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Has anyone considered growing degree days? They're extremely important in terms of crop (and general plant) development.
For those struggling to separate subtropical from mild oceanic, I suspect GDD could help.
For example, Seattle's (KSEA) avg Jan low is actually slightly higher than Atlanta (KATL) and has a warmer coldest min.
But, KATL has more than double the number of GDDs (base 50) of KSEA. 5,323/year vs 2,026.
Ignoring differences in like soil, Atlanta is going to be able to encourage more crop/plant development in the growing season and certain plants need more GDDs than others to even grow.
Has anyone considered growing degree days? They're extremely important in terms of crop (and general plant) development.
For those struggling to separate subtropical from mild oceanic, I suspect GDD could help.
For example, Seattle's (KSEA) avg Jan low is actually slightly higher than Atlanta (KATL) and has a warmer coldest min.
But, KATL has more than double the number of GDDs (base 50) of KSEA. 5,323/year vs 2,026.
Ignoring differences in like soil, Atlanta is going to be able to encourage more crop/plant development in the growing season and certain plants need more GDDs than others to even grow.
And even the clay soil in upland places like Atlanta, Dallas or Nashville won't make a difference for most native southeastern U.S. plants. Most of the lowland, more sandy places like Virginia Beach, Memphis and Charleston are very swampy and thus have plants adapted to waterlogged soil. Even palms native to the lowland southeastern U.S. are adapted to months of flooding annually, especially the Dwarf Palmetto but also Needle Palm, Cabbage Palmetto and Saw Palmetto.
For the few like Escarpment Live Oak native to dry well-drained hills of Oklahoma and central Texas, there are still some silt and/or loamy hills and mountains in Middle and East Tennessee (usually above ~1,000 feet) that are generally more well-drained. There may be some in other parts of the Upland South too that I just don't know about; I expect northern Alabama and southern Kentucky are little different than highland Middle Tennessee apart from being somewhat warmer/colder respectively, as they too are part of the Highland Rim/Pennyroyal Plateau and have smaller portions of the actual Appalachian Plateau.
Has anyone considered growing degree days? They're extremely important in terms of crop (and general plant) development.
For those struggling to separate subtropical from mild oceanic, I suspect GDD could help.
For example, Seattle's (KSEA) avg Jan low is actually slightly higher than Atlanta (KATL) and has a warmer coldest min.
But, KATL has more than double the number of GDDs (base 50) of KSEA. 5,323/year vs 2,026.
Ignoring differences in like soil, Atlanta is going to be able to encourage more crop/plant development in the growing season and certain plants need more GDDs than others to even grow.
I still think it's pretty odd if a place that can't grow subtropical plants, like say northern Kentucky, is included in the subtropical zone, while a place way further north that *can* grow subtropical plants, like Seattle, is in the "cold" zone. It simply doesn't make sense. What even is "subtropical" then?
I still think it's pretty odd if a place that can't grow subtropical plants, like say northern Kentucky, is included in the subtropical zone, while a place way further north that *can* grow subtropical plants, like Seattle, is in the "cold" zone. It simply doesn't make sense. What even is "subtropical" then?
My point exactly. For me, places like Nashville, Tulsa and Jonesboro are barely subtropical, as all but the few very hardiest subtropical plants have to be babied along to survive much further north than that and either replaced periodically or covered during some colder winters.
I still think it's pretty odd if a place that can't grow subtropical plants, like say northern Kentucky, is included in the subtropical zone, while a place way further north that *can* grow subtropical plants, like Seattle, is in the "cold" zone. It simply doesn't make sense. What even is "subtropical" then?
Well what subtropical plants are you talking about?
My point is more of Palms can survive in Seattle, while subtropical areas can actually *grow* more during the growing season.
It's not like Palms are native to Seattle, they have to be grown in special conditions, then planted, and then cared for. Which is true in Atlanta too.
Subtropical is pretty simple to me. Areas that get the summer heat of the tropics, but have regular freezes that end the growing season.
Many oceanic climates either don't have the regular freezes or even have warmer annual minima, but they lack the summer heat.
To take it to an extreme, Lerwick has warmer Jan lows than Atlanta. But the summer temps are more in line with late Fall, Winter, and early Spring in Atlanta. A time when our largest trees have lost their leaves and before they come back in the spring. It's too cold for them to actually grow and develop until highs are regularly topping 70.
That basically just defines the "subtropical" places in the US south.
Yeah, it would also exclude the climates that I think are most unambiguously subtropical because they closely border actual tropical climates. Such as say Orlando or Durban. And limit the category to dubiously subtropical climates that are much further removed from true tropical climates.
Personally I would reorganize Koppen's C category, partitioning his Cfa and Cfb categories to separate out the climates that are too cool to support significant winter plant growth from those that are warm enough year round for plant growth. In the northern hemisphere that would roughly separate deciduous from evergreen broadleaf forest climates. In the southern hemisphere the evolution of trees and shrubs has followed a different path and you'd have to look more at plant growth and dormancy than deciduous/evergreen. For example to me Paris is much more like New York ecologically than either is like Durban.
What to do with the rump cool/cold C climates, probably expand the D climate zone to be more than strongly continental climates but instead be broadly winter-dormant climates.
I still think it's pretty odd if a place that can't grow subtropical plants, like say northern Kentucky, is included in the subtropical zone, while a place way further north that *can* grow subtropical plants, like Seattle, is in the "cold" zone. It simply doesn't make sense. What even is "subtropical" then?
Oh, but northern Kentucky and even extreme southern Indiana near the Ohio River can indeed grow subtropical plants such as crape myrtle southern magnolia and yes with extra protection even cold hardy palms such as needle palm and sabal minor.....
Oh, but northern Kentucky and even extreme southern Indiana near the Ohio River can indeed grow subtropical plants such as crape myrtle southern magnolia and yes with extra protection even cold hardy palms such as needle palm and sabal minor.....
Don't you think it's more valuable to consider what the dominant vegetation pattern is in a region rather than looking at a few outlier species planted there by zone pushers?
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