Southern Hemisphere Growing Season 22/23

[Tyrone]

On 5/25/2023 at 10:46 AM, cbmnz said:

Now have 2C forecast instead of 1C. Currently 19C so out of danger for sure. Have never had a damaging frost after reaching 16C or more the afternoon  before.  Weird mix of autumn colour and crownshafted palms in the mid latitudes.

How low did it go?
 

It’s been gloomy here the last couple of days with no sun. Great for overnight temps due to cloud cover but we only made 15.6C yesterday and 15.8C today. This is basically winter now. Even though we are under a high pressure zone it’s cloudy. I think the technical term is anti cyclonic gloom. 

[cbmnz]

42 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

How low did it go?
 

It’s been gloomy here the last couple of days with no sun. Great for overnight temps due to cloud cover but we only made 15.6C yesterday and 15.8C today. This is basically winter now. Even though we are under a high pressure zone it’s cloudy. I think the technical term is anti cyclonic gloom. 

2.9C, no problem. It's been an unusual synoptic setup the last few days, been having a fake Southerly. Warm air has crossed the Tasman as a NW, been squeezed over the Southern alps then has hooked around an unusually shaped high to come back over North Island as a Southerly.  Been very pleasant, the benefits of a Southerly with very clear skies, without the cold.

[Alberto]

Last week it finally rained 35 mm here, after a month of drought! Now pleasant fall weather for the following days. 

[Tyrone]

Perth has just had in places 110mm of rain in the last 24hrs and in some places medium size hail. Meanwhile it’s cold down here but not much wild weather and not much rain. We got to a max of 15.5C today and after 2pm it’s around 11.5C and thick cloud. We are waiting for more rain though.

[cbmnz]

Cool and wet last couple of days. Still no frosts, nothing below 5C forecast in next 10 days.

Saw today the first instance I've seen of apparently self seeded Archontophoenix locally. Have heard that is quite commonplace around Auckland but have not seen it. 

They were amongst lots of self seeded Trachycarpus and Phoenix which is common place all over in these types of areas, semi shaded, non curated exotic woodlands.

[Tyrone]

On 6/5/2023 at 5:31 PM, cbmnz said:

Cool and wet last couple of days. Still no frosts, nothing below 5C forecast in next 10 days.

Saw today the first instance I've seen of apparently self seeded Archontophoenix locally. Have heard that is quite commonplace around Auckland but have not seen it. 

They were amongst lots of self seeded Trachycarpus and Phoenix which is common place all over in these types of areas, semi shaded, non curated exotic woodlands.

That’s a nice little subtropical woodland being formed there. I would love to have that near me but the authorities here would quickly eradicate the invaders. However they can’t get rid of Kikuyu grass along the riverbanks which is a pity.

We had one really wet and cold day on Tuesday with a max of 9C after a min of 7C but it really sat around 8C as the 9C was a warm spike. Since then the temps have rebounded. Today will be 18C and tomorrow 20C. My watercourses are now at full capacity with the stream fully running. Everything is drenched and I need to unblock one of my drains here today to take some water away. The Nikaus and Norfolks are loving this weather. No really cold nights forecast so no foreseeable frost on the horizon but there’s a lot of winter left yet. We are in a moist westerly flow and the highs don’t seem to be parking directly over us so at the moment everything looks sweet. 

[Tyrone]

Ravenea glauca in the afternoon sun.

[cbmnz]

Extended period of very clear skies quite close to the winter solstice, danger time,  had just been touching 0C each night, no problems.

Last night was meant to be 0 again and it was not tracking any colder up to midnight. Did not hit freezing until 4am then a pulse of colder air/perfect cooling conditions occured. Got down to -1.8C before quickly warming. I had nothing protected, under the new plan, am over it. If somethings don't survive these run of the mill June and July frosts, will rip then out and replace with species that will.

Some mottling on some palms but looks pretty good so far.  Was not as bad as -1.8 sounds as it was such a quick one.

[Tyrone]

22 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Extended period of very clear skies quite close to the winter solstice, danger time,  had just been touching 0C each night, no problems.

Last night was meant to be 0 again and it was not tracking any colder up to midnight. Did not hit freezing until 4am then a pulse of colder air/perfect cooling conditions occured. Got down to -1.8C before quickly warming. I had nothing protected, under the new plan, am over it. If somethings don't survive these run of the mill June and July frosts, will rip then out and replace with species that will.

