Southern Hemisphere Growing Season 24/25

[cbmnz]

Been lurking this thread whole time but had not got around to posting. Has not dropped below 10C here since Nov 25th. I have never recorded a full calendar month of that not happening and don't expect to. 21 to 27 high each day. Been working extra hard reconditioning and repainting boundary fences when time allowed since Oct. Fix one section and one can't help wanting to do whole lot. Palms are doing great. R . Baueri has put out a monster new frond, 2m long. It was a 20cm pot specium late 2019.

[cbmnz]

[Phil Petersen]

5 chathams rhopies in this section. Been in the ground over a year now (4 of them from 75l growbags). Seem to be handling the sun ok with little yellowing so far after removing overhead shadecloth a few months ago. 

[Phil Petersen]

22 hours ago, cbmnz said:

 

 

R baueri looking really good! I still need to get mine in the ground

[cbmnz]

10 hours ago, Phil Petersen said:

5 chathams rhopies in this section. Been in the ground over a year now (4 of them from 75l growbags). Seem to be handling the sun ok with little yellowing so far after removing overhead shadecloth a few months ago. 

Meryta sinclairii (Puka) doing well in the background too.  If you asked someone to try to guess the location based on that photo plenty would say Whangarei etc.

[cbmnz]

8 hours ago, Phil Petersen said:

R baueri looking really good! I still need to get mine in the ground

Not criticising this business at all - good people, drove over and bought my three Chattams from them back in 2018. But I have not found this statement "the Kermadec cannot tolerate as much frost as a Chatham." to be true at all.  I've noticed no difference whatsoever in cold hardiness between Kermadec/Baueri and Chattam, both have tolerated down to -2.9C with some mottling, but that has always faded out within two weeks and done no lasting damage at all.

https://www.coastpalms.co.nz/catalogue/kermadec-nikau/

[Tyrone]

Very dry and windy here. Blowing gale force westerlies as a high to the NW is being squeezed by a low to the south. Branches, leaves and debris down everywhere. A 94kmh wind gust was recorded around 3pm today. Some rain would be nice. 

[tim_brissy_13]

Got to 39C here on Monday. Was 43.3C at Avalon on the other side of the Port Phillip Bay so it could have been worse. Cloud cover for most of the day probably saved me. Amazingly, nothing was affected, even typically sensitive tree ferns like Cyathea medullaris. 
 

So far Spring and early summer has been kind. Good growing conditions with average maximums in the mid 20s for the last couple of months which suits cloud forest and more tropical stuff. It’s the first growing season I haven’t put up any shade cloth over some palms like Ceroxylon and so far so good. I’m hopefully as they become emergent they toughen to our harsh summers but will ensure they stay moist. 
 

Pretty nice mix of weather coming up to Christmas. 
 

[Tyrone]

On 12/18/2024 at 11:05 AM, tim_brissy_13 said:

Got to 39C here on Monday. Was 43.3C at Avalon on the other side of the Port Phillip Bay so it could have been worse. Cloud cover for most of the day probably saved me. Amazingly, nothing was affected, even typically sensitive tree ferns like Cyathea medullaris. 
 

So far Spring and early summer has been kind. Good growing conditions with average maximums in the mid 20s for the last couple of months which suits cloud forest and more tropical stuff. It’s the first growing season I haven’t put up any shade cloth over some palms like Ceroxylon and so far so good. I’m hopefully as they become emergent they toughen to our harsh summers but will ensure they stay moist. 
 

Pretty nice mix of weather coming up to Christmas. 
 

Got a similar forecast here, only we are forecast 37C on Monday then back to low twenties and possibly even wet stuff from the sky on Xmas eve, Xmas day and Boxing Day, then mild after that. 

[tim_brissy_13]

9 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Got a similar forecast here, only we are forecast 37C on Monday then back to low twenties and possibly even wet stuff from the sky on Xmas eve, Xmas day and Boxing Day, then mild after that. 

We seem to get your weather a couple of days later. 33C on Christmas Day, 40C on Boxing Day and 32C the day after. Then back down to mid twenties. Everything growing rapidly now, I just need to keep up the watering. 

[PalmCode]

Temps are warm at the moment. Not getting too hot and theres a good balance of getting some rain. Good steady growing weather.
Palms are doing ok. No sun burning on Rhopies or Archontophoenix but one Hedyscepe is showing some browning.

