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  • From: "fuwa fuwa usagi" <fuwafuwausagi@muchomail.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Evan's queston
  • Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:16:04 -0800




It was written:

I am very interested in hearing folks' strategies for adding resilience to
their orchards or adapting to possible future climate scenarios. Planting out
of zone expecting a change? Keeping drought tolerant (or maybe wet tolerant)
varieties in particular microclimates just in case normal rainfall patterns
shift (are shifting)? Building swales for water
retention? What are you doing? These sorts of things could make a fertile
topic to explore...

But I have no interest in hearing yet another climate change debate,
particularly on this list.

My reply:

It has been some time since I gave this serious consideration (maybe 20
years). Part of my academic training was in cultural anthropology and a side
interest was geology so I was particularity interested in how humans adapted
to climate change. Especially as it related to food.

In my area I normally pretend I am in zone 4b rather than 5a. This is in
large part because those zones are based on averages and a series of colder
than average year can wipe out a planting in fairly short order. And that is
simply considering weather fluctuations not climatic change itself. And I
am betting on marginally cooler periods over my lifetime and have planted
accordingly. That was a choice I made based on the tea leaves as I read them
decades ago and I hold to it.

The issue you really need to overcome is man's ego and self import. We have
productive growing lives of maybe 70 years max...in that time you can see a
weather pattern shift that is significant of about 1/2 of a zone, and drought
and wetness patterns that can have significant effects via soil. Logically
that should be your target. We do know that extended fluctuation within the
norm does occur.

Think of what happened to the Baldwin orchards of the East years ago, that is
what you are realistically prepping for: anomalous conditions or a continuum
of low or high temperatures in the band of what is considered average or
normal. So your first bet to place is if you betting on cooler and wetter
or warmer and dryer or some other combination. Then you nudge the range of
climatic zone accordingly.

You can do a lot to create microclimates for home growers. And even small
growers for niche markets can do a great deal with berms and mulches to
create micro climates. However at some point relocation is probably the
ultimate solution or reciprocal arrangement with other growers in the
extended local. Which is to say it is a lot easier for me to establish a
cooperative arrangement with a mid state grower who can consistently produce
peaches for my more northern farmers market and I in turn can grow those
quality cool weather apples that need cold nights and warm days to flavor
properly.



Others can have different opinions, but the reality is man is egocentric and
accords significance to things in his time frame. As I said, I planted
according to the bet I placed, colder and wetter, but that is relative to my
lifetime. I really screwed up on the wetter part by the way, I did not
consider the impact that suburbanization would have on the water table. My
bet should have been colder and drier. So for over a decade I have been
altering my soil structure to hold more water. The solution really is
irrigation but that is not practical for my circumstances. If I had my
druthers, in my area I would go with a water retention pond and gravity fed
irrigation.

Cheers,

tfb


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  • [NAFEX] Evan's queston, fuwa fuwa usagi, 01/25/2011

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