warm air over the bananas so they succumbed to the cold. The Abyssinian banana closer to the fire looks much better, as well as my Ravenela madagascariensis which didn’t even spot up. In reality it may have dropped to neg 1.5C where the banana is.

I’m envious of your no frost winter environment there in Auckland. Is that common to get no frost where you are? 

Abyssinian banana seem to be a tad bit hardier to the cold from what Iv'e seen.

Yes, we would normally get a few light frosts a year when there is a large high air pressure zone over top and its clear all night, But we havnt really had that recently. Clouds either start forming over night or it doesnt get cold enough if theres some wind... 
Also when it does, it's probably not as bad because I have a few big trees like podocarpus totara to sort of block it a bit, but areas in the open will get ice.

[cbmnz]

17 hours ago, PalmCode said:

Thats a positive story how they can recover so fast and set good fruit after -3c frosts, hopefully you'll get the same success with yours as well... I'll wrap those ones up in news paper and leave them in side but im not holding out much hope for them, ..Yeah, im in that puhoi area and it was a lot of rain in a short time, rivers flooding. on top of moderate rain the day before.  

Mine fruited this past summer but I had to cut the bunch and bring it indoors in June as frosts were due. They ripened (went yellow) but had no sugar, tasted like cardboard. May have been the time of the year (formed in late March so missed the proper warmth) or because was grown in a large pot.

[cbmnz]

5 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Damn. That forecast would have me selling up, because it would turn out 2-4C colder in reality. Hang in there. Throw some frost cloth over anything tender and small enough to protect. Or light a fire near your tender stuff in a portable fire pit and blow some warm air over your tender stuff with a fan. That actually works. 

Won't light a smelly firepit in town, would not be popular. Everything is covered and ready even though the first frost is not due until tomorrow night. I think frost cloth works better if does not touch the plant so got an elaborate army of stakes and clothes pegs in use, basically got a tent/bivy over anything that needs it. I think with your min temp forecasts, they are for a nearby immediately coastal center of population but you are just enough inland to have diminished effect from it. Some people who live on the fringes of urban/semi rural Auckland (e.g. Dairy flat, Hunua , etc) will have the same problem.

Different here as all the populated areas along with recording sites are in the same basin so have generally similar overnight lows and the forecasts are usually ballpark correct.

I still think there is a good chance this winter will have mildest extreme low since have I started recording in 2016, which is currently -2.0C in 2019.

Yards that look like this are commonplace around here:

and Bungalows thrive on neglect in industrial yards.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.8042894,175.2599592,3a,75y,57.08h,102.64t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLQ0ke7ppCqxiXBcvtNIO9g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[PalmCode]

3 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Mine fruited this past summer but I had to cut the bunch and bring it indoors in June as frosts were due. They ripened (went yellow) but had no sugar, tasted like cardboard. May have been the time of the year (formed in late March so missed the proper warmth) or because was grown in a large pot.

How long was the fruit on the tree before you cut them? Maybe they were not developed enough on the tree .They take months up to a year and only really fatten over summer here.  Do you have any forming now? Maybe next time try leaving the bunch on the tree over winter. It might not look good but the tree should still survive and continue to put its energy into the fruit into the next summer. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by PalmCode

[cbmnz]

1 hour ago, PalmCode said:

How long was the fruit on the tree before you cut them? Maybe they were not developed enough on the tree .They take months up to a year and only really fatten over summer here.  Do you have any forming now? Maybe next time try leaving the bunch on the tree over winter. It might not look good but the tree should still survive and continue to put its energy into the fruit into the next summer. 

Only 3 months or so.  This was March 21st and it was 2021,  so not this past Summer, I am losing track of the years. Had cut them by mid June. Ok  so that what was I did wrong, will know for next time.

.

[PalmCode]

1 hour ago, cbmnz said:

Only 3 months or so.  This was March 21st and it was 2021,  so not this past Summer, I am losing track of the years. Had cut them by mid June. Ok  so that what was I did wrong, will know for next time.

.

Your 2021 banana looked great but yeah 3 months is way too soon, it sucks but is what it is. Hopefully  you get better luck next time

That one of mine that just fell down was about 6 months old...

 

[cbmnz]

The forecast backed off yesterday. So might get away with minimal ill effects form this cold spell but still two/three nights to go. Overnight lows up to 13C by end of week. Only reached -0.1C overnight when forecast as -1, the only ice to be seen was on some neighbours' roofs.

[cbmnz]

Another -0.1C with no issues, some cloud did come through overnight. Looks like tonight might be the worst for cooling but at least it's decently mild today which will help. The Alexandre the most sensitive thing have in ground looks great compared to this time last year. One more night to pull through then it can have another 9-10 months to grow.