[Tyrone]

It got to 38.4C yesterday here and because we are basically at summer solstice the sun was only about 12.5 degrees off vertically overhead at noon so the shadows and shade being quite small was an issue. I put shadecloth tents around things but one of my Hedyscepe burnt bad. It’s in a rainforest area with trees all around but just at noon with the sun high overhead the sun burnt through a slight opening in the canopy and did damage. Other unprotected stuff like some newer Alexander’s burnt too, but they’re quick and will harden up and come good. Back to low to mid twenties until 30C on Sunday then back to mid twenties again. 

[Tyrone]

3 minutes ago, PalmCode said:

Temps are warm at the moment. Not getting too hot and theres a good balance of getting some rain. Good steady growing weather.
Palms are doing ok. No sun burning on Rhopies or Archontophoenix but one Hedyscepe is showing some browning.

That’s good weather. I envy your rain. Bone dry here at the moment. The irrigation is an essential life support system over here. We did have a thunderstorm come through last night and for a brief few seconds some large drops fell then it was over. Your garden is looking great. 

[PalmCode]

4 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

It got to 38.4C yesterday here and because we are basically at summer solstice the sun was only about 12.5 degrees off vertically overhead at noon so the shadows and shade being quite small was an issue. I put shadecloth tents around things but one of my Hedyscepe burnt bad. It’s in a rainforest area with trees all around but just at noon with the sun high overhead the sun burnt through a slight opening in the canopy and did damage. Other unprotected stuff like some newer Alexander’s burnt too, but they’re quick and will harden up and come good. Back to low to mid twenties until 30C on Sunday then back to mid twenties again. 

Thats not good, Hopefully your Hedyscepe recovers.

[Tyrone]

It only got to 20.6C today. Didn’t see the sun at all and drizzling on and off. Complete contrast to yesterday. 

[Tyrone]

Keeping a close eye on the models for next Thursday the 2nd of Jan. looks like a heat trough is going to pipe down hot interior air from the centre into my area. ACCESS is predicting 41C (which could be 43,44C) but the EWCMF although predicting the same basic synoptic situation predicts an early sea breaze and about 28-30C. I’m hoping for the cooler outcome by generally ACCESS is right with timing,Synoptics and temps plus a couple of degrees. 😕

[PalmCode]

Been a windy one here today. Don't often get gale force winds on a sunny day, cool.  

[cbmnz]

14 hours ago, PalmCode said:

Been a windy one here today. Don't often get gale force winds on a sunny day, cool.  

Same here. Was thinking it made the environment look like an afternoon in the Caribbean with a stiff sea breeze. Unfortunately though it snapped the emerging spear on my Queen palm, just after I was thinking how healthy it was looking the other day. However this is probably the third time this has happened and it seems to just push it out and grow the next one with no ill effects.

 

 

[PalmCode]

2 hours ago, cbmnz said:

Same here. Was thinking it made the environment look like an afternoon in the Caribbean with a stiff sea breeze. Unfortunately though it snapped the emerging spear on my Queen palm, just after I was thinking how healthy it was looking the other day. However this is probably the third time this has happened and it seems to just push it out and grow the next one with no ill effects.

 

 

 

 

Your gardens looking real healthy. That queen should be fine after the next spear will resume growth normally.

 

[tropicbreeze]

Earlier in December we were getting more rain, then that began to fizzle out.  But humidity has kept fairly high. The plants are loving it. Just ask the weeds. Well, even only have to look at them, they're really rocketing along. Not a lot of cloud cover through the month. The sun is still to our south, for another 6 or so weeks.

Dec. Av. max   34.8
Dec. Av. min   25.1
Rainfall 233.8 mm (Average 323.1 mm)

Nothing out of the ordinary in the forecast. There have been quite a few tropical lows forming to our north and north west, but they've been moving westwards out into the Indian Ocean. Cyclone season in our area is expected to be about average, ie. about 3 cyclones, up to around the end of April.

[UK_Palms]

So I work with a guy from the South Island of New Zealand and he has been telling me today that his family and friends are all complaining about how cold their summer has been so far this year. Apparently it has been extremely cool, wet and cloudy and it is shaping up to be one of the worst summers in decades?

His contacts are based in Christchurch and Invercargill. He spoke to his brother yesterday and he said many days have barely gone above 15C in Christchurch even and it has been a washout there. All of his tomatoes are struggling and getting diseases. The first half of summer has apparently been a total write-off on the South Island at least? Is that true, or a bit of an exaggeration?

[cbmnz]

8 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

So I work with a guy from the South Island of New Zealand and he has been telling me today that his family and friends are all complaining about how cold their summer has been so far this year. Apparently it has been extremely cool, wet and cloudy and it is shaping up to be one of the worst summers in decades?

His contacts are based in Christchurch and Invercargill. He spoke to his brother yesterday and he said many days have barely gone above 15C in Christchurch even and it has been a washout there. All of his tomatoes are struggling and getting diseases. The first half of summer has apparently been a total write-off on the South Island at least? Is that true, or a bit of an exaggeration?

A member from the South who is actually there can comment with more authority, but I think the summer from late Nov up to near Christmas started off quite well, with quite a bit of warm, dry weather. Christchurch was warm and sunny for all 5 days of the NZ verses Eng cricket test. However since Christmas week there certainly has been a prolonged spell of Southerly quarter windflows. In areas without any mountain ranges between them and the Southern ocean that always brings cool/wet weather.  This spell has been quite prolonged and may not beak until mid Jan looking at the models. 

Areas generally North of Taupo in the North Island are fortunate that a wall of ranges and a high plateau mean such windflows don't affect Summer temperatures so much, the highs stay in the low to mid 20s due to some weak foehn effect and the intense summer sun heating the land. Warm enough for decent growth and no change of wardrobe which has been the case here.

So far form the worst summer in decades,  unless this stuck Southerly pattern persists all through Jan and Feb, which I don't see happening. 

 

[Tyrone]

Had a hot day yesterday with a peak just above 38C and high humidity with dewpoints over 22C which is very sticky, so not a dry heat at all. I was expecting worse maybe a 41, 42C as we drove back from Perth on Wednesday and it was basically that 3/4 of the way down. I covered what I could and kept the water up, but I think we escaped ok. On Wednesday night we had thunderstorms and some rain but just enough to dampen down the dust and light a bushfire south of the Stirling ranges. Cooler today and tomorrow and we don’t get back into the 30s again until Tuesday with a 33C forecast which is fine. But it’s been dry. Hanging for a 20-30mm patch of thunderstorms or a freak cold front. 

[Foxpalms]

On 1/2/2025 at 12:41 PM, UK_Palms said:

So I work with a guy from the South Island of New Zealand and he has been telling me today that his family and friends are all complaining about how cold their summer has been so far this year. Apparently it has been extremely cool, wet and cloudy and it is shaping up to be one of the worst summers in decades?

His contacts are based in Christchurch and Invercargill. He spoke to his brother yesterday and he said many days have barely gone above 15C in Christchurch even and it has been a washout there. All of his tomatoes are struggling and getting diseases. The first half of summer has apparently been a total write-off on the South Island at least? Is that true, or a bit of an exaggeration?

I was looking at the forecast their earlier in December and around a week ago. There were a few days with highs of 16c and mins around 11c.

[Jonathan]

Pretty nice down here in Tassie at the moment...25c is the sweet spot!

[tim_brissy_13]

Pretty warm here lately. Last weekend we had 37C then 40.4C on Sunday which is our highest so far. Back down immediately yesterday to 19C with over 20mm of rain which was welcome. No damage to any palms, only some crispy fern fronds which I can’t seem to avoid (Cyathea medullaris worst hit) Warm to hot week coming up:

[Jonathan]

1 hour ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

Pretty warm here lately. Last weekend we had 37C then 40.4C on Sunday which is our highest so far. Back down immediately yesterday to 19C with over 20mm of rain which was welcome. No damage to any palms, only some crispy fern fronds which I can’t seem to avoid (Cyathea medullaris worst hit) Warm to hot week coming up:

 

We're tracking you...but 5 or 7 degrees cooler!

[Tyrone]

It got to 35C yesterday and we were supposed to get thunderstorms and possibly rain over 10mm but my place missed out on everything by about 500m. Further east had good falls. Lots of lightening strikes showing up which lit fires all over the storm track. So we got really nothing from it. This morning it was drizzling which dampened down the dust and everything is fresh this morning. Very dry overall though. 