Some mottling on some palms but looks pretty good so far.  Was not as bad as -1.8 sounds as it was such a quick one.

Winter can be brutal. I’ve been watching the forecast for any sign of that here, and luckily, it’s been cloudy, windy or rainy or all three. Nothing below 8C forecast so far and low pressure zones are doing there thing to keep frost away. So far so good, but things can change rapidly of course. 

[The Palm Nut]

Got down to -0.3C at the airport, in my yard down to 8.5C big difference. The airport does not represent most of the coastal area's temperatures as you can see. Even in town the temperature would be higher. However, I have had a light frost on one occasion in the past.

Looks like clear skies for the next week or so and light winds. Ocean temperature is about 20C. Picture of my Ptychosperma macarthurii next to themangrove. 

[cbmnz]

On 6/15/2023 at 3:43 PM, The Palm Nut said:

Got down to -0.3C at the airport, in my yard down to 8.5C big difference. The airport does not represent most of the coastal area's temperatures as you can see. Even in town the temperature would be higher. However, I have had a light frost on one occasion in the past.

Looks like clear skies for the next week or so and light winds. Ocean temperature is about 20C. Picture of my Ptychosperma macarthurii next to themangrove.

 

Never been there but the airport looks to be on a river flat which can be good for collecting cold air. Still very near the coast however, so surprised it ever manages to go below 0 at that latitude. 

Damage from Wednesday morning. The bananas got hit but the actual bunch looks unaffected. 

I know this spotting on Rhopalostylis is nothing to worry about, have seen it many times, it self heals.

This on the Cunninghamas however is not so good, think this will brown off over the next few weeks. At least is really only one frond on the larger double.

The Alexandrae took it quite well, just some browning of the tips.

 

[Tyrone]

On 6/16/2023 at 12:48 PM, cbmnz said:

Never been there but the airport looks to be on a river flat which can be good for collecting cold air. Still very near the coast however, so surprised it ever manages to go below 0 at that latitude. 

Damage from Wednesday morning. The bananas got hit but the actual bunch looks unaffected. 

I know this spotting on Rhopalostylis is nothing to worry about, have seen it many times, it self heals.

This on the Cunninghamas however is not so good, think this will brown off over the next few weeks. At least is really only one frond on the larger double.

The Alexandrae took it quite well, just some browning of the tips.

 

Your cunninghamiana may look a bit ordinary for a while but they’re quick to recover. Your bananas still look better than mine. I haven’t seen frost yet but a pine tree dropped a branch onto my bananas after some very windy weather which mashed them up a bit. I can’t wait to cut the pines down. 

[tropicbreeze]

The first week following the solstice, with UV Index reaching between 7 and 8.

 

And there but for about 50 kms it could have been

[cbmnz]

The Chunginhama seem to be quite tough, the fronds I thought were damaged by the freeze two weeks ago have recovered, if anything.  The Alexandrae is browing off a little bit. There does seem to be a difference between the two species.

[Tyrone]

4 hours ago, cbmnz said:

The Chunginhama seem to be quite tough, the fronds I thought were damaged by the freeze two weeks ago have recovered, if anything.  The Alexandrae is browing off a little bit. There does seem to be a difference between the two species.

Yes alexandrae is just a tad more tender in my experience. That’s to be expected as it’s the more tropical of the two.

Its been so wet over here. We may go past 250mm for June. Single digits the last couple of days as well, with small hail. Our first frosty morning may be coming on July 1 or 2 or both. Forecast min of 5C but with no clouds and very little wind. We will go much lower than 5C if that happens. 

[PalmCode]

It's been Raining/ showering here on and off for the last 3 days. Seems lucky to get a few hours with out it .At least its not to heavy  enough for floods but getting really sick of it to be honest.  

[The Palm Nut]

Dry Dry Dry here in Port.

[Tyrone]

We are at 260mm for June so far. Double the June average. Everything is drenched here and cold. 

[Phil Petersen]

Got all the way down to 1.9 degC yesterday, and had a high of 4.9 deg, were minor snow flurries at sea level and plenty settling from 200m upwards on the hills.

That could well be the coldest minimum we see this winter, but ive probably jinxed it now - we may go negative later (or get a snowfall randomly in November likke last year)

Raining heavily today, high of 9 and a low of 6  The palms seem fine 🤠

[Tyrone]

Had a minus 1.4C on Sunday morning followed by a sunny 18.6C. Rain is back now so for now no risk of frost. 

[PalmCode]

16c partly cloudy and windy today. Looks like we might get a coulpe dry days which is good. Chatham nikaus and hedyscepes are opening new spares. 

[Tyrone]

Had a minimum of 13.4C last night. Very strong westerly winds though. Rain is backing off too which is really good. My watercourses were getting dangerously high in the last few days. 

[The Palm Nut]

Dry and sunny lows between 8c and 11c highs around 20c. So far this winter I had a couple of nights down to 5c. Coconut palms are showing increased signs of cold damage.

[Tyrone]

I won’t dodge a bullet tonight. It will be still, and cloudless from midnight on as a high bulges up above us with pressures around 1028hPa. Forecasts are between 1 and 4C. It will get into neg 2C territory in the open here. Will get a bunch of fires ready to ignite today. After midnight they will be ignited. Most of my stuff can handle it, but the sensitive area I will work on. The neg 1.4C a couple of weeks back did almost no damage here, but a degree lower is a huge difference. 

[cbmnz]

Opening a new one in mid winter, have not seen this before.

[Tyrone]

We dodged a bullet on Saturday morning. Although the temp dropped quickly after sundown a slight breeze kicked in around midnight and slowed the temp drop. Around 3am I turned two heat sources and a fan on as it was 2C and the wind had stopped at that point. The minimum ended up being 1.3C which was amazing. Other towns further inland got down to minus 3C.

Lastnight was forecast to be 4C but it seemed almost a carbon copy of the night before except the breeze kicked in earlier holding temps up around 5C at midnight. Around 6am the wind stopped and the temp went down to 1.2C then the wind gradually kicked in again and the sun came up. I didn’t light any heat sources this morning. So thankfully two menacing nights were not so menacing in the end. Got a cold front closing in tonight so it won’t be as cold at all. 

 

[cbmnz]

Been too busy to post but got down to -1.9C on Saturday morning. Like in June it was fairly short dip, only 4 hours below. No further damage, but the  Alexandre is slowly looking less happy as Winter progresses, I think it just does not like long spells of temp under 17c. It will be away again from October.

Lets see if like last year can stay above -2.0, would take that at this stage.

[Foxpalms]

11 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Been too busy to post but got down to -1.9C on Saturday morning. Like in June it was fairly short dip, only 4 hours below. No further damage, but the  Alexandre is slowly looking less happy as Winter progresses, I think it just does not like long spells of temp under 17c. It will be away again from October.

Lets see if like last year can stay above -2.0, would take that at this stage.

Here last winter the coldest temp was -2c a much colder than usual winter and the temperatures drop extremely slowly here so plenty of hours below freezing around 6-7 I think that night. The Alexandre got burnt but recovered nicely even despite the below average spring we had. Plenty of days below 17c they seem to tolerate fine they just don't like the temps below 1c as that starts to damage them. I think it was even growing slowly after the freeze when the temperatures were around 12-15c on a milder week.

[Tyrone]

Bring on spring. At least the days are getting noticeably longer as we start August. Going for a 21C top today after a 3.4C minimum. An inland SE QLD winters day. Then a cold front with heavy rain and Max’s in the low teens. 

[Foxpalms]

Whilst I definitely don't trust the jetstream at the moment it looks like mid August should be better. The lows here also tend to be few a degrees warmer than weather online typically suggests. On the 15th there's even a 24c 850hpa temp showing on the gfs run just south of here if that would move up towards us that could mean 36,37,38c easily. The gfs runs are also showing 22c loss for central London and it's always warmer than that. We will see weather the jetstream delivers better weather.  Almost all gfs runs are all also showing 39-40c temperature only 110 miles south of here in northern France.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Foxpalms

[Foxpalms]

2 hours ago, Foxpalms said:

Whilst I definitely don't trust the jetstream at the moment it looks like mid August should be better. The lows here also tend to be few a degrees warmer than weather online typically suggests. On the 15th there's even a 24c 850hpa temp showing on the gfs run just south of here if that would move up towards us that could mean 36,37,38c easily. The gfs runs are also showing 22c loss for central London and it's always warmer than that. We will see weather the jetstream delivers better weather.  Almost all gfs runs are all also showing 39-40c temperature only 110 miles south of here in northern France.

@PALM MODFor some reason when I went on my current yard  temperature and it was loading slowly and refreshed the page, it was showing I was on there but when I posted it ended up on here. Would it be possible to get this post removed?

