El nino

[Okanagan desert-palms]

I can`t believe how strong this El nino is. I watched with interest while we were gone for three weeks and happy .It`s about time I don`t have to heat anything for the whole month of Jan. The palms are loving this weather. 6c 42 f everyday and above freezing during the night. Go El nino 2009-2010. NO SNOW "sweet"

John

[lucky1]

Yes, although el Nino seemed to nearly peter out early on, with forecasters saying it's probably a weak el Nino.

Glad the ole fella regained strength, apart from what it does to the Midwest (and East).

But this year, I'm happy to have NO WINTER at all.
Figures...first year palm hut

Barb

[DesertZone]

Not a bad winter here, but about normal. Most of my plants have been under snow sence early Dec. Some will die and some that should die will make it . If they die I will find more to plants to torture next winter.

[Paul Ont]

Well... I am glad that you Okie's (Okanagan, not Oklahoma... Did I spell that properly?) are having a mild winter... I wish I could say the same. The last good El Nino winter we had was 2002 when most of the East also set all-time mild winter records. Well, not so this time, we've seen -17C here in DT Toronto, -20C or so in zone 4b/5a Sydenham... But, there is 0 snow here in Toronto (and hasn't been for some time) which is great for running,not good for soil freeze depth. They are now calling for below average temps for us for February, which will mean, I suppose, another long stretch of sub freezing cold.

Anything in bloom there yet? I know on the coast the Daff's are starting to come out!

[lucky1]

This Okie's happy that winter seems to be over.
But unlike on the Wet Coast, we've got a couple of months of dreary and grey (or should I say brown?) landscapes ahead.
At 1300 feet above sea level, nothing is going to bloom for a while.

Nothing pretty about the Okanagan in this rare mild winter:
Two pics for comparison...ugly cloud hanging in valley...the valley bottom's "puddles" are remnants of a unique day of rain two weeks ago on hard frozen ground.
Minor flooding everywhere. Nice to hear ducks enjoying those puddles every afternoon.



I miss this:


Back to reality:






Picture just over a year ago on Dec.13/08:

BRRRRRR....no thanks!

Great time of year for germinating palm seeds...
Are you germinating anything this winter, Paul?
Barb

[TerdalFarm]

Well, this El Nino is NOT what I was counting on.
Sure enough, we are getting wave after wave of cool wet air off the Pacific. Today, for example, we had a lower-than-usual high and a higher-than-usual low, with clouds and a high dew-point. We'll get precipitation again Thursday and Monday.
The hitch is that the cold arctic air keeps pushing down, so we might get snow Thursday and snow Monday instead.
--Erik

[Paul Ont]

Am I germinating anything? Well, yes, I just don't like to count them up before they crack...
Currently I have seeds of:

Many palms (Trachycarous, Butia, Jubea, Phoenix, etc.)
Evergreen oak (Q. virginiana ssp. fusiformis... Might just be a regional variant of Q. virginiana)
Rhododendron (many, too many to list)

That might be it. It's all I can think of right now anyway. I've been having much better luck since I started doing a short soak of the seeds in dilute bleach (which kills the fungal spores, unlike fungicide or ethanol). Something to consider is a 10 minute soak in 10% bleach followed by a rinse and then sowing... Just putting that out there.


Paul

[Paul Ont]

Am I germinating anything? Well, yes, I just don't like to count them up before they crack...
Currently I have seeds of:

Many palms (Trachycarous, Butia, Jubea, Phoenix, etc.)
Evergreen oak (Q. virginiana ssp. fusiformis... Might just be a regional variant of Q. virginiana)
Rhododendron (many, too many to list)

That might be it. It's all I can think of right now anyway. I've been having much better luck since I started doing a short soak of the seeds in dilute bleach (which kills the fungal spores, unlike fungicide or ethanol). Something to consider is a 10 minute soak in 10% bleach followed by a rinse and then sowing... Just putting that out there.


Paul

[lucky1]

That's a lot of germinating!
Post some pics when they pop, OK?

Strange how native species differ so widely from west to east.
Oaks are native to Ontario, I believe, yet the only ones out west were planted.
I've got a Q.rubra, northern red oak, great fall colour but it's obviously not evergreen.

I read on PN about killing fungal spores with bleach...after I planted the foxtail seeds.
Worried that I missed a step, added a drop of 3% hydrogen peroxide to a spray bottle of water and drenched the planted seeds.
Repeated drench 2 weeks later.
Apparently, chamomile tea has some antifungal properties too.

To date,no mold has developed in any community pots.
The biggest factor that got foxtail seeds to star popping within 4 weeks was obviously heat from woodstove.
I think the second factor was, on receipt of seeds, tying them into an old pillowcover and putting them through a hot water cycle on Heavy Duty in washing machine, which also helped to remove pulp residue.

A bleach soak would've been better insurance.
Barb

[Paul Ont]

We'll see. I seem to have misplaced my battery charger for my new camera... Might have to go and buy another one... Whoops!

We did finally get some more snow yesterday.. That brings our monthly totalup to 2-3cm!

[hardyjim]

Just ran across this article on El Nino.
It says it peaked late Dec/early Jan,if that's the case...ahhh
Don't do me anymore favors-meaning it was cold as...well,pretty damn cold!




http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... ticle.html

[TerdalFarm]

Thanks, Jim. That was interesting.
I figure I'll see what I have been seeing continue: wave after wave of cool (not cold) and wet weather moving here from California. Passing South of you and right over me. So, I'll focus on keeping palms dry, which is what I was planning on anyways.
What I had not expected are these Arctic air blasts. As the season goes on they should increasingly stay north of here (i.e., where you are), but until then, I expect more snow.
--Erik

[hardyjim]

I think we'll see both!
I really wonder if there is any science at all behind this.
During the severe cold they were reporting El Nino was weakening?
O.K! makes sense right? WRONG!

Now this guy is saying it was at it's peak then!

Now they are saying it's gone and Washington and surrounding areas may get a foot and a half
of snow/the south is getting bombed- with 5 more storms lined up off the coast!

WTF!
Do they have a clue? Doesn't look like it

[lucky1]

Thanks for the wunderground blog El Nino link.

It talks about ocean temps at 5 N latitude.
Sheesh, if I lived at five degrees north latitude, I wouldn't give a hoot about "el" or "la".

It'd be palm heaven.

I look at it this way.
Imagine a vertical line through the middle of Canada and U.S.A.
El Nino makes winters nice west of that line. Lousy east of it.
La Nina the opposite.

So depending on which weather station (east or west) is forecasting, they are correct.

[lucky1]

Interesting article:

http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/pandemic_1918_1919.html

[hardyjim]

Above El Nino link is now changed to the winter-storm in Washington D.C.area