[Jonathan]

9 hours ago, Tyrone said:

It got to 35C yesterday and we were supposed to get thunderstorms and possibly rain over 10mm but my place missed out on everything by about 500m. Further east had good falls. Lots of lightening strikes showing up which lit fires all over the storm track. So we got really nothing from it. This morning it was drizzling which dampened down the dust and everything is fresh this morning. Very dry overall though. 

From memory Tyrone, your place has a pretty high water table...does it drop in summer, or do you generally have plenty of ground water to play with?

[greysrigging]

Monsoon delayed somewhat in Darwin ... we are still getting  'build up'  type storms dropping some good falls in suburban Palmerston and Darwin.
Temps are still in the 32c-34c range with DP's around the 25c-26c mark. so tough conditions for the unaclimatised.
Some of my pics from an afternoon storm on the 6th Jan.







 

[Tyrone]

13 hours ago, Jonathan said:

From memory Tyrone, your place has a pretty high water table...does it drop in summer, or do you generally have plenty of ground water to play with?

The water table drops. I never actually run out of water, as I can pump from the ground all the time, but I can only draw about 12000L a day due to the yield from the bore as the casing is in clay. I pump into a tank slowly 24/7 and pump out to the garden using another pump at a much higher rate. 12000L may sound like a lot, but when trying to water a large area and shadehouse it’s not. This is a very windy place too, so the wind sucks up a lot from the ground even if it’s not boiling hot. I’m planning to put another pump on the lake so that when we get into the high 30s and 40s I can pump water onto the entire landscape in one day and keep everything hydrated. The lead up to warm weather at the moment I have to time things right to get sensitive stuff hydrated before a heatwave and then juggle zones to keep sensitive stuff hydrated after a heatwave. This means that certain things may miss out on getting a good watering like my veggie patch etc. I’ve got another petrol pump too I might piggy back in for fire fighting purposes. It’s all about the water. 

[Jonathan]

9 hours ago, Tyrone said:

The water table drops. I never actually run out of water, as I can pump from the ground all the time, but I can only draw about 12000L a day due to the yield from the bore as the casing is in clay. I pump into a tank slowly 24/7 and pump out to the garden using another pump at a much higher rate. 12000L may sound like a lot, but when trying to water a large area and shadehouse it’s not. This is a very windy place too, so the wind sucks up a lot from the ground even if it’s not boiling hot. I’m planning to put another pump on the lake so that when we get into the high 30s and 40s I can pump water onto the entire landscape in one day and keep everything hydrated. The lead up to warm weather at the moment I have to time things right to get sensitive stuff hydrated before a heatwave and then juggle zones to keep sensitive stuff hydrated after a heatwave. This means that certain things may miss out on getting a good watering like my veggie patch etc. I’ve got another petrol pump too I might piggy back in for fire fighting purposes. It’s all about the water. 

Yep, it's absolutely about the water...which is why we bought a property in a wetter area a few years back. I've started planting there and hopefully we'll move in a couple of years. But yeah, 12,000L isn't a huge amount - I used around 30k last weekend at the new place, and could have used more. We have a solar pump which draws out of a couple of big dams at the bottom of the property and pumps 35m uphill to a couple of storage tanks. I can then gravity feed to the gardens, or boost it with a fire fighter.  Ideally another low pressure, high flow solar pump at the tanks would be great...they're bloody expensive tho!

[Tyrone]

14 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Yep, it's absolutely about the water...which is why we bought a property in a wetter area a few years back. I've started planting there and hopefully we'll move in a couple of years. But yeah, 12,000L isn't a huge amount - I used around 30k last weekend at the new place, and could have used more. We have a solar pump which draws out of a couple of big dams at the bottom of the property and pumps 35m uphill to a couple of storage tanks. I can then gravity feed to the gardens, or boost it with a fire fighter.  Ideally another low pressure, high flow solar pump at the tanks would be great...they're bloody expensive tho!

You’ll have to post up progress pics of your new place. It sounds like a great project with great potential. 
Im still learning with this place. I started palm gardening in the deep infertile sands of Perth where water drained away instantly and ground water could be pumped out of the ground at a fast rate if needed. Coming to this place with clay and peat is totally different. Now I have to care about adequate drainage, but also still keeping the water up in summer, which the clay soil only gives up slowly. Also the climate is on average cooler than Perth which is good, but the extreme heat spikes are still like Perth. If I could do it I would put canopy over every square metre of the property just to moderate the heat spikes and the cold snaps. It’s amazing how even in a shaded area during a heat wave plants can still burn from the minuscule break in the canopy. 
This summer I reckon is going to be a stinker. Hopefully the coming winter will be a moderate one. 