Edited August 1, 2023 by Foxpalms

[cbmnz]

On 8/1/2023 at 8:37 AM, Foxpalms said:

Here last winter the coldest temp was -2c a much colder than usual winter and the temperatures drop extremely slowly here so plenty of hours below freezing around 6-7 I think that night. The Alexandre got burnt but recovered nicely even despite the below average spring we had. Plenty of days below 17c they seem to tolerate fine they just don't like the temps below 1c as that starts to damage them. I think it was even growing slowly after the freeze when the temperatures were around 12-15c on a milder week.

Yours was in a container IIRC, did it stay  as such for the summer?  Amazed that one will survive at >50 degrees from the equator even without any serious freezes. Their natural range stops at 24S apparently. 

I haven't noticed mine growing in the winter at all, that said, I do not mark spears etc to notice the slightest movement, so only notice growth when it's obvious like a spear opening.

While my one is likely to survive I won't plant any more based in results so far.  The Cunninghama look pretty much the same and stay looking good all year.

 

[Tyrone]

We had a 23.5C max yesterday, and this morning I woke to warm 14.2C. A cold front is coming through though with a big cold mass behind so by tomorrow it may struggle to reach 14C. 

[Foxpalms]

1 hour ago, cbmnz said:

Yours was in a container IIRC, did it stay  as such for the summer?  Amazed that one will survive at >50 degrees from the equator even without any serious freezes. Their natural range stops at 24S apparently. 

I haven't noticed mine growing in the winter at all, that said, I do not mark spears etc to notice the slightest movement, so only notice growth when it's obvious like a spear opening.

While my one is likely to survive I won't plant any more based in results so far.  The Cunninghama look pretty much the same and stay looking good all year.

 

I haven't planted it out yet even because of a possibility of a move, so I wouldn't want to plant it only to have to dig it up an few months later. I think the Alexandre in the Tresco Abbey gardens at 49.9N has been there for 25 years. Lots of these palms that originate from fairly warm climates I'm finding do fine with cool winters as long as they are fairly mild. I also find that cunninghamiana gets less damaged. That being said the last winter was a colder than usual winter here so maybe if next winter the jetstream isn't sending us lots of winds from the arctic circle, maybe it will get through the winter undamaged. A few other palms such as caryotas as well have popped up in the UK and seem to be doing well. 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Foxpalms

[Tyrone]

We’ve had 38mm of rain since 11am yesterday. Yesterday the max peaked at 17.5C at 8am and then descended from there to about 8C after lunch and the rain just didn’t stop until about 5am. We are now in a cold pool of air pushed up from Antarctica. I’m not looking forward to Sunday morning. Clear skies, low wind, and a high pressure zone. 

[cbmnz]

Yesterday had a very cool breeze with low humidity then it died out towards evening. The worst conditions, guaranteed to happen at least once or twice per winter.

A bit more nasty than previous freezes, hit 0 by 11pm, bottomed out at -2.1C, could have been worse. Did relent and cover a few things as getting closer to the end of winter, it's starting to seem worth it now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tyrone]

1 hour ago, cbmnz said:

Yesterday had a very cool breeze with low humidity then it died out towards evening. The worst conditions, guaranteed to happen at least once or twice per winter.

A bit more nasty than previous freezes, hit 0 by 11pm, bottomed out at -2.1C, could have been worse. Did relent and cover a few things as getting closer to the end of winter, it's starting to seem worth it now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I feel your pain mate. Sunday morning is the one I’m watching here. Going to get a couple more gas bottles ready just in case. We can smell spring but it ain’t over until it’s over. It has technically been warmer than average here but even then, all it takes is one rotten freeze and the damage is done.

My Hyophorbe indica have done well. Many are opening new spears in this. I reckon they must have originally come from much higher elevation on Reunion island than is recorded there now. I wouldn’t call them a bullet proof palm for the cold because they’re not but under canopy they do ok here. 
 

Summer could be an interesting one this year. Look at what’s just happened in South America.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-04/south-america-extreme-heat-mid-winter-climate-change-scientists/102678662

[Tyrone]

This is why it felt cold here on Wednesday. 
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/snow-in-wa-as-antarctic-air-reaches-australia/1424881

[Tyrone]

I thought I’d post up some winter shots from yesterday in the garden. 
Two of my little Hyophorbe indica southern form and Acanthophoenix rubra. 

[Tyrone]

My coffee bush pushing new growth and my biggest Chatham Island Nikau.