North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["fuwa fuwa usagi" <fuwafuwausagi@muchomail.com>]

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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