[Tyrone]

Mid to high twenties at the moment with mid to high teens minimums which is actually perfect temps for what I’m growing here. Gonna get into the low to mid thirties by next weekend. Hopefully nothing more. Had 0.5mm of rain early this morning which is enough to green the lawn up a bit. I will take that even though it’s not much. 
The computer models are predicting a cyclone off the NW coast by this time next week. It’s still very early days but the current track map has it heading parallel with the NW coast, clearing NW Cape  and Exmouth but close enough to cause concern, then head out off the coast into more southerly subtropical waters. If that happens often the tropical rain gets swung back down to the southwest by a cold front - TC Alby style. Maybe some rain heading this way. I hope so. 

[Jonathan]

On 1/10/2025 at 10:29 AM, Tyrone said:

You’ll have to post up progress pics of your new place. It sounds like a great project with great potential. 
Im still learning with this place. I started palm gardening in the deep infertile sands of Perth where water drained away instantly and ground water could be pumped out of the ground at a fast rate if needed. Coming to this place with clay and peat is totally different. Now I have to care about adequate drainage, but also still keeping the water up in summer, which the clay soil only gives up slowly. Also the climate is on average cooler than Perth which is good, but the extreme heat spikes are still like Perth. If I could do it I would put canopy over every square metre of the property just to moderate the heat spikes and the cold snaps. It’s amazing how even in a shaded area during a heat wave plants can still burn from the minuscule break in the canopy. 
This summer I reckon is going to be a stinker. Hopefully the coming winter will be a moderate one. 

I'll get around to putting up a thread at some point for sure...just being a bit lazy really! 

My experience has been much like yours, going from beach sand to clay. Certainly very different challenges but after 20 years of sand and only  few of clay: gimme the clay any day!! 

It's pretty nice to be able to water with the knowledge that the plants can actually access it before it just drains away! We have a hardpan at about 30cm at the new place, so we deep ripped the garden areas, which improved the drainage to a huge degree, luckily the clay below the pan has a more open texture.

I hear what you're saying about canopy...so important. For you it's heat, for me the cold is more of a problem but the moderation of a canopy is phenomenal. By far the best trees I've used are Andean Alder, Alnus acuminata. Incredibly fast growing, evergreen, nitrogen fixing, lush green, heavy leaf litter drop perfect canopy trees. Sing out if you'd like some seeds!

[Tyrone]

Next Friday the BOM and ACCESS are predicting a 42C maximum, while the EWCMF is predicting mid thirties. I hope the BOM is wrong. Those heat spells do damage. Hot northerlies with low dewpoints are predicted before the wind change brings cooler temps and much higher humidity. 

[Tyrone]

The forecast for this week. Friday has dropped to 40C but still too high.

At the moment I’m watching low clouds roll in and some possible rain. It was a humid 29C day today. 

[Phil Petersen]

Weather has been average here overall with an extremely warm Dec (especially the first half), then a cloudy and cool Jan 2025 so far, with double the historic average monthly Jan rainfall coming in the first 11 days of the month. It's been pretty good for growing regardless, but bad for holiday makers.

There has been a big low stalled off the east coast for days and days which has meant the west coast has been getting most of the sunshine and temps have been warmer there. East coast has been on the windward side of the Alps for a change, and clouded over.  The low is moving away now.

Was up in Christchurch and visited the botanical gardens last week. Some plantings in and around the Avon river. Rhopies (photo below- look a bit tatty for some reason, but otherwise healthy), and some much bigger S. American palms like Butia, Jubea etc. 

[greysrigging]

tough conditions over in 
Cairns and Darwin.
Look at those Dew Points !!



Darwin at 9.00am this morning !

 

[Jonathan]

On 1/15/2025 at 11:59 AM, greysrigging said:

tough conditions over in 
Cairns and Darwin.
Look at those Dew Points !!



Darwin at 9.00am this morning !

 

Nasty! Mareeba looks like the place to be...

Weird seeing the apparent temperature higher than the actual temperature. Down here in the sub-sub-sub-tropics it's always the other way round.