North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

> On Aug 17, 2022, at 11:45 PM, Devin Smith via nafex 
> <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:
> 
> Your description of your local climate sounds very familiar indeed. Quite 
> similar story here. Historically I’ve read we had in the neighborhood of 
> 130 frost free days on a good site in my neck of the woods. I’ve been here 
> for 16 years and most years we’ve had more like 150 days. A couple of 
> exceptional years we’ve had probably 165. I figure on mid-May to mid-Oct. 
> for tender things, with a killing frost occurring a week or two on either 
> side. Most things need to be picked by Nov. 1 at the latest, as we’ll have 
> low-mid twenties by then, and it’s very overcast, so not much ripening 
> potential to wring out of those short days.

When I first moved to this area, in the 1970's, there'd sometimes be frost in 
September, and almost always by mid-October. The first time it didn't frost 
till November, I was astonished. Now first frost is routinely late October or 
into November, and I haven't seen a September frost in years.


>  I have some really nice native perennial Physalis that you might like. I 
> love the fruit but unfortunately have some pest issues that seem to put a 
> big dent in my harvest lately. 

And there's part of the downside -- pests moving out of what used to be their 
area, and/or producing more generations.

Glad to see this list alive -- another of my farm email groups just 
resurrected itself, too.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 6A now I think
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale