North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[tanis grif <tanisgrif@yahoo.com>]

Fortunately here (s.WI) the case seems to be more like Jim F in MN-- very few 
things
leafed out.  Of fruit trees only pears & plums w/ swollen buds.  Wild 
gooseberries &
red elderberry were leafing out out.

Speaking of drought, someone previously posted a statement about the Dust 
Bowl being
caused by over-use of chemical ag.  Biggest cause was drought.  That, and 
decades of
plowing up sod and over-grazing what wasn't plowed, in a region which went a 
few
decades without its normal bad droughts (which would have slowed the 
expansion of
ag).  Not enough fence/hedge rows either, so harsh cmemical fertilizers & 
pesticides
were a relatively minor problem.

>From an older fellow who was trying to farm in WI in those years: "The first 
>year
without rain was bad, the second year was worse, and the third spring the 
trees
didn't leaf out.  And it was hot..."

  
--- Donna &/or Kieran <> wrote:

> ....As for Jim Fruth's comments, Jim, we too have wise plants with long 
> chilling
> hour requirements.  Alas, between January where we could sit around in short
> sleeves and shorts outside in the evenings, and March where we were 
> sweating in
> the heat, this was an ambush.  As for Richard Moyer's comments about 
> welcoming
> this as a test to remove the pantywaist plants that can't make it in 
> Tennessee,
> does he plan to remove everything except cedars, pines, and blackberries?  
> Sorry
> Richard, but this was not your normal late spring freeze.  This was a 
> disaster for
> all life for the entire southeastern US.  I've been thinking about it.  
> Hailstorns
> only devastate small areas.  Even hurricanes only cut a swath a mile or so 
> wide. 
> Earthquakes tend not to disrupt plants all that much.  And alas, if the 22 
> year
> drought cycle holds, the bad weather is only beginning...       Donna 
> _______________________________________________




 
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