Agricultural Forecasts

Found a page on the Weather Channel that offers agricultural forecasts and average, as well as record temps by the month and even by the day for your specific address. States it is accurate with-in 1 mile I think.
Thought this might be helpful.
Agricultural Forecast
If nothing else, it is interesting reading.

Neat! It has a link to a growing degree day calculator, too. Thanks very much for that link.

Megan wrote:Neat! It has a link to a growing degree day calculator, too. Thanks very much for that link.

I looked at that GDD calculator and I'm not entirely sure how to use it. I am dumb as a rock sometimes.

I'm not sure what the base temp is for... but I think if you set the starting date for when you plant, and the ending date for when you project your harvest, you should be able to figure out if there's enough heat for the crops you want. Perhaps a professional grower will take pity on me and explain it better than that for us.

I'm certainly not a pro, but since you asked! :dancingpepper:

Veggies need a certain amount of heat from the time they are planted until they are mature. Each type of veggie needs a different amount. The baseline has been established at 40 degrees for cool season crops-they don't exhibit much growth colder than that. 50 degrees is typically the baseline for warm season crops. Although warm season crops don't do much above 90-95, the high end limit is often ignored.

There are several formulas to determine GDDs. This is a simple one: Use the high and low temps of the day to find the avg temp and subtract the baseline number you choose. That will give you GDDs for that day.

Why bother? Caroline, who is growing tomatoes commercially in a greenhouse, told us that one type of her tomatoes need 1400 GDDs. Because she is in a controlled environment, she can accurately determine when her toms can be harvested so that transportation, storage, and other considerations in taking her harvest to market can be planned in advance.

Farmers with acres of crops can't plan as far in advance because they have to track the GDDs throughout the season. An additional use of GDDs is that pests' development follows a life cycle that relates to GDDs. Each type of pest needs a certain amount of GDDs to reach the next phase of their lives. If a farmer keeps track of GDDs, he knows when the pests that bother his crop will reach their destructive phase of growth. He can then do his pesticide spraying, or whatever, most efficiently.

I've found tons of info about GDDs on google. What I haven't found is a decent list of what individual veggies need. Toms and corns are in the 1400-1700 range. Dandelions need about 50! Caroline put a call in to her ag agent to ask them for a list, but she hasn't reported anything back yet.

So what does it mean to backyard gardeners? It explains the 'days to harvest' number on seed packets: why that number is such a wild guess. It explains some gardening wisdom: 'corn grows like crazy when the nights are warm'. Yep, GDDs are accumulating that much faster. It's interesting?! It helps me finally acknowledge that a greenhouse is in my future if I want red tomatoes every year. Most backyard gardeners want a greenhouse for off-season. LOL not me, I want one for summertime!

WOW! Thanks Boff! I had done some reading about GDD in the spring, regarding the pest issue, but I like your explanation best. So, are you going to buy a prefab or patch that hot house together with scrap?

Thank you, Boffer. I was hoping you would chime in. Very useful information!

For those of us west of the Rockies, traditional gardening zones have never worked well. I was wondering why forum members in zone 5 were having a better growing season than I was in zone 7. Here's a look at accumulated GGDs from Jan 1 to Oct 1 of this year, with a 50 degree baseline. Remember that different varieties of tomatoes and corn need GDDs in the 1400-1700 range.

Akron	Ohio	3166
Atlanta	Georgia	4915
Boston	Mass	3287
Denver	Colorado	2902
Freemont	Maine	2217
Ogden	Utah	2844
Philly	Penn	3947
Phoenix	Arizona	7563
Prince George	B.C.	856
Seattle	Wash	1968
Yelm	Wash	1475

I'm in Yelm, WA, zone 7A but look at the difference in GGD's that I get compared to what members east of the Rockies get. The traditional frost zones truly don't help much with veggie gardening.

And this helps explains why we have so much trouble growing certain crops in the heat of summer. Things just cook!

"Growing Degree Days (GDD) Forecast for North Richland Hills, TX

Jan. 1 - Oct. 4

2010 = 5758.5 GDD


Average** = 5230.5 GDD"

TOO hot for me!

Yeah, I hope to have a greenhouse someday, but my biggest worries are cooling it sufficiently. I have mental plans for a swamp cooler involving 2 of the windows, 1 with the evaporation blanket and the other with a big fan!

I was able to get a bunch of windows off craigslist and they're patiently waiting for me to have time and money to get everything else together. I'm hoping it will be our winter project this year, but might not happen until next year, we'll see.

I checked out the GDD for my little town on the Oregon Coast from Jan 1 to Oct 1, this year and found
1035 GDD
Our average GDD in this town is 1257.
No wonder I can't grow tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

Does anyone know how effective the wall o water might be to compensate for lack of GDD?

Boffer, you posted early in the season about gdd's. I read up on them a little and it is very interesting and certainly important. But I have to do more studying this winter so I actually understand them.

But I am sorry you only had 1400 of them. Poor tomatoless you.

Wow, Furbalsmom, you had me fooled good!

Years ago, I spent time working in the Hebo and Coos Bay areas. So I was puzzled when I read your monthly updates, and there was mention of red tomatoes. Then, there's the zone you're in. It didn't compute! I wondered just where it was you lived on the coast, because I don't remember the summers being that good!

I haven't used wall o waters. I am thinking seriously about making a cheapo 2x4 framed, 8x8x8 box covered with a big piece of plastic just to put tomatoes and peppers in, in the summertime. I got three red toms out of 10 plants this year, and they weren't even sweet. Next year will be better though, right?

wow , yall been busy.
My Extensions office never called me. Assuming he could not find the information
I requested.

What you could do is----start a Topic letting folks list what they do know about different veggies and their GDD.
Evenually---there would be a decent list of veggies and GDD

That LINK is so Nice

Ok, Our GDD for this year
Jan1 til Oct 1 was 5246(average 4268)


Our GDD last year 2009 between Aug 24 and Dec 15 was 1474(average 1327)
I chose these dates because I sowed my Greenhouse toms Aug 24 and
I expect them to be ripe around Dec 15-----(green ones Dec 5th)
Since I will be heating the greenhouse---moderate control----I should be just about
right.

Boffer, I am just North of Coos Bay, but in a little protected valley around Ten Mile Lakes. Because of the protected valley, we don't get much frost and very few hard freezes at all in the winter, so the zone 8b-9a covers our lows. First frost date is usually 10/30 or later. Last frost is listed as 4/15. Nothing takes into account the lack of high temps zone wise.
Since I bought all transplants and never started any tomatoes from seed, they must have gotten a bunch of GDDs earlier from the nursery. I purchased 13 tomato plants.
I have about 8 more Early Girls to pick soon because they are almost ripe. The Sweet 100s are finally coming in enough to put a little color in my salad every night. I have picked about 10 Chocolate Cherry tomatoes during the last two weeks. Probably got 6 or 7 Plum type tomatoes.
I still have not harvested any of the heirlooms except the one single Beefmaster. I did pick two Black Russians because the vine broke, but they were not much bigger than the Chocolate Cherries and have very little color so far. (we will see if they do ripen). The rest of the heirlooms made lots of Greenies, but no blushes even now.
We did not have any rain for July or August , September we got about 2 inches, and none so far for October. Like I said, we are our own mini-micro climate here.

For McLoud, OK (which is east of Oklahoma City) here is the GDD data:

2010: 5343.5
2009: 4860.5
Avg: 3933.0

Now I remember why all my gardens are under the trees for partial